A Weepy, Argentine Look at the Life of Eva Peron

It remains to be seen whether Eva Peron’s impact on cinema will be as profound as her impact on Argentina, but she’s certainly having her fair share of screen time this year. The subject of Alan Parker’s adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Evita,� which opens Christmas Day, she’s also exhumed for “Eva Peron: The True Story,� a film directed by Juan Carlos Desanzo.

Argentina’s official Academy Award entry for best foreign film, “Eva Peron� did big box office in Argentina when it opened there earlier this year. A weepy melodrama evocative of a South American TV soap opera, the film tells its story in very broad strokes; nonetheless, one must credit Argentine actress Esther Goris’ portrayal of Peron as a vast improvement on the figure central to Lloyd Webber’s Broadway musical in terms of historical accuracy.

An illegitimate girl from the sticks who clawed her way to the top, Evita espoused a political ideology riddled with contradiction. Her power base was with the working poor, yet she purged any union leader who opposed her and, by the time of her death from cancer in 1952, had completely subjugated organized labor to government control.

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She formed the Peronista Feminist Party and was responsible for the passage of the women’s suffrage law in 1949, but she ruthlessly squashed Argentina’s system of charities--which were largely run by wealthy women of the country’s traditional elite--and replaced them with a charity foundation of her own.

She had the instincts of a revolutionary yet insisted on having the pretty things that were denied her as a child.

These irreconcilable drives are central to Goris’ interpretation of Evita as an angry woman who emasculated her husband at every turn and was not above using terrorist tactics.

In the opening scene, we find her surrounded by suited men in a conference room snarling, “This is no time for sucking up,� to one colleague, then snapping, “Shut up,� to another.

It’s quite a spunky performance, and considering that Desanzo’s film was made for $3 million--as opposed to Parker’s, which was budgeted at $60 million--�Eva Peron� may well give “Evita� a run for the money.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: some profanity.

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‘Eva Peron: The True Story’

Esther Goris: Eva Peron

Victor Laplace: Juan D. Peron

An Aleph Producciones S.A. and Argentine Institute for Cinema production, released by the David Lamping Co. Director Juan Carlos Desanzo. Executive producer Maria de la Paz Marin~o. Screenplay by Jose Pablo Feinmann. Cinematographer Juan Carlos Lenardi. Editor Sergio Zottola. Costumes Leonor Puga Sabate. Music Jose Luis Castin~eira de Dios. Art director Miguel Angel Lumaldo. In Spanish with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 59 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Plaza, 1067 Glendon Ave., Westwood, (310) 208-3097.