TELEVISION IN BUENOS AIRES

When he arrived in Buenos Aires in 1966, Luis Politti started doing cameo appearances on television. They were small parts, sometimes without lines, that did not amount to a living wage and so he was forced to make ends meet doing all sorts of odd jobs, from loading bags at the port to ironing hats at a dry cleaners.

LAS GRANDES NOVELAS

In 1970, Politti joined the cast of “Las grandes novelas,” a program Sergio Renán directed on Channel 7. Based on the great novels of world literature, the show brought together many of the best actors of that time, including Renán himself, Héctor Alterio, Walter Vidarte, Luis Brandoni, Victor Laplace, Ana María Picchio, Cipe Lincovsky, Ulises Dumont, Gianni Lunadei, Jorge Mayor, China Zorrilla, Susana Lanteri, Juana Hidalgo and Elena Tasisto, among others who made guest appearances, like Susana Rinaldi and Osvaldo Terranova. Politti played Borges in “El Aleph,” adapted by Paco Urondo. In an interview that Dionisia Fontán did with Politti for an issue of the magazine “Siete Días” that came out on August 7, 1975, the latter reminisced about his participation on the show: “In those days, I was having trouble adapting to the porteños (the people of Buenos Aires) and not because they were bad or cliquey people as the stereotype claims in the rest of the country. I myself was the problem. Ten years back I was a lot more rigid in my ways and being inflexible makes it hard to work with others. I remember that Renán and I had several large arguments – I was very stubborn about respecting the texts exactly as they had been translated, even when they were not always translated very well. I committed a lot of errors, especially in personal matters.” Unfortunately, today it is impossible to see Politti’s work on that program that made history in Argentine television. All the material was erased when someone decided to use the tapes to record “Almuerzos deportivos,” starring José María Muñoz.

Gabriel Lerman        

ROLANDO RIVAS, TAXISTA

In 1972, the author and librettist Alberto Migré created the tele-theater production “Rolando Rivas, taxista,” a milestone for this genre of dramatic arts. Starring Claudio García Satur (Rolando Rivas) and Soledad Silveyra (Mónica Helguera Paz), the soap opera aired on Channel 13 and literally paralyzed the country every Tuesday night at 10pm. Without separating himself from the norms and rules of this kind of television – Rolando was a young taxi driver in the neighborhood and Mónica the sole heir of a wealthy family – Migré was able to astutely incorporate elements inherent to the Buenos Aires and tango culture into a setting that paralleled the political and social context of the time. In the course of the plot, Mónica Helguera Paz’ austere father, played by Luis Politti, is assassinated by the brother of the protagonist, a member of the guerilla movement, who also dies in the shooting. In addition to those already mentioned, the cast included Guillermo Rico, Dorys del Valle, Leonor Benedetto, Antuco Telesca, Beba Bidart, María Elena Sagrera, Lalo Hartich and Pablo Codevila, among others. The series continued to air during 1973, a year longer than expected, due to its enormous success, although Soledad Silveyra left the show after the first season. Nora Cárpena took Silveyra’s place and Santiago Gómez, Eva Dongé and Marcelo Marcote also joined the cast during the second season.*

 

Excerpts from “Luis Politti: cadencias y otros cielos,” Fabián Stolovitsky,

Ediciones Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 1995

 

 * The death of Politti’s character on “Rolando Rivas, taxista” was decided later into the season, the result of practical matters rather than the original storyline. When the actor asked for a raise, a confrontation ensued with the producers, who decided to remove Politti from the program.

G.L    

THE MARTIN FIERRO AWARD

Luis Politti continued to get offers to work on television and so he wandered from channel to channel, acquiring experiences and feeling somewhat stable economically. On Monday, May 19, 1975, the Association of Television and Radio Journalists of Argentina (APTRA) publicly recognized his merit with the Martín Fierro award for Best Supporting Actor during the 1974 season. “I was obviously quite happy to have been nominated and that night at the Astral Theater I was very excited. The ceremony turned out to be excessively long and that gave me plenty of time to become terribly nervous. When the Uruguayan comic Ricardo Espalter won an award for his character Toto Paniagua, he publicly confessed that he was having trouble staying on his feet because the excitement was making his knees shake and I thought he was exaggerating…until it was my turn. As soon as I heard my name called out, my knees started to shake as well. I felt this strange pressure in my chest and I had trouble talking; I was more nervous there than during a show debut.”

 

Politti was one of the most applauded figures that night, despite the climate of grief that hung over the place due to the recent passing of Anibal Troilo, the bandoneón¹ player and composer.
 

 

Excerpts from “Luis Politti: cadencias y otros cielos,” Fabián Stolovitsky,
Ediciones Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 1995

 

¹ Note from the translator: The bandoneón is an instrument played especially in tango music in Argentina.

OTHER WORK

Politti also included participation in the following programs on his résumé: “Las tres caras de Malvina” in 1963, starring Malvina Pastorino; “Teatro universal” between 1966-1967; “Yo compro esta mujer” in 1968, starring Gabriela Gili and Sebastián Vilar, where he played the part of Portela in a television version of “Martín Fierro”, directed by David Stivel; “Alta comedia”; “Historias de medio pelo” in 1974; a television version of “El inglés de los güesos” by Benito Lynch in 1975; and “Alguién como usted,” also in 1975.

G.L