President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's verbal offensive over the Falklands lurches from the comic to the sinister. On his recent visit to Argentina's president in the Casa Rosada, actor Sean Penn called for talks while damning Britain.
"I don't think the world today is going to tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology."
There may be too much of the Hollywood fantasy school of history in his version of the geopolitics of the South Atlantic. It was given a sinister twist by Argentinian foreign minister Hector Timerman this week when he said that the UK was using an "unjustified defence of self-determination" in supporting the islanders' wish to decide their own future.
According to the minister, Argentina wishes to ignore one of the fundamental principles of the United Nations -the right of a people to choose their own government and citizenship.
They seem to want to change what they see as one form of colony for another, wishing to claim ownership based on their position as legatees of the old Spanish Empire - and there doesn't seem to be a whiff of democracy about it.
There are other black comedic touches. The Argentinian first soccer division has just been renamed the League of the Crucero General Belgrano - after the cruiser sunk in the 1982 war in which 323 sailors were lost.
This week the transport workers' union said its members will not handle any ship flying a British flag. "We have resolved to boycott any flag of convenience which the British pirates use."
Ms Fernandez seems determined to push the issue to the limit. This is where the British government must improve its diplomatic footwork - and explore areas of mutual benefit upon which to talk to Argentina and its important allies like Brazil.
A clue to what may really going on is given by the WikiLeaks revelations about tensions in the South Atlantic two years ago. In 2010 Hillary Clinton feared that Britain and Argentina were about to come to blows over oil and gas exploration off the islands.
The Falklands are only part of the Argentinian claim, which embraces a huge swathe of the southern oceans and a wedge of Antarctica where Britain has bases. The prize is the huge oil, gas and mineral reserves beneath the seas and the ice cap. A fair amount of the claim is against the Treaty of 1969, which guaranteed neutrality to Antarctica.
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One aspect of Ms Fernandez's brinkmanship risks pitching young Argentinians into violence and conflict which they do not seek. Talking to many young Argentinian soldiers during the 1982 war, many did not know why they were there.
Some did not even know where, being told by their officers they were going on exercise in Patagonia.
If the Hollywood rhetoric of a desperate Argentinian government tips into war in the South Atlantic for the second time in 30 years, many young Argentinians will not forgive them.
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