Intimate Portrait: Eva Peron [VHS]

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VHS Movie Reviews of Intimate Portrait: Eva Peron [VHS]

Movie Review: "She made the language of love a political language."
Summary: 5 Stars

This video was released back in December of 1996 the same week as the A&E Biography EVITA: THE WOMAN BEHIND THE MYTHS. I watched the two productions back to back, and the difference is stunning. While the A&E version focuses on the political maneuverings of Juan Peron and how Evita aided him, this version focuses on Evita the icon and her incredible "rags to riches" story. There is no mistaking that this video INTIMATE PORTRAIT: EVA PERON by Lifetime Television is intended primarily for a female audience. It focuses almost exclusively on Evita's inner personal struggle, her emotional impact on the lives or Argentines, and re-counts Evita's life in the context of her being what Julie M. Taylor, author of EVA PERON: THE MYTHS OF A WOMAN, terms "an early feminist."

And from there begins the parade of evidence: Evita sat in on Peron's cabinet meetings despite the fact that his generals did not like his mistress's presence (especially a woman of her class), she helped gain Argentine women the right to vote, she organized the first powerful female political party in Argentine history, she advocated the law that granted "illegitimate" children the same rights as all others (under this law "illegitimate" children were now called "natural" children), and she worked up to 20 hours a day in her charitable foundation. As author Julie M. Taylor notes, "Evita never forgot what it was like to be poor. The things she gave were very practical, like sewing machines. What you can do with a sewing machine, it can change the life of your entire block!" Actress Jill St. John narrates this video in an almost angelic voice while music, somewhat reminiscent of the musical EVITA, plays in the background. Dramatized readings from Evita's autobiography LA RAZON DE MI VIDA (available on Amazon as EVITA BY EVITA) are given by a woman with a thick Hispanic accent, as well as dramatizations of Juan Peron's memoirs where he describes his initial reaction to meeting the woman who would become his wife.

Also interviewed in this video are: George Bryn, radio director who worked with Evita in her early days as an actress ("She was not one to give up easily. No, not her. She never did"), Benito Llambi, Ambassador to Switzerland ("[On her tour of Switzerland] people would come up to the car and see her and yell, 'Oh, what a beautiful woman!'"), and Juan Peron's advisor Jorge Antonio ("She didn't ask; she would order. Whenever it had something to do with the poor or the humble, she would tell the men in her husband's government what she needed. She didn't ask for favors.").

"As long as I can remember," reads the actress dramatizing Evita's autobiography, "the existence of injustice has hurt my soul as if a nail were being driven into it. From every period in my life I retain the memory of some injustice tearing me apart." And, as this video shows, Evita tried her best, and in many ways succeeded, in correcting some injustices in her country. The 50-year anniversary of the "Voto Femenino" (Argentine women's right to vote) was celebrated in 1997, and was commemorated with a coin bearing Evita's likeness.

Summary of Intimate Portrait: Eva Peron [VHS]

General Video

• Genres > Documentary
• Biography > Intimate Portrait