Post by Dracula on Oct 1, 2023 18:59:09 GMT -5
El Conde(9/18/2023)
Clearly that concept is a bit “out there” but does appear to have been well thought out. The basic “rules” of vampirism are tinkered with here; this bloodsucker is a “daywalker” and while immortal he does age naturally when deprived of blood but can grow younger when his thirst is satiated. There are other unusual reveals to be found here, including the semi-surprise identity of the film’s English language narrator, but I’ll leave some of that to be a surprise. The basic metaphor at the center of all this, comparing this mass murdering dictator to a literal monster who “sucked the life” out of his country, is not exactly the deepest and most complex of parables and also isn’t necessarily the boldest of statements to make as Pinochet could be said to be something of an easy target at this point. Rather I think this movie works better as a genre exercise than as a political one: it’s take on the otherwise overdone tropes of vampirism feel relatively fresh and the movie does not skimp of the blood and gore. Additionally it’s a nicely stylish exercise with some crisp black and white cinematography and some cool visuals along the way like the sight of Pinochet in this generalissimo cape or the way it renders some vampire images like flight and the like. As a Pablo Larraín movie this probably counts as something of a minor effort when compared to some of his more serious work but as a horror exercise I’d say it’s a win and I rather dug the effort.
***1/2 out of Five
The Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín has rather consistently emerged as a rather unique filmmaker in that, formally, his movies often have rather distinct looks and feels to them. Some are more similar than others, but beyond a general willingness to engage in stylistic experiments I wouldn’t say they’re movies that you’d immediately identify as being from the same director if you set them side by side. Instead Larraín’s auteurism seems to be informed by thematic elements, namely a keen interest in national collective traumas that runs through most (though not all) of his films. Recently he’s gotten a lot of press for looking at British (Spencer) and American (Jackie) traumas but it will be no surprise that he’s most at home when looking at his own country’s fraught history which he looked at in 2010’s Post Mortem, 2012’s No, and 2016’s Neruda and returns to, albeit in a rather unconventional and genre inflected way with his latest film El Conde, a genre hash that imagines the infamous dictator Augusto Pinnochet as literally being a 200 year old vampire who is still alive today having faked his death and living at an island compound where his family has gathered to split up a hidden fortune he has stashed around the world.
Clearly that concept is a bit “out there” but does appear to have been well thought out. The basic “rules” of vampirism are tinkered with here; this bloodsucker is a “daywalker” and while immortal he does age naturally when deprived of blood but can grow younger when his thirst is satiated. There are other unusual reveals to be found here, including the semi-surprise identity of the film’s English language narrator, but I’ll leave some of that to be a surprise. The basic metaphor at the center of all this, comparing this mass murdering dictator to a literal monster who “sucked the life” out of his country, is not exactly the deepest and most complex of parables and also isn’t necessarily the boldest of statements to make as Pinochet could be said to be something of an easy target at this point. Rather I think this movie works better as a genre exercise than as a political one: it’s take on the otherwise overdone tropes of vampirism feel relatively fresh and the movie does not skimp of the blood and gore. Additionally it’s a nicely stylish exercise with some crisp black and white cinematography and some cool visuals along the way like the sight of Pinochet in this generalissimo cape or the way it renders some vampire images like flight and the like. As a Pablo Larraín movie this probably counts as something of a minor effort when compared to some of his more serious work but as a horror exercise I’d say it’s a win and I rather dug the effort.
***1/2 out of Five
