Le mélodrame ou le rapt de l’Histoire El secreto de sus ojos (Juan José Campanella, 2009)

Abstract

This text offers to analyse Juan Jose Campanella’s picture El secreto de sus ojos (2009) connecting it with its coherence or distance in respect to traditional codes of melodrama. The male and sometimes ironic focus on pathetic possibilities seems to present it as an inverted melodrama. The love story seems to be pushed into the background by the investigation of a criminal case in pre-dictatorial context, whereas in actual fact, the three levels of the synopsis intertwine to build the framework’s logic. Regarding the Hollywood remake of the picture will allow us to evaluate the relationship of each one with the national imaginative world, History and the concept of justice. Through this reflection, we will try to determinate how far Campanella – as Luis Puenzo, the other Argentinian Academy Award winner, did before – manages to make melodrama capture History to force the audience to think about it through the prism of sensibility.