Early cinephilia. reflections starting on María Wiesse’s and León Klimovsky’s columns

Abstract

This essay explores the origins of latinamerica’s film critic, tracing landmarks and then, analyzing two cinema columns of the late twenties. First, the column “Cinema. Notes on some films” signed by the Peruvian writer Maria Wiesse and published in Amauta magazine between October 1928 and October 1929. Secondly, we analyze a column called “Cinedramas”, written by the Argentinian film director León Klimovsky, published at Claridad magazine between July 1927 and late 1928. In both cases, we propose that film criticism allows them not only to comment on specific films, but also to think of cinema as an aesthetic, social and political phenomenon.