Francisco, a rich, middle-aged virgin, obsessive about regaining possession of once-upon-a-time nation quality, turns the drive of his pathology on Gloria. He effectively woos her clear of her fiancé and, creation on their marriage ceremony night time, makes her month a residing hell. Oscillating between unbalanced jealousy and abject apologies (however ever aroused by way of the optical of her toes), he turns into increasingly more abusive, mentally and bodily. At one level, expecting the climax of Hitchcock’s “Vertigo,” he finagles her to the manage of a project bell tower and, unexpectedly furious, tries to throw her off.
All through, the madman is secure by way of his wealth, defended by way of the Catholic Church or even by way of Gloria’s mom. “Él” has been taken as a parody of machismo, however it’s extra pointedly an assault on social magnificence, male privilege and the perception of bourgeois respectability. At the back of the stone facade of Francisco’s colonial mansion lies a litter of chandeliers, tchotchkes and Jugendstil-patterned portals. Tailored from a quasi-autobiographical copy by way of the Spanish essayist Mercedes Pinto, “Él” was once additional knowledgeable by way of the antics of Buñuel’s brother-in-law and, he’s recommended, his personal desires.
Arriving in Cannes two years nearest Buñuel’s triumphant comeback with the anti-neorealist slum drama “Los Olvidados,” “Él” was once brushed aside by way of many, together with the jury president, Jean Cocteau, as a business sellout. The unimpressed Fresh York Instances reviewer, A.H. Weiler, termed the movie “an elementary and uninspired study of abnormal psychology.” (Nonetheless, refuse much less an expert than Jacques Lacan thought to be “Él” to be exemplary, and the an expert French critic Georges Sadoul identified the movie as an replace of “L’Age d’Or,” the 1930 Buñuel-Dalí collaboration that incited a rise up.)
“Él” is so blandly outrageous that it’s simple to cross over its affronts. One night time, Francisco seems with fable gauze, scissors, a needle and anecdote and a few bulky rope, soaring over his sound asleep spouse. To consider his plan is to change into implicated in his craziness. Inevitably, Francisco’s ultimate split with fact happens in the similar church the place the film opens (and features a bodily assault on his nation priest).
A coda unearths Francisco residing in a monastery. “Faith has become his shield against the world,” a brother explains. Having begun by way of figuring out spiritual ritual with fetishism, “Él” concludes by way of equating prayer and paranoia. The revelations of the jolting postscript are the entire extra tough if one is aware of that the cowled determine within the closing shot is the director himself.
Él
Thru March 20, Movie Discussion board, New york, filmforum.org.
