Neruda (2016)
Country: CHILE/ARG/FR/SP/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 107m
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Morán
Synopsis:
In the late 1940s, as the Chilean Communist Party fights for its life under a US-sponsored right-wing government, senator and people's poet, Pablo Neruda, moves from one safe house to another, occasionally venturing abroad, but always eluding the policeman set on his trail.
Review:
Gratefully anything but a piece of earnest historical hagiography with political undertones, Larraín's second political portrait within a year is even more playful and ironic. From its opening set piece in a lavish gents' urinal, to its stunning climax in an Andean pass, this film prioritises the visual over the verbal. It is a film of ideas rather than a narrative as such: mise en scène is disrupted mid-dialogue to indicate that these are not necessarily words actually spoken, or likely to have been spoken, but issues and feelings nonetheless, and alarmingly they have all the more force because of it. Bernal's character of a jumped up popinjay of a police chief is a marvellous piece of characterisation; part Javert, part The Conformist (an impression enhanced by the costumes and snowy settings), he is uncertain of his parenthood and moves from lackey to tragic figure, immortalised by Neruda's voice and become one with the people from whose bosom he rose. This is a magisterial piece of film-making, a feast for eyes, brain and heart in equal measure.
Country: CHILE/ARG/FR/SP/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 107m
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Morán
Synopsis:
In the late 1940s, as the Chilean Communist Party fights for its life under a US-sponsored right-wing government, senator and people's poet, Pablo Neruda, moves from one safe house to another, occasionally venturing abroad, but always eluding the policeman set on his trail.
Review:
Gratefully anything but a piece of earnest historical hagiography with political undertones, Larraín's second political portrait within a year is even more playful and ironic. From its opening set piece in a lavish gents' urinal, to its stunning climax in an Andean pass, this film prioritises the visual over the verbal. It is a film of ideas rather than a narrative as such: mise en scène is disrupted mid-dialogue to indicate that these are not necessarily words actually spoken, or likely to have been spoken, but issues and feelings nonetheless, and alarmingly they have all the more force because of it. Bernal's character of a jumped up popinjay of a police chief is a marvellous piece of characterisation; part Javert, part The Conformist (an impression enhanced by the costumes and snowy settings), he is uncertain of his parenthood and moves from lackey to tragic figure, immortalised by Neruda's voice and become one with the people from whose bosom he rose. This is a magisterial piece of film-making, a feast for eyes, brain and heart in equal measure.
Country: CHILE/ARG/FR/SP/US
Technical: col/2.35:1 107m
Director: Pablo Larraín
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Gnecco, Mercedes Morán
Synopsis:
In the late 1940s, as the Chilean Communist Party fights for its life under a US-sponsored right-wing government, senator and people's poet, Pablo Neruda, moves from one safe house to another, occasionally venturing abroad, but always eluding the policeman set on his trail.
Review:
Gratefully anything but a piece of earnest historical hagiography with political undertones, Larraín's second political portrait within a year is even more playful and ironic. From its opening set piece in a lavish gents' urinal, to its stunning climax in an Andean pass, this film prioritises the visual over the verbal. It is a film of ideas rather than a narrative as such: mise en scène is disrupted mid-dialogue to indicate that these are not necessarily words actually spoken, or likely to have been spoken, but issues and feelings nonetheless, and alarmingly they have all the more force because of it. Bernal's character of a jumped up popinjay of a police chief is a marvellous piece of characterisation; part Javert, part The Conformist (an impression enhanced by the costumes and snowy settings), he is uncertain of his parenthood and moves from lackey to tragic figure, immortalised by Neruda's voice and become one with the people from whose bosom he rose. This is a magisterial piece of film-making, a feast for eyes, brain and heart in equal measure.