Arturo Alessandri plays as a political figure who represents the politics of the current state of Chile, which are those that Pabo Neruda is against and is soon to be punished for opposing. He appears to be a very strong character and stands for his beliefs. Near the beginning of the movie, Neruda and Alessandi engage in an intense and seemingly long conversation throughout a number of scenes about Neruda’s actions and situation, as well as those of the general communist people that he represents. Alessandri mocks Neruda’s communist beliefs in the way that he makes fun of how communists would run things. He is not aggressive, but stands his ground on his own political side throughout the conversation, therefore providing the role of an opposing character in the movie. Alessandri does play an important role in this way, although he is a minor character in the movie for a number of reasons, the most obvious being a very large lack of screen time. In the “Introduction” part of the “Small Parts, Small Players” dossier of Screen, Will Straw writes about ‘small players’ being “reduced, much of the time, to fleeting moments or undeveloped functions within films,” (78) which can absolutely be interpreted as a reference to a lack of screen time and substantial role within the film. Alessandri, amongst many other minor characters in the film, does not take up a large amount of time as his role is not extremely important and only contributes so much to the plot. His role in the movie contributes to outlining Pablo Neruda’s opposing political views to those of the current state of Chile, but does not actually contribute much to the progress of the movie aside from highlighting Neruda’s stance and who his enemies are. Alessandri also does not prove to be a major character in the film as he has no character arc whatsoever, referring back to the fact that he remains loyal to his political beliefs throughout what little screen time he has in the movie.
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