El (1953)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Luis Buñuel

Writers:

Mercedes Pinto (novel)
Luis Buñuel (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 July 1953 (Mexico)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Francisco is rich, rather strict on principles, and still a bachelor. After meeting Gloria by accident...

Plot Keywords:

Monastery | Passion | Abuse | Frustration | Anger

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Arturo de Córdova	...	Francisco Galvan de Montemayor
Delia Garcés	...	Gloria Milalta
Carlos Martínez Baena	...	Father Velasco
Manuel Dondé	...	Pablo
Fernando Casanova	...	Beltran
Aurora Walker	...	Esperanza Peralta
Rafael Banquells	...	Ricardo Lujan
Luis Beristáin	...	Raul Conde
José Pidal
Roberto Meyer

Also Known As:

This Strange Passion (USA) (reissue title)
Torments

Runtime:

92 min | USA:82 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Estudios Tepeyac, Mexico City, México D.F., Mexico

Company:

Nacional Film

Trivia:

Luis Buñuel makes a cameo appearance as one of the monks.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Le fantôme d'Henri Langlois (2004)

Telenovela with only a handful of Bunuel images

First of all, this is not the best movie Bunuel has made in his Mexican period (check out Los Olvidados), though it may be his most personal, sharing many elements with Un Chien Andalou and the later surrealist masterpieces of the French period. I have to say that I couldn't enjoy this movie because it reminded me of the telenovelas (Mexican soap-operas) that I hate so much. The acting is atrocious, every moment is exaggerated as if to convince the audience that the actor means business and he IS really gone berserk and he's going to do something unpredictable. Unfortunately, this may help the lonely housewife who looks at the idol de Cordova and weeps, but it doesn't help the movie goer who expects good acting. The movie, I dare say has only a few shots worthy of the great Bunuel, the first shot (where, by the way there is no speaking and the drama is conveyed by the editing) and a few shots that in the opinion of some IMDb reviewers may have inspired Hitchcock's Vertigo, such as the church tower scene. The script is very predictable and it doesn't have a point. What is it that we learn at the end? That the flesh is stronger than the spirit or vice-versa? That dumb, jealous pricks should be banned from marrying? Unfortunately, Bunuel has a problem with the green-eyed monster story that was brilliantly and not melodramatically rendered into art by Shakespeare with Othello and by Bunuel himself in his own first marvelous short film. Compared to those, this mainstream telenovela looks cheap and even if it doesn't last longer than 90 minutes it seems to drag.