Él (1953)

How sad is this?

Best movie ever!

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

cold, strange, cruel. like majority of Bunuel films. a window to darkness. and too realistic to be only shadow of fiction. it is a good film. and, in many senses, picture of our time. the ball of paranoia and love as scary, the need to control and menace, the desire and the series of masks, the fragility and the madness as form of control, all is, piece by piece, ingredient of our society. this is the secret for who the movie remains impressive. and for who the genius of its director is basis for an inspired art circle. it is a definition of happiness search. and proof of a splendid science of details. a story. and result of an entomologist observations. is it enough ? sure. in measure to be one of the characters.

A fine depiction of toxic bitterness that destroys a man and the woman he claims to love. Bunuel begins to express his familiar themes within the commercial framework of this film from his Mexican period. The protagonist is a narcissist paranoid that loses any sense of perspective as he pursues his agenda. Also a masterful use of music and clever commentary on the Catholic church in Mexico. I was lucky to see "El" on TCM Latin America in Spanish. It prefigures later Bunuel films with surrealist moments, yet these are well placed within the narrative. Interactions between the characters show insight into subtleties of Mexican and Spanish-speaking culture. This and "El Gran Calavera" are the only Mexican period Bunuel I've seen but I will seek more of them out.

Although slightly more melodramatic, I feel this does have the edge over the later, 'Criminal Life of Archibaldo de La Cruz', which covers similar territory with more humour. A gripping and frightening tale of obsession that has a surprisingly large amount of echoes of Hitchcock's later, 'Vertigo' and seemingly that director took the bell tower sequence in its entirety. Still, who cares, great films remain great films, even when their inspiration may be revealed. The ending is low key but we are left in little doubt as to the state of mind of our hero/villain. Great performances help what might have seemed a preposterous tale, ring only too true. Probably best watched after Archibaldo, then the impact will be all the more great.

El (1953) *** 1/2 (out of 4) A wealthy, highly religious middle aged virgin (Arturo de Cordova) marries a woman (Delia Garces) he believes to be his true calling but things soon start to fall apart when the man becomes overdone with jealousy and obsession. This was my first Luis Bunuel film and while the story isn't anything too original, the direction certainly puts it in a league of its own. The claustrophobic ending was very well handled and highly memorable as was the performance by de Cordova who really gets inside this characters head.