“Biography of Jorge Luis Borges” is memorable
The new film by the great Argentine director Mariano Llinás was presented at the Venice Film Festival
One of the greatest writers of all time, portrayed by a master of contemporary cinema: “Biografía de Jorge Luis Borges” is the meeting of the giant of Spanish-language literature and Mariano Llinás, the Argentine director who has brought to life some of the most original and interesting films of recent years, including the torrential “La flor” from 2018.
Having already made a number of significant documentaries on the art world – from *Clorindo Testa* to *Triptico de Mondongo* – Llinás raises the bar with a three-part project dedicated to Borges, with a total running time of 330 minutes, which was presented out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.
This is a biography of Borges built upon an in-depth examination of the papers he left behind, the books he read and the places he visited. An attempt to decipher a singular life: that of a man who lived like a clandestine warrior, whose cause was literature, conceived at once as a kingdom and a landscape.
As is always the case in Llinás’s films, this is, however, merely the starting point of an experiential journey in which, in a deliberate and coherent manner, the film constantly shifts direction, drawing us, the audience, into the investigation, as if we were detectives in a crime thriller – a genre to which the film constantly winks, both in its narrative flow and its musical choices.
Llinás is almost always on the ground, leading an investigation that will take him to various parts of the world, following in the footsteps of the places where Borges lived.
