¡Prohibida! Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli's struggle with censorship in Argentina

Abstract

ABSTRACTBy exploring the work of the sexploitation couple Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli this article gives a history of different periods of film censorship in Argentina beginning in 1955, after the coup that ousted the democratically elected Juan Domingo Perón. The article works through different stages to show that while there was official censorship from 1963 to 1984, instituted through Argentina's Film Classification Board, censorship was a growing practice that legally increased in the post-Perón period. The only exception occurred during a fleeting moment of 90 days in 1973 when filmmaker Octavio Getino was comptroller of the Classification Board and Peronism was returning. Working with the remnants of the Intimidades de una cualquiera [Intimacies of a Prostitute] file, the only remaining but incomplete Bó file in existence, and with other archival materials (press clippings, surviving film versions, official laws), this article helps to reveal possible reasons behind Bó's censorship.