El acto en cuestión / The Act in Question

Credits

1993

Production companies: Allarts Films and Schlemmer Film (Netherlands)

Directed by Alejandro Agresti

Produced by Kees Kasander

Script by Alejandro Agresti. Based on a novel by Alejandro Agresti

Cinematography by Néstor Sanz

Edited by Stephan Kamp

Music by Toshio Nakagawa and the song ‘La montaña’ by Luis Alberto Spinetta

Duration: 105 minutes approx.

With: Carlos Roffe (Miguel Quiroga), Sergio Poves Campos (Amilcar Liguori), Lorenzo Quinteros (Rogelio), Mirta Busnelli (Azucena), Natalie Alonso Casale (Sylvie), Guido Lauwaert (Antonio, mute friend)

Synopsis

Miguel Quiroga is a tramp who lives with Azucena in a humble building inhabited by marginal people similar to themselves. He has the bizarre habit of stealing one random book every day and reading it throughout the night. One night he reads a book about ‘Magic and Occultism’ and discovers a trick through which he can make things disappear. He then shows the trick to the owner of a circus, Amilcar Liguori, who hires him. Miguel's vanishing act is a success but he becomes increasingly paranoid about the possibility that someone else will read the book so he decides to burn it, in an attempt to keep the secret to himself, and starts travelling the world performing the trick. He tries it out on people, but it does not work at first so he hides for a while until he is able to perfect the act and bring people back from their disappearance. A star magician again, but still haunted by the fear of discovery, Miguel is encouraged by Amilcar, now his manager, to perform the act in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower as the site of his next trick. Whilst in the city he falls in love with Sylvie who is the only one in the crowd not to see the Eiffel Tower as having disappeared, which causes Miguel much distress. The couple – now married – travel back to Buenos Aires where Sylvie is kept prisoner by her husband. One night Amilcar reveals to Miguel that he had known about the book for years, similarly hiding the secret. He warns that the new edition of the book will bring Miguel's international fame to an end.