Adolfo Aristarain, perhaps the last classic director in Argentine cinema, died on Sunday at the age of 82. 

Either through his early light comedies, film noirs, or thoughtful character-based films, Aristarain’s solid storytelling always delivered a determined political stance — either outspokenly or covertly — through the tropes of his beloved classic Hollywood cinema.

Born in Parque Chas, Buenos Aires, Aristarain began his career in the early 1960s as an assistant director. In that role, he worked in popular Argentine films like Daniel Tinayre’s La Mary and Emilio Vieyra’s The Great Adventure, but also under renowned directors like Spain’s Mario Camus, and spaghetti western legend Sergio Leone in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). 

In 1978 he directed his first film, The Lion’s Share, a Buenos Aires-set film noir about a regular man struggling to succeed (played by Julio de Grazia) who stumbles upon a hidden cash loot and finds himself chased by the two criminals who committed the robbery. Played by Julio Chávez and Ulises Dumont, Aristarain based the duo on the assassins from Robert Siodmak’s original classic The Killers. 

In 1980, he directed two summer comedies (The Beach of Love and The Disco of Love) starring a very young Ricardo Darín that featured musical bits, meant to promote artists from record company Microfón. Within these seemingly........

© Buenos Aires Herald