''Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes'' ( es, Pizza, birra, faso; also known as ''Pizza, Beer & Smokes'') is a 1998 Argentine

crime drama film In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

written and directed by

Israel Adrián Caetano Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

and

Bruno Stagnaro Bruno Stagnaro (born June 15, 1973) is an Argentine film and television director, producer and screenwriter. He works mainly in the cinema of Argentina. He has also acted professionally a few times.Héctor Anglada, Jorge Sesan and Pamela Jordán. The film tells the story of a gang of marginalized adolescents who survive on the streets of Buenos Aires carrying out low-level robberies. ''Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes'' is the film that's known as "the spark that ignited the New Argentine Cinema when it premiered at the international

Mar del Plata Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fes ...

." It was filmed entirely in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In a survey of the 100 greatest films of Argentine cinema carried out by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in 2000, the film reached the 10th position. In a new version of the survey organized in 2022 by the specialized magazines ''La vida útil'', ''Taipei'' and ''La tierra quema'', presented at the

Mar del Plata International Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fes ...

, the film reached the 8th position.

Plot

This story takes place in an impoverished district outside

and follows a group of teenage delinquents and misfits: the not-so-bright Megabom (Alejandro Pous), the asthmatic Pablo (Jorge Sesan), the nerdy Frula (Walter Diaz), and Sandra (Pamela Jordan), the pregnant girlfriend of El Cordobés ( Héctor Anglada). All of them are squatters living together in the same house. The group wanders the city and steal in order to survive. After letting go of their former employer, a crooked taxi driver who paid them a cut of what they could steal from his passengers, Frula and Cordobés steal from a crippled street vendor, which ultimately leads to Sandra being arrested. Sandra, because of her pregnancy, starts to think about her future and the life she can make for her expected baby. When she is released from jail after a short time inside, she makes Cordobes promise he'll straighten up and find a decent job instead of stealing again. In the meantime, she stays with her abusive father. Aided by his friends, Cordobés starts looking for more profitable scores, so he can move to Uruguay with Sandra. Frula arranges a job with his contact, Rubén which involves stealing a fancy restaurant with unreliable guns. Rubén drives them to the spot which turns out to be an ordinary place. The stickup goes sloppily and the alarm goes off, urging the five robbers to escape. Rubén cuts ties with the others after paying Cordobes a misery for his job. Running out of time, the group decides to rob a local nightclub. Pablo and Cordobes get back in touch with the cab driver, only to beat him up and steal both his money and his guns. However, they grow fond of the passenger, a middle aged woman from Cordoba, and let her arrive to her destination safely. Immediately after being let out of the car, the woman discreetly calls the police, who begins tracking the stolen cab. Back at the nightclub, Pablo, Frula and Cordobes get past the bouncer and proceed to hold the ticket workers at gunpoint while Pablo acts as a diversion, with Megabom as lookout outside the club. The bouncer, however, barely manages to notice Pablo and Megabom switching guns, so he begins acting more suspiciously. While the others start taking the money, Megabom notices a policeman following them, and proceeds to bother him and damage his motorbike in order to create a distraction. When Cordobes gets out of the ticket office, gun in hand, he is shot in the chest by the bouncer, who is then killed by Pablo. Hearing the screams and gunshots inside, the policeman attempts to enter the nightclub, but begins to beat down Megabom after he hits him in the back. When Frula, Cordobes and Pablo get to the cab, Frula catches a glimpse of the bloody and bruised Megabom. Enraged, he draws his gun at the officer, but is quickly shot down. Pablo manages to escape carrying a badly wounded Cordobes and steals another car. He drives him to the docks and gives him the money, so he can leave with Sandra, while staying behind to turn himself in. Crawling, Cordobes manages to get to the docks, where he realizes he won't make it to the boat. Reunited with Sandra, he is forced to confess he didn't make good on his promise, and tells Sandra she should go alone, for the kid's sake. They kiss farewell, and a dying Cordobes manages to get a final look at Sandra while the boat departs. When the police arrive, they find his dead body and inform the station via radio.

Cast

* Héctor Anglada as Córdoba/Cordobés/El Cordobés * Jorge Sesán as Pablo * Pamela Jordán as Sandra * Adrián Yospe as Rubén * Daniel Di Biase as Trompa * Walter Díaz as Frula * Martín Adjemián as Taxi Driver * Elena Cánepa as Old Woman * Rubén Rodríguez as Rengo * Tony Lestingi as Passenger * Alejandro Pous as Megabom * Marcelo Videla as Cop 1 * Gustavo Saenz as Cop 2 * Claudia Moreno as Prostitute * Roberto Alvarez as Security Guard

Distribution

The producers used the following tagline to promote the film: :''Four friends. One city. Only one way out.'' The film first opened in Argentina on January 15, 1998. The film was shown at various film festivals, including: the Fribourg International Film Festival, Switzerland; the Toulouse Latin America Film Festival,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

; the Montevideo Film Festival,

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

; the

Gramado Film Festival The Gramado Film Festival ( pt, Festival de Gramado) is an international film festival held annually in the Brazilian city of Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, since 1973. In 1992, the festival began to award Latin American films produced outside of Br ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

; and the Torino International Festival of Young Cinema,

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

.IMDb, awards section, ibid. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

it was not released as a feature film, but rather it was released in DVD format on December 27, 2005.

Accolades

Wins * Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Film; Best First Film; Best New Actor, Héctor Anglada; Best Original Screenplay, Bruno Stagnaro & Adrián Caetano; 1999. * Fribourg International Film Festival, Fribourg, Switzerland: FIPRESCI Prize, Israel Adrián Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro, for a first feature by two young directors who dramatize with force and without sentimentality the predicament of the teenage marginals of Argentina; and ''Grand Prix''; 1998. *

: Golden Kikito—Best Director; Best Film, Best Screenplay; Israel Adrián Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro; 1998. * Toulouse Latin America Film Festival: Israel Adrián Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro; 1998. Nominations * Torino International Festival of Young Cinema,

Torino, Italy Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

: Prize of the City of

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

Best Film - International Feature Film Competition, Adrián Caetano and Bruno Stagnaro; 1998. * Argentine Film Critics Association Awards: Silver Condor; Best Director, Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano; Best Editing, Andrés Tambornino; Best New Actor, Jorge Sesán; 1999.

References

External links

*
''Pizza, birra, faso''
at

cinenacional.com Cinenacional.com is a web portal and World Wide Web, web-based database about Cinema of Argentina, Argentine cinema. It is the most comprehensive site for information about the Argentine film industry, with a vast array of information on films, tel ...

''Pizza, birra, faso''
review at ''Cineismo'' by Guillermo Ravaschino
''Pizza, birra, faso''
review at Leer Cine by Santiago García * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pizza, Beer, And Cigarettes (Film) 1998 films 1998 drama films Films directed by Israel Adrián Caetano Argentine independent films 1990s Spanish-language films Films shot in Buenos Aires Films set in Buenos Aires