El secreto de sus ojos
Encyclopedia
The Secret in Their Eyes is a 2009 Argentine
crime thriller, directed by Juan José Campanella, based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos (The Question in Their Eyes). The film stars Ricardo Darín
and Soledad Villamil
in a joint production of Argentine and Spanish companies.
The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
at the 82nd Academy Awards
, making Argentina the first country in Latin America
to win it twice (having already won for The Official Story
in 1985). This happened just three weeks after being awarded the Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film
of 2009 (the Goya Awards
are the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards
). As of 2010 it has become the second biggest box office success in Argentine film history, only surpassed by Leonardo Favio
's 1975 classic Nazareno Cruz y el lobo
(Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf).
Retiree Benjamin Espósito is having trouble getting started on his first novel. He pays a visit to the offices of Judge Irene Menéndez-Hastings to inform her of his plans to tell the story of the Morales case, one they both worked on when she was his new department chief and he was the federal agent assigned to it. She suggests he start in the beginning.
The beginning is the day a federal agent named Espósito is assigned to the rape and murder of Liliana Coloto, attacked in her home on a pretty June morning in 1974. Espósito promises her widowed husband, Ricardo Morales, that the killer will do life for his crime. His investigation is joined by his alcoholic friend and assistant Pablo Sandoval and the Cornell
-educated Hastings. Before they can get started, their rival Romano tries to show them up by having officers beat a confession out of two innocents who worked near the couple's apartment. Espósito has them released and tries to attack Romano in the courts hall.
Back on the case, the agent finds a clue to the murderer's identity in Liliana's photo albums. He notices that the pictures from her home town of Chivilcoy
frequently feature a suspicious young man named Isidoro Gómez; his eyes never leave her.
Irene finds this draft of the story unbelievable, since she doesn't agree that an agent can identify a killer by the look in his eyes; Benjamin insists all of a young man's feeling for a woman is spoken there.
Although Gómez was recently in Buenos Aires, he has left both his apartment and employment. Espósito and Sandoval travel to Chivilcoy and sneak into Gómez's mother's house, turning up his letters to her. Sandoval steals them but they contain nothing useful and, when their supervising judge learns of the illegal procedure, the case is closed.
Over an evening review of the manuscript, Benjamin reminds Irene that it was only one week later that she announced her engagement. The memory is poignant, and she decides that she cannot any more revisit the past through his novel.
A year after the case was closed, Espósito runs into Morales, and learns that he maintains daily surveillance at Buenos Aires train stations to catch Gomez passing through. Deeply impressed, Espósito successfully appeals to Hastings to reopen the case. In the end, Sandoval produces the critical insight: he realizes the names in the letters refer to players on Racing Club
, a Buenos Aires football club, indicating his fixed "passion" for the team. Therefore, Espósito and Sandoval attend a match for Racing and spot Gómez in the crowd. He slips away when a Racing goal sends the crowd into a frenzy, is pursued through the throbbing stadium and nearly vanishes before he's cornered and chased on to the pitch, captured, and taken in for questioning.
Espósito's largely illegal interrogation is interrupted by Hastings, but when she finds herself looking in the suspect's eyes, she uses her status and sexuality to provoke him with taunts about his masculine inadequacies. It works: he exposes himself and takes a swing at her in the same moment he confesses. Justice seems served.
Late one night, in contemplation over his lost friend Pablo Sandoval, Benjamin gets a call from Irene asking to see the rest of the story.
In 1975, the widower sees his wife's killer on television, included in a security detail for the president of Argentina. Hastings and Espósito quickly establish that Romano, now working for a special government agency, released the murderer to settle the old score, and he insults them both, taunting Espósito for being beneath Hastings. Undeterred, she invites Espósito to offer his objections to her impending marriage plans that night. Before they can meet, however, he has to leave a very intoxicated Sandoval in his living room to run and fetch Sandoval's wife to take him home, but when the two return they find the front door broken and Sandoval inside, shot to death with a submachine gun
, apparently by Romano's hitmen
. To save his own life, Espósito accepts the isolation of Jujuy Province
. Hastings takes him to the train station for a disconsolate goodbye.
The novel complete, Irene shares her satisfaction with the results, although she doesn't believe the scene in the train station. They agree the story lacks the right ending. Benjamin is looking for the answer to a question: "How does one live a life full of nothing?"
With Irene's help, Benjamin locates Ricardo Morales leading a quiet life in a rural area of Buenos Aires Province
, and takes his finished book there. Although the widower apparently relinquished his obsession with the murder case already, Benjamin has to ask him how he has lived without the love of his life for 25 years. When Benjamin repeats Pablo's final promise to get Gómez, Ricardo hesitantly confesses that in 1975 he ended Gómez's stalking of Benjamin by kidnapping and shooting him dead.
A disturbed Benjamin starts the drive back to the city, distracted by something that doesn't seem right. Impulsively, he pulls over, leaves his car by the side of the road, and stealthily returns to Ricardo's property. He follows Ricardo into a small building set near the main house, where he is shocked to find Gómez living in a makeshift cell, undetectable from the outside. Gómez plaintively asks Benjamin to request Ricardo to talk to him. Ricardo reminds Benjamin of his promise that Gómez would never go free.
Benjamin pays his respects at Pablo's grave, then goes to see Irene with an evident sense of purpose. She notices something different in his eyes, reminds him that it will be complicated, and asks him to close the door.
, where he had directed some episodes of the television series House
and Law & Order
, to film The Secret in Their Eyes. It marked his fourth collaboration with actor-friend Ricardo Darín, who had previously starred in all three of Campanella’s Argentine-produced films in the lead role. Frequent collaborator Eduardo Blanco
, however, is not featured in the movie; the part of Darín’s character’s friend is played instead by comedian Guillermo Francella
.
The Secret in Their Eyes is a joint production
by Argentine and Spanish companies. Amongst its technical challenges were creating the appropriate ambiance for Argentina in the mid 1970s, and one particular continuous five minute long take
(designed by the VFX supervisor Rodrigo S. Tomasso), that encompasses an entire stadium with a live football match going on inside. From a standard aerial overview we approach the stadium, dive in, cross the field between the players mid-match and find the protagonist in the crowd, then take a circular move around him and follow as he shuffles through the stands until he finds the suspect, only to conclude with a feverish stop-and-go chase on foot through the murky rooms and corridors under the stands, finally ending in the lights in the middle of the pitch. The scene was filmed in the stadium
of football club Huracán
, and took three months of pre-production, three days of shooting and nine months of postproduction. Two hundred extras took part in the shooting, but visual effects were used in order to show a fully packed stadium with nearly fifty thousand fans.
, with the critical consensus being: "Unpredictable and rich with symbolism, this Argentinian murder mystery lives up to its Oscar with an engrossing plot, Juan Jose Campanella's assured direction, and mesmerizing performances from its cast". On the website Metacritic
it holds a score of 81/100, meaning "Universal acclaim", based on 33 critic reviews.
Cinema of Argentina
The cinema of Argentina has a tradition dating back to the late nineteenth century, and continues to play a role in the culture of Argentina....
crime thriller, directed by Juan José Campanella, based on Eduardo Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos (The Question in Their Eyes). The film stars Ricardo Darín
Ricardo Darín
Ricardo Darín is an Argentine actor, screenwriter and film director.Darín is one of the biggest movie stars in Argentina. He played a number of parts in TV series for several years where he became popular as a young leading actor...
and Soledad Villamil
Soledad Villamil
Soledad Villamil is an Argentine film and television actress and singer.-Filmography :* El secreto de sus ojos The Secret in Their Eyes* No sos vos, soy yo It's Not You, It's Me...
in a joint production of Argentine and Spanish companies.
The film won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
at the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
, making Argentina the first country in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
to win it twice (having already won for The Official Story
The Official Story
The Official Story is a 1985 Argentine drama film directed by Luis Puenzo, and written by Puenzo and Aída Bortnik. It stars Norma Aleandro, Héctor Alterio, and Chunchuna Villafañe, among others. In the United Kingdom, it was released as The Official Version.The film is about an upper middle class...
in 1985). This happened just three weeks after being awarded the Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film
Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film
The Goya Award for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's principal national film awards.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-Awards by nation:-References:**...
of 2009 (the Goya Awards
Goya Awards
The Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards....
are the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
). As of 2010 it has become the second biggest box office success in Argentine film history, only surpassed by Leonardo Favio
Leonardo Favio
Leonardo Favio is an Argentine singer, actor, film director and screenwriter...
's 1975 classic Nazareno Cruz y el lobo
Nazareno Cruz y el lobo
Nazareno Cruz y el lobo is a 1975 Argentine fantasy film directed by Leonardo Favio, and starring Juan José Camero and Alfredo Alcón. The story works as an adaptation of the classical myth of the Lobizón . It has become a classic and is widely known as the most successful of all time in its country...
(Nazareno Cruz and the Wolf).
Plot summary
When Benjamin's train starts to roll, Irene chases it down the tracks. She's left disconsolate as it leaves the station.Retiree Benjamin Espósito is having trouble getting started on his first novel. He pays a visit to the offices of Judge Irene Menéndez-Hastings to inform her of his plans to tell the story of the Morales case, one they both worked on when she was his new department chief and he was the federal agent assigned to it. She suggests he start in the beginning.
The beginning is the day a federal agent named Espósito is assigned to the rape and murder of Liliana Coloto, attacked in her home on a pretty June morning in 1974. Espósito promises her widowed husband, Ricardo Morales, that the killer will do life for his crime. His investigation is joined by his alcoholic friend and assistant Pablo Sandoval and the Cornell
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
-educated Hastings. Before they can get started, their rival Romano tries to show them up by having officers beat a confession out of two innocents who worked near the couple's apartment. Espósito has them released and tries to attack Romano in the courts hall.
Back on the case, the agent finds a clue to the murderer's identity in Liliana's photo albums. He notices that the pictures from her home town of Chivilcoy
Chivilcoy
Chivilcoy is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, the head town of the Chivilcoy Partido. It has 60,762 inhabitants according to the ....
frequently feature a suspicious young man named Isidoro Gómez; his eyes never leave her.
Irene finds this draft of the story unbelievable, since she doesn't agree that an agent can identify a killer by the look in his eyes; Benjamin insists all of a young man's feeling for a woman is spoken there.
Although Gómez was recently in Buenos Aires, he has left both his apartment and employment. Espósito and Sandoval travel to Chivilcoy and sneak into Gómez's mother's house, turning up his letters to her. Sandoval steals them but they contain nothing useful and, when their supervising judge learns of the illegal procedure, the case is closed.
Over an evening review of the manuscript, Benjamin reminds Irene that it was only one week later that she announced her engagement. The memory is poignant, and she decides that she cannot any more revisit the past through his novel.
A year after the case was closed, Espósito runs into Morales, and learns that he maintains daily surveillance at Buenos Aires train stations to catch Gomez passing through. Deeply impressed, Espósito successfully appeals to Hastings to reopen the case. In the end, Sandoval produces the critical insight: he realizes the names in the letters refer to players on Racing Club
Racing Club de Avellaneda
Racing Club is an Argentine professional football club from Avellaneda, a suburb of Greater Buenos Aires. Founded in 1903, Racing has been historically considered one of the "big five" clubs of Argentine football...
, a Buenos Aires football club, indicating his fixed "passion" for the team. Therefore, Espósito and Sandoval attend a match for Racing and spot Gómez in the crowd. He slips away when a Racing goal sends the crowd into a frenzy, is pursued through the throbbing stadium and nearly vanishes before he's cornered and chased on to the pitch, captured, and taken in for questioning.
Espósito's largely illegal interrogation is interrupted by Hastings, but when she finds herself looking in the suspect's eyes, she uses her status and sexuality to provoke him with taunts about his masculine inadequacies. It works: he exposes himself and takes a swing at her in the same moment he confesses. Justice seems served.
Late one night, in contemplation over his lost friend Pablo Sandoval, Benjamin gets a call from Irene asking to see the rest of the story.
In 1975, the widower sees his wife's killer on television, included in a security detail for the president of Argentina. Hastings and Espósito quickly establish that Romano, now working for a special government agency, released the murderer to settle the old score, and he insults them both, taunting Espósito for being beneath Hastings. Undeterred, she invites Espósito to offer his objections to her impending marriage plans that night. Before they can meet, however, he has to leave a very intoxicated Sandoval in his living room to run and fetch Sandoval's wife to take him home, but when the two return they find the front door broken and Sandoval inside, shot to death with a submachine gun
Submachine gun
A submachine gun is an automatic carbine, designed to fire pistol cartridges. It combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol. The submachine gun was invented during World War I , but the apex of its use was during World War II when millions of the weapon type were...
, apparently by Romano's hitmen
Hitman
A hitman is a person hired to kill another person.- Hitmen in organized crime :Hitmen are largely linked to the world of organized crime. Hitmen are hired people who kill people for money. Notable examples include Murder, Inc., Mafia hitmen and Richard Kuklinski.- Other cases involving hitmen...
. To save his own life, Espósito accepts the isolation of Jujuy Province
Jujuy Province
Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.-History:...
. Hastings takes him to the train station for a disconsolate goodbye.
The novel complete, Irene shares her satisfaction with the results, although she doesn't believe the scene in the train station. They agree the story lacks the right ending. Benjamin is looking for the answer to a question: "How does one live a life full of nothing?"
With Irene's help, Benjamin locates Ricardo Morales leading a quiet life in a rural area of Buenos Aires Province
Buenos Aires Province
The Province of Buenos Aires is the largest and most populous province of Argentina. It takes the name from the city of Buenos Aires, which used to be the provincial capital until it was federalized in 1880...
, and takes his finished book there. Although the widower apparently relinquished his obsession with the murder case already, Benjamin has to ask him how he has lived without the love of his life for 25 years. When Benjamin repeats Pablo's final promise to get Gómez, Ricardo hesitantly confesses that in 1975 he ended Gómez's stalking of Benjamin by kidnapping and shooting him dead.
A disturbed Benjamin starts the drive back to the city, distracted by something that doesn't seem right. Impulsively, he pulls over, leaves his car by the side of the road, and stealthily returns to Ricardo's property. He follows Ricardo into a small building set near the main house, where he is shocked to find Gómez living in a makeshift cell, undetectable from the outside. Gómez plaintively asks Benjamin to request Ricardo to talk to him. Ricardo reminds Benjamin of his promise that Gómez would never go free.
Benjamin pays his respects at Pablo's grave, then goes to see Irene with an evident sense of purpose. She notices something different in his eyes, reminds him that it will be complicated, and asks him to close the door.
Production
Campanella returned from the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where he had directed some episodes of the television series House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
and Law & Order
Law & Order franchise
The Law & Order franchise is a number of related American television series created by Dick Wolf and originally broadcast on NBC, all of which deal with some aspect of the criminal justice system...
, to film The Secret in Their Eyes. It marked his fourth collaboration with actor-friend Ricardo Darín, who had previously starred in all three of Campanella’s Argentine-produced films in the lead role. Frequent collaborator Eduardo Blanco
Eduardo Blanco (actor)
Eduardo Blanco is an Argentine actor best known for his roles in the trilogy of films directed by Juan José Campanella, his friend and frequent collaborator: El Mismo Amor, la Misma Lluvia , El Hijo de la Novia and Luna de Avellaneda .- Biography :Blanco started as a theater actor, most notably...
, however, is not featured in the movie; the part of Darín’s character’s friend is played instead by comedian Guillermo Francella
Guillermo Francella
Guillermo Francella is an Argentine actor and comedian. Apart from being a television performer, he also has had a long theatrical and film career.-Life and work:...
.
The Secret in Their Eyes is a joint production
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
by Argentine and Spanish companies. Amongst its technical challenges were creating the appropriate ambiance for Argentina in the mid 1970s, and one particular continuous five minute long take
Long take
A long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes. It can be used for dramatic and narrative effect if done properly, and in moving shots is often accomplished...
(designed by the VFX supervisor Rodrigo S. Tomasso), that encompasses an entire stadium with a live football match going on inside. From a standard aerial overview we approach the stadium, dive in, cross the field between the players mid-match and find the protagonist in the crowd, then take a circular move around him and follow as he shuffles through the stands until he finds the suspect, only to conclude with a feverish stop-and-go chase on foot through the murky rooms and corridors under the stands, finally ending in the lights in the middle of the pitch. The scene was filmed in the stadium
Estadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó
Estadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó is a stadium in Argentina. It is located in the Parque Patricios neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Argentine football club Huracán owns this stadium, which was built thanks to the support of the Argentinian Army, especially due to the efforts of Tomás Ducó....
of football club Huracán
Club Atlético Huracán
Club Atlético Huracán is a sports club from the Parque Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The football team currently plays in the Primera B Nacional, the second level of the Argentine football league system. Huracán home stadium is the Estadio Tomás Adolfo Ducó.Huracán was...
, and took three months of pre-production, three days of shooting and nine months of postproduction. Two hundred extras took part in the shooting, but visual effects were used in order to show a fully packed stadium with nearly fifty thousand fans.
Reception
The Secret in Their Eyes received very positive reviews from critics, not only in Argentina, but also in countries like the United States; it holds a 92% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, with the critical consensus being: "Unpredictable and rich with symbolism, this Argentinian murder mystery lives up to its Oscar with an engrossing plot, Juan Jose Campanella's assured direction, and mesmerizing performances from its cast". On the website Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
it holds a score of 81/100, meaning "Universal acclaim", based on 33 critic reviews.