Anything that is said about _The Players vs. Angeles caídos_ is bound to sound reductive or misleading. This is a highly experimental film that appears most radical when considered in its context, which is Argentinean cinema of the sixties, right before the transition into the seventies.
The film consists of a series of self-reflexive sketches involving, for the most part, a group of actors known as the Players. Their name is quite appropriate, and the filmmakers were wise to use the English term, as "player" can mean both an actor and a person who engages in games. There is another group in the film, however: Angeles caídos, the Fallen Angels. At the beginning of the film, one of the Fallen Angels explains that this group was expelled by the Players, who are the good guys. The Fallen Angels are, of course, the bad guys, and they keep fighting the good guys, even though, as the character says, "Good guys always win." We then see the Players engaged in a series of performative games. They sing, they dance, they fight, they put make-up on each other, they read and rehearse Shakespeare's _The Tempest_.
One of the highlights of _The Players vs. Angeles caídos_ is the section titled "La fiesta de los espíritus," which was filmed by five directors known as "el grupo de los cinco." Alberto Fischerman, Néstor Paternostro, Raúl de la Torre, Ricardo Becher, and Juan José Stagnaro each had a camera and filmed the "party" according to his own vision. The end result consists of a montage of these five different perspectives.
Made one year after _La hora de los hornos_ (Pino Solanas, released 1971), _Players vs. Angeles caídos_ is to cinema what the works of Julio Cortázar are to literature. The film suggests that we must "invent our own games," and that actors (or players) should exercise total freedom, even if this means departing from the director's intentions. The improvisational jazz soundtrack is therefore truly adequate.
A must-see for enthusiasts of experimental cinema. Others may want to make sure they're in the mood for it first. Those who know the "popular" Fischerman of _La clínica del Dr. Cureta_ (1987) and _Las puertitas del señor López_ (1988) will be surprised by this one.
