THE HOUSE OF THE ANGEL © Argentina Sono Film
La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel), a kind of reinvention of Argentine cinema in Cannes
Argentine cinema will be included at the 2026 Festival de Cannes with the restored screening of La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel), filmmaker Leopoldo Torre Nilsson’s masterpiece. Behind this traditional restoration lies a greater story, that of the birth of a new cinematographic language in Argentina and the emergence of a cinema in search of emancipation from conventional patterns.
Buenos Aires, 1920. Ana, an adolescent with a religious upbringing, grows up in an oppressive climate where frustrations, silence, and political tensions are daily occurrences. Her father, involved in a financial scandal, befriends a young deputy whose growing influence on the family takes a turn when he rapes the young girl.
In La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel), Torre Nilsson is not afraid to address desire, social and religious repression as well as the hidden violence in Argentine bourgeois circles. When the film is screened at the 1957 Festival de Cannes, it provokes an outrage. At the time, Argentine cinema could hardly compete with Hollywood, while Mexican cinema was in its heyday. Torre Nilsson reinvents his art. He introduces abrupt framing, low-angle shots, shadows that divide up the spaces, and cameras set up in unusual spots; everything is done to break with tradition.
This visual and thematic modernity permanently marks Latin-American cinema. The film becomes a quick critical and commercial hit, but above all it’s a turning point for an entire generation of young filmmakers, who in the 1960s will take part in the birth of the “new Argentine cinema.” Like the French New Wave in the same period, these directors are seeking a way to shoot their society in a different way, by questioning class relationships and politics with greater formal freedom. Today, its influence can still be seen in several contemporary directors such as Lucrecia Martel.
Almost seven decades after its first presentation on the Croisette, La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel) returns to Cannes in a restored version based on an original 35-mm black and white negative and a first-generation internegative stored at the Argentina Sono Film archives, with the support of the Buenos Aires Ministry of Culture and the INCAA. This restoration reminds us to what extent some films surpass their own narrative. La casa del ángel (The House of the Angel) encompasses the entire history of modern Argentine cinema.
