The Cult of Coca: The Films of Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli
2 films in this collection
The Argentine Film Festival presents:
The Cult of Coca: The Films of Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli
Often called Argentina’s answer to Marilyn Monroe, Isabel “Coca” Sarli went from a Miss Argentina beauty queen, and Miss Universe finalist, to become the country’s most seductive screen siren.
Nicknamed “Coca” for her famously voluptuous, Coke bottle-shaped figure, the bombshell brunette became a defining sex symbol of 1960s and 70s Argentina through her scandalous collaboration with filmmaker Armando Bó, and made history as the first actress to perform a full nude scene in Argentine cinema.
John Waters later paid tribute to her influence:
“Isabel, you inspired us all to a life of cheap exhibitionism, exaggerated sexual desires and a love for all that is trash-ridden in cinema. We salute you, Isabel Sarli, a truly outstanding woman in film.”
But Sarli was more than mere erotic object. Together, Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli became one of the most controversial and commercially successful partnerships in the history of Latin American cinema. The pair made 27 films together, combining melodrama, eroticism, social critique and spectacle in productions that were deliberately transgressive, challenging the moral climate of the time, and pushing the boundaries of cinematic freedom during periods of political repression.
Bó’s films were also revolutionary in the Argentine context because many openly centred female desire and the erotic body at a time when mainstream cinema remained highly conservative. While critics today often debate whether the films liberated or objectified women, Sarli defended the films as expressions of natural sexuality rather than pornography, and credited partner and director, Armando Bó, for empowering her as a collaborator and co-producer.
Presented together, Carne and Embrujada reveal two starkly contrasting dimensions of the collaboration between Armando Bó and Isabel Sarli.
