Spettatori della dittatura: "Tony Manero" di Pablo Larrain

In the Cilean military-dictaroship run by Pinochet, Raúl Peralta, the protagonist of the film, tries a reconfiguration of the figurative, values-based and passionate universe of America of the 70s, influenced by a cult-like obsession for the film Saturday Night Fever (1977) and especially for the suburban dancer played by John Travolta. Through direct allusions to John Badham’s film and televion-diva-behaviour, Larrain’s film shows the limits of an imitative phenomenon which reaches obsession in the protagonist. The aim of the essay is to identify the passion of the imitative and translated phenomena which have been mentioned. It concentrates on Raul who is thediegetic centre, and, at the same time, the perceptive fulcrum of the majority of the frames in the movie.