Osvaldo Soriano
Encyclopedia
Mar del Plata
Mar del Plata is an Argentine city located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, south of Buenos Aires. Mar del Plata is the second largest city of Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" had apparently the sense of "sea of the Río de la Plata region" or "adjoining sea to the Río de la Plata"...
, Argentina – died on January 29, 1997 in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
.
Biography
Soriano became a staff writer at La OpiniónLa Opinión
La Opinión is a Spanish-language daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, USA and distributed throughout the six counties of Southern California. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States and second-most read newspaper in Los Angeles . It is published by...
right from the start in 1971 when editor Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman
Jacobo Timerman was an Argentine publisher, journalist, and author who was persecuted and honored for confronting the atrocities of the Argentine military regime's Dirty War...
founded the newspaper. La Opinión was permeated with progressive politics and soon there was an attempt to squash the left-wing influence with-in the paper. After six months of not having any of his articles published, Soriano began writing a story in which a character named Osvaldo Soriano reconstructs the life of English actor Stan Laurel
Stan Laurel
Arthur Stanley "Stan" Jefferson , better known as Stan Laurel, was an English comic actor, writer and film director, famous as the first half of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy. His film acting career stretched between 1917 and 1951 and included a starring role in the Academy Award winning film...
.
The work became his first novel, Triste, solitario y final (Sad, lonely and final), a melancholic parody set in Los Angeles with the famed fictional Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
detective as his joint investigator. It was some months after the publication of his novel that he visited the American city, and actually stood by the grave of Stan Laurel, leaving there a copy of his book.
Shortly after the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional coup d'etat
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
in Argentina in 1976, he moved to Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
first (where he met his wife Catherine), and then to Paris, where he lived in exile until 1984. While in France he befriended Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar
Julio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and...
with whom he founded the short-lived experience of the monthly magazine Sin censura. After the fall of the military junta he returned to Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
and the publication of his books were met with large success, not only in South America but also in Italy and several other countries where his works begun to be translated and published.
In his books, Soriano succeeded in mixing his experiences as a democratic activist and as a strong critic of the violence wielded by reactionary governments with extraordinary humour. A lover of both football/soccer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
and cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
, he often honored both in his work. Soriano was a known San Lorenzo
Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro
Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine sports club based in Boedo neighbourhood, Buenos Aires, mostly known because of its football team....
fan.
After his death in 1997, he was buried in the La Chacarita Cemetery
La Chacarita Cemetery
Cementerio de la Chacarita in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is known as the National Cemetery and is the largest in Argentina.-Location:The cemetery is in the barrio or district of Chacarita, in the northern part of Buenos Aires...
in Buenos Aires. His work has since been translated into at least fifteen different languages, and has inspired film directors and producers on fiction and documentary works based on his novels and life-experience.
Filmography
- El Penalti más largo del mundo (2005)
- Il rigore piu' lungo del mondo (2005), short film directed by Christian FilippellaChristian FilippellaChristian Filippella is a filmmaker living and working in Los Angeles, California, Rome, Italy and Belfast, Northern Ireland.Filippella began working as an independent filmmaker in Spain and Ireland...
- Una Sombra ya pronto serás (1994), based upon A Shadow You Soon Will Be
- Cuarteles de invierno (1984), Cuarteles de Invierno, Dir. Héctor Olivera, Aries Cinematográfica, Argentina.
- Das AutogrammDas AutogrammDas Autogramm is a 1984 German drama film directed by Peter Lilienthal. It was entered into the 34th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Juan José Mosalini as Daniel Galvan, der Sänger...
(1984), based upon Cuarteles de Invierno, aka L' Autographe, aka The Autograph - No habrá más penas ni olvido (1983), based upon Funny Dirty Little WarDir. Héctor Olivera, Aries Cinematográfica, Argentina.
- Una Mujer (1975)