''Thunder Among the Leaves'' () is a 1958

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

Paraguayan Paraguayans () are the citizens of Paraguay. Though the majority of Paraguayans reside in Paraguay, significant communities have been established in multiple countries, most noticeably Argentina, Spain, United States, Brazil. History The first ...

drama film directed by

Armando Bó Armando Bó (3 May 19148 October 1981) was an Argentine film actor, director, producer, screenwriter and score composer. He began his career as an actor and producer during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. In 1956, B� ...

, starring himself,

Isabel Sarli Hilda Isabel Gorrindo Sarli (; 9 July 192925 June 2019), nicknamed Coca, was an Argentine actress. She was known for starring in several sexploitation films by Armando Bó, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. She began her career as a model, beco ...

, Ernesto Báez and Andrés Laszlo. The

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

by Paraguayan writer

Augusto Roa Bastos Augusto Roa Bastos (13 June 1917 – 26 April 2005) was a Paraguayan novelist and short story writer. As a teenager he fought in the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and he later worked as a journalist, screenwriter and professor. ...

was based on his short story . Set in Paraguay, the story is about a strike at a sawmill. The first film to feature full frontal nudity in

Latin American cinema Latin American cinema refers collectively to the film output and film industries of Latin America. Latin American film is both rich and diverse, but the main centers of production have been Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Latin American cinema fl ...

, ''Thunder Among the Leaves'' scandalized audiences and became a major box office success on the continent. It rocketed Sarli to stardom and is now considered a

cult classic A cult following is a group of Fan (person), fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some List of art media, medium. The latter is often cal ...

Synopsis

The arrival of the boss's young wife unearths laborer tensions accumulated after many years of deprivation and maltreatment. The story is a social drama about the exploitation of man.

Cast

as Julio Guillén *

as Flavia Forkel *Andrés Laszlo as Max Forkel *Ernesto Báez as Capanga *Félix Ribero *Luis Leguisamón *Eladio Martínez *Leandro S. Cacavelos *Roque Centurión Miranda *Aníbal Romero *Matías Ferreira Díaz *Javier Franco *Alejo Vargas *Nieves Esquivel *Tabú *Adolfo Cuellar *Luis Guastalla *Kika Da Silva *Manuel E. B. Argüello *Guillermo Ketterer *Rafael Rojas Doria *Amador García *César Alvarez Blanco

Production

Sarli's inclusion in the film was inspired by

Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a French former actress, singer, and model as well as an animal rights activist. Famous for portraying characters with Hedonism, hedonistic life ...

's role in '' And God Created Woman''. ''Thunder Among the Leaves'' was filmed with the same camera used in

Leopoldo Torres Ríos Leopoldo Torres Ríos (27 December 1899 – 10 April 1960) was an Argentina, Argentine film director and screenwriter notable for his work during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema. His brother Carlos Torres Ríos was a notable cinematographer. ...

' ''Pelota de trapo'' in 1948 and

Leopoldo Torre Nilsson Leopoldo Torre Nilsson (5 May 1924 – 8 September 1978), also known as Leo Towers and as Babsy, was an cinema of Argentina, Argentine film director, producer and screenwriter. Born as Leopoldo Torres Nilsson (he later changed his paternal s ...

's '' Días de odio'' in 1954. During

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

, Bó convinced Sarli to get naked in a scene in which she bathed in a lake though he had told her earlier that she would wear a flesh-colored

bodystocking A bodystocking or body stocking is a one-piece skin-tight garment that covers the torso, legs and sometimes the arms of the wearer. It is a foundation garment or an article of lingerie usually made from a sheer fabric similar to that used for s ...

. Although Bó told Sarli they would shoot from afar, the camera lens had magnification.

Reception

Isabel Sarli en El trueno entre las hojas

Critic Gustavo J. Castagna felt that the aesthetic of ''Thunder Among the Leaves'' was reminiscent of the

social commentary Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace ab ...

films by

Hugo del Carril Pierre Bruno Hugo Fontana, otherwise known as Hugo del Carril (30 November 1912 – 13 August 1989), was an Argentine film actor, film director and tango singer of the Golden Age of Argentine cinema. Early life Born in Buenos Aires, del Ca ...

and

Mario Soffici Mario Soffici (14 May 1900 – 10 May 1977) was an Italian-born Argentina, Argentine film director, actor and screenwriter notable for his work during the Golden Age of Argentine cinema. Biography Mario Soffici was born in Florence, Florence, ...

. Critic Sergio Wolf described Bó's films during this time as serial and each followed the generic pattern described by Arnold Hauser: the exaggerated and sharp, the harsh and exotic. Wolf said that ''Thunder Among the Leaves'' exhibits this pattern when Julio, who has nothing to lose, lets his passion boil over and rapes Flavia. The film was a highly controversial box-office success. Argentine newspaper ''

La Nación ''La Nación'' () is an Argentine daily newspaper. As the country's leading conservative newspaper, ''La Nación''s main competitor is the more liberal ''Clarín (Argentine newspaper), Clarín''. It is regarded as a newspaper of record for Argen ...

'' wrote in 1969 that the film left an extraordinary international mark and was one of Argentina's biggest blockbusters over recent years. In November 1958, ''

The News and Courier ''The Post and Courier'' is the main daily newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina. It traces its ancestry to three newspapers, the ''Charleston Courier'', founded in 1803, the ''Charleston Daily News'', founded 1865, and ''The Evening Post'', f ...

'' reported that "a saucy Latin lass has smashed South American box office records with the most daring dunking since Hedy Lamarr disrobed to fame in ''Ecstasy''." The movie's premiere in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay, broke box office records, and Sarli's bath scene "rocked some Latin American capitals". In April 1959 Brian Bell of the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...

'' wrote, "There was nothing particularly exciting about the movie except Miss Sarli, in a birthday suit swimming scene. It was a box office smash in South America." However, Sarli was panned by fellow filmmakers for the nude scene.

Cultural impact

The film featured Isabel Sarli in her first starring role and made her a sex symbol. It also marked the beginning of her partnership with Armando Bó. The partnership spanned almost three decades and made numerous

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, Low-budget film, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition o ...

films. Now considered a classic, the bath scene was the first one to feature full frontal nudity in

Argentine cinema Cinema of Argentina refers to the film industry based in Argentina. The Argentine cinema comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of Argentina or by Argentine filmmakers abroad. The Argentine film industry has histo ...

, and in all of

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

. ''The News and Courier'' wrote "the opening in Buenos Aires was hailed as the start of a new era for Argentina's movie industry" after the end of

Juan Perón Juan Domingo Perón (, , ; 8 October 1895 – 1 July 1974) was an Argentine military officer and Statesman (politician), statesman who served as the History of Argentina (1946-1955), 29th president of Argentina from 1946 to Revolución Libertad ...

's service as president and his

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...

techniques. ''Thunder Among the Leaves'' was the

star vehicle In the motion picture industry, a star vehicle (or simply vehicle) is a film written or produced for a specific star, either to further their career or simply to profit from their current popularity. It is designed to optimally display that star's ...

for Sarli and made her and Bó internationally renowned. The nude scene, particularly, is said to have " parkedher star phenomena". The scandal caused by it attracted the international press and Sarli soon appeared in publications such as ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' and ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

''. The film made her popular and at the premiere of her second film with Bó, ''Sabaleros'' (1959), a crowd of young fans mobbed her as she got to the cinema, ripped her dress and broke through a police cordon, which caused Sarli to faint twice. The ''

Star-Banner The ''Ocala StarBanner'' is the daily newspaper in Ocala, Florida, United States, and serves Marion County and the surrounding communities. The ''Ocala StarBanner'' has a daily circulation of about 43,000, and is the 19th-largest newspaper in t ...

'' reported "Buenos Aires moviegoers could not remember a more surprising and delirious reception for an Argentine movie actress."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trueno Entre Las Hojas (Film) 1958 films Argentine drama films Argentine black-and-white films Films about rape Films directed by Armando Bó Films shot in Paraguay Nudity and protest 1950s Spanish-language films Guaraní-language films