Hugo Fregonese

[mesnalty]

Lately, I've been doing a bunch of director deep dives. I'm on Marcel Carne now, and next up will be Fregonese, but I've never seen anything by him and have no sense of the arc of his career. So, what are the essential Fregonese films to watch to get a good sense of his filmography?

[flip]

i remember fregonese was a bit fashionable in scfz circles a few years back, but there were differing opinions about which of his films were best. i'm really only familiar with his american genre films (noirs and westerns and things in those general orbits). i have the impression the raid is his best known, and that's probably essential viewing if you're diving into fregonese. apache drums was the film a lot of scfz'ers were enthusiastic about. i like two of his noirs a lot, black tuesday and especially one way street. but there are a lot of fregonese films i've yet to see, and blowing wild is one i know some people think very well of, and i recall someone telling me years ago (someone with, as i recall, idiosyncratic tastes, but i forget who, it was back in the mubi days i think) saying they thought harry black and the tiger was fregonese's best.

[nrh]

haven't seen a lot of his films yet but the raid, apache drums, and blowing wild are all essential.

he had a very strange career arc - early work in argentina, the early '50s making relatively ambitious b films in hollywood, then a decade plus in the strange world of international co-production. the american period seems to be where most of his reputation lies, but then that may have to do more with language and availability than anything. i've heard good things about his mid-50s italian production i girovaghi, but no subs for that, and same for the original '45 version of savage pampas.

this is the best overview of his career i've seen online - http://filmint.nu/the-way-of-a-gaucho-t ... fregonese/

[Lencho of the Apes]

I haven't dug too deeply into Fregonese, but Apenas Un Delincuente is the best & most noirish of the four Arg. movies I've seen.

[mesnalty]

Thanks, this is very helpful! My watchlist now is mostly his 50s films plus Apenas un Delincuente.

[nrh]

fregonese retro at moma - https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5491

as always a number of the more interesting movies are being shown on weekdays during work hours