Most of the Argentinean films from the silent era are lost due to the lack of proper politics for the preservation of the audiovisual material through time. That's why "Juan sin ropa" becomes such a significant work. Born from the association between actors Camila and Héctor Quiroga, with photography director Georges Benoît, the film, that has survived in a fragmentary way, tells the story of a worker that, after moving from the countryside to work in a cold storage plant in the big city, is involved in a strike with violent consequences.
Film expert Fernando Martín Peña has pointed the dynamic editing and the expressive use of close-ups as very modern for its time. According to him, film historian Kevin Brownlow has considered the formal resolution of the strike sequence as superior to the similar one on Griffith's "Intolerance".
Its view of the social conflicts in Argentina at the time, with the arrival of millions of immigrants in a few years and the increasing complaints about the inequity of the economical and political systems,has the big merit of anticipating the "Semana Trágica" ("Tragic Week"), a series of heavy clashes between socialist and anarchist workers and right-winged nationalistic groups in the week from January 7th to January 14th, 1919.
Film expert Fernando Martín Peña has pointed the dynamic editing and the expressive use of close-ups as very modern for its time. According to him, film historian Kevin Brownlow has considered the formal resolution of the strike sequence as superior to the similar one on Griffith's "Intolerance".
Its view of the social conflicts in Argentina at the time, with the arrival of millions of immigrants in a few years and the increasing complaints about the inequity of the economical and political systems,has the big merit of anticipating the "Semana Trágica" ("Tragic Week"), a series of heavy clashes between socialist and anarchist workers and right-winged nationalistic groups in the week from January 7th to January 14th, 1919.
