Safo, historia de una pasión (English: Sappho, Story of a Passion) is a 1943 Argentine melodrama film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen, starring Mecha Ortiz and produced by the Lumiton studio during the classical period of Argentine cinema. It is based on the French novel Sappho (1884) by Alphonse Daudet, with an adapted screenplay by César Tiempo and Julio Porter. The story was chosen specifically with Ortiz in mind as the lead; she plays a mysterious woman of the night who seduces a shy young provincial man, many years her junior, newly arrived in the Buenos Aires of 1914. The chosen leading man was the then-unknown Roberto Escalada, and the film's love triangle was completed by the young Mirtha Legrand, who accepted a minor role despite already being established as a leading star. Within the local star system, the film cast each actress in her signature type, with Ortiz as the femme fatale and Legrand as the adolescent ingénue.
The film's strong erotic content, though mild by today's standards, was considered daring for the time, since Argentine cinema had not until then been characterized by its treatment of romantic passion, and it broke with the prevailing mold of films led by young ingénues. For this reason, Safo is often recognized as the film that launched erotic cinema in Argentina. The film ran into trouble with censorship from the shoot until shortly before its premiere, one of its posters was banned, and it became one of the first national films banned for viewers under 16. Safo received critical acclaim and was a resounding commercial success in Argentina and in other Latin American countries, cemented Christensen's reputation as a director, Ortiz as a great diva, and Escalada as a sought-after leading man within the industry. The Argentine Film Critics Association awarded Ortiz the prize for Best Actress for her work in the film.
Considered one of Argentina's cult films, Safo is recognized as a classic of national cinema and one of the key works in Christensen's filmography, and it introduced a line of erotic melodramas that would continue with titles such as El ángel desnudo (1946) and (1948). It has been especially valued by Argentine gay male culture, which saw in it veiled representations of Christensen's own homosexuality, and it turned Ortiz into one of the country's first gay icons. The "spider-woman" figure of Ortiz's character was the image that inspired Manuel Puig's novel Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976). After a fire at the Alex Laboratories in 1969, the film was not seen again in its original length for decades, which heightened its mythical status. In a survey of the 100 greatest films of Argentine cinema conducted by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in 2000, it was ranked 43rd.
Plot
In 1914, in a town in Mendoza, the young Raúl—who dreams of becoming a consul—receives news of an appointment in Buenos Aires thanks to the friendship between his uncle, Silvino, and the influential Doctor Benavídez. Raúl decides to leave that very night: he says goodbye to his parents and to Teresa, his uncle's young wife, and travels with his uncle to Buenos Aires, where they arrive in the midst of the Carnival celebrations. After settling into the boarding house, Raúl and Silvino attend a party at the home of the wealthy Delavalle, where the young man is seduced by a much older and very forward woman. Raúl takes her to his apartment and, with great effort, carries her in his arms up several flights of stairs, while a voice-over warns that their relationship would be as difficult as that climb. After spending the night together, Raúl wakes up and the woman is already gone, though she has left him a card with her name and contact information: Selva Moreno.
That same afternoon, before Silvino returns to Mendoza, the two visit Doctor Benavídez, where they meet his young and naive daughter, Irene, who recognizes Raúl from when, as a little girl, she used to visit her grandmother, a neighbor from his same town. After a dinner in which Raúl and Irene show mutual interest, the group accompanies Silvino to the train station, and Benavídez and Irene drop Raúl off at his boarding house. Upon entering his apartment, Raúl finds Selva sitting there, waiting for him, and neither of them can resist the passion they feel for one another.
Selva and Raúl begin a passionate romance. One day, while they are together, they run into the sculptor Caudal, author of a well-known statue of a nude woman representing the Greek poet Sappho. Caudal claims to be an old friend of Selva's and complains that she no longer goes out as much. In Selva's luxurious apartment, where she lives with her maid—nicknamed Langosta—hang paintings of nudes dedicated to her and a reproduction of the statue of Sappho. While they are lying down, Selva leaves the bedroom to receive a man who arrives unexpectedly, and Raúl overhears the man reproaching her for everything he gave her and begging her to be together again. Offended, Raúl tells Selva that they are over and leaves her.
In the following days, Selva lingers at the entrance of Raúl's workplace and sends him a letter telling him that she will keep waiting for him because she needs him. At a dinner at the Benavídez home, Raúl meets Molina, author of a book of poems titled Selva that is one of his favorite books, and deepens his courtship of Irene. Arriving at his apartment feeling unwell, he again finds Selva sitting at the door, waiting for him. Raúl has a high fever and she helps him: she puts him to bed and cares for him while he is delirious and calls out Teresa's name in his sleep. Once recovered, Raúl discovers that Selva sold her belongings to pay for the doctor's visit and, moved by her devotion during his illness, gives himself over to her again. As they kiss, Irene arrives at Raúl's home and leaves horrified upon seeing a pair of women's shoes on the floor, suggesting that he is sleeping with Selva.
Selva and Raúl deepen their relationship and move to a secluded house, accompanied by Langosta, so they can be alone and live out their love freely. At work, Benavídez asks Raúl whether there was a falling-out with Irene, since he saw her very distressed and decided to send her to Mendoza to clear her head; Raúl also turns down an invitation to discuss his professional future in order to return to Selva. On the way home, Raúl enters a bar to buy cigarettes for Selva and runs into Caudal, who invites him to sit with him, Delavalle and Molina. The men reveal that they all had a relationship with Selva—whom they nickname "Safo"—and tell Raúl about her reputation as a man-devouring woman who takes advantage of men, and that she was the model for the nude statue. They also tell him her story with the draftsman Carbone, which caused a scandal at the time: he counterfeited money to give it to her and ended up six years in prison. Dismayed, Raúl returns to the house, confronts Selva with her past, burns her love letters, and leaves her.
Raúl returns to Mendoza in search of Irene, with whom he begins a romance. While there, he receives a telegram from Doctor Benavídez offering him the consulate of Liverpool, but he announces that he will ask to postpone it so he can ask for Irene's hand in marriage. He also receives a letter from Selva, which he tears up without opening. Back in Buenos Aires, Raúl obtains Benavídez's blessing to marry Irene and later runs into Molina, who tells him that Selva is living in poverty and has refused financial help. Raúl goes to look for her and finds her working as a maid in a large house. Selva tells him she knew he would return and that their little house is waiting for them; Raúl offers her help in the name of the happy days they shared, but tells her that he is going to marry and that their affair will not happen again. He also tells her that he will come back to collect the correspondence he had left at the house.
Raúl goes with Benavídez to meet Irene at the train station, where Benavídez tells them that he arranged for someone else to take the consulate offer and that Raúl would keep an important post at the ministry. Raúl says goodbye to Irene and tells her he must attend to one last thing before they continue together. He heads to the house he shared with Selva, from which he sees a male figure leaving. Selva confesses that the man is Carbone, who has just regained his freedom. Raúl and Selva argue and he goes so far as to slap her, but both end up surrendering to the passion they feel and kiss. Once again taken over by his romance with Selva, Raúl decides to call off his marriage in order to go far away with her.
The following morning, he goes to Benavídez's home and confesses that there is another woman in his life and that he wants the post in Liverpool so he can leave the country. Benavídez takes offense, reproaches him for having toyed with Irene's feelings to obtain a promotion, and warns him that, if he leaves, he will be dead to them. Raúl leaves and, before going out, runs into Irene, who lets him go in tears. Upon returning to Selva's house, he does not find her: in her place he finds a letter beside the statue of Sappho, in which she explains that she decided to leave with Carbone. Selva concludes that her peace lies with Carbone and not with a young man like him, who has his whole life ahead of him and does not deserve to be tied to a figure like her.
Cast
Mecha Ortiz as Selva Moreno Roberto Escalada as Raúl de Salcedo Mirtha Legrand as Irene as Gertrudis as Teresa as Don Raimundo Miguel Gómez Bao as Silvino as Delavalle as Benavídez Guillermo Battaglia as Caudal as Langosta Eduardo Cuitiño as Molina
Themes and style
Safo, historia de una pasión falls within the film genre of melodrama, the dominant style during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema, but with the novelty of introducing a subject matter of strong erotic content that—though mild by today's standards and without sex scenes or nudity—was considered bold and transgressive for the time. For this reason, it is historically regarded as the film that launched erotic cinema in Argentina. Safo premiered at a time when one style of classical Argentine cinema, though still dominant, was showing signs of exhaustion: that of films led by young, virginal ingénues, set in bourgeois environments and headed by new adolescent stars such as Mirtha Legrand or María Duval. Carlos Hugo Christensen became a pioneer in challenging the so-called "cinema of ingénues", both with Safo and with Dieciséis años, released that same year: in them he placed Legrand and Duval, the two most representative figures of the genre, in plots with a strong sexual charge. Christensen continued this "erotic melodrama" style with films such as El ángel desnudo (1946) and (1948), which consolidated his reputation as the enfant terrible of the industry.