The new film by Pablo Larrain, El Conde, deals with Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator, in an unexpected manner. The film reveals that Pinochet is a 250-year-old vampire, and you might think he died in 2006, but he is still very much alive, living in a secluded place on the outskirts of Chile. It’s a provocative idea, trying to bring out the satirical humor associated with dictatorships and the familial and political underpinnings surrounding Pinochet himself.
El Conde is filled with violence and gore, all hinting at the bloodshed during Pinochet’s 1973 coup and the human rights violations during his reign. By showing him as a vampire, a creature who feasts on human blood, the metaphor of politicians ‘sucking the soul’ out of people is nicely brought out in the open. Jaime Vadell delivers a striking portrayal of a vampirical spoof of Pinochet with an uncanny resemblance to the actual figure,...
El Conde is filled with violence and gore, all hinting at the bloodshed during Pinochet’s 1973 coup and the human rights violations during his reign. By showing him as a vampire, a creature who feasts on human blood, the metaphor of politicians ‘sucking the soul’ out of people is nicely brought out in the open. Jaime Vadell delivers a striking portrayal of a vampirical spoof of Pinochet with an uncanny resemblance to the actual figure,...
- 9/16/2023
- by Ayush Awasthi
- Film Fugitives
Just four days ago was the 50th anniversary of the 1973 coup d’etat, when Augusto Pinochet came to absolute power in Chile. The Pinochet we all know and have heard of died in 2006, but El Conde, the new Netflix film, has a surprise for you. Pinochet is alive, and what happened in 2006, when Pinochet stopped his heart and pretended to die, was just one of his skills as a vampire. Yes, the Chilean dictator is actually a 250-year-old vampire who invites trouble after he is suspected of having been on a killing spree, feasting on the hearts of people. Vampires are known to do that. Eating hearts ensures that they grow young. This satirical black comedy, directed by Pablo Larrain, brings him back to familiar territory, dealing with Augusto Pinochet and the aftermath of his military dictatorship. In 2012, Larrain directed the critically acclaimed “No,” and here he is again dealing with ‘Pinochetism,...
- 9/15/2023
- by Ayush Awasthi
- Film Fugitives
Putting the blackened, flash-frozen heart of Chile’s undead past into a blender, blitzing it to a lumpen pulp and guzzling down the result with grimly comic relish, Pablo Larraín, after his Hollywood forays with “Spencer” and “Jackie,” returns to his home turf and finds it bleeding out from a mysterious two-hole puncture on its neck. “El Conde” — the Chilean director’s uncategorizably bizarre riff on vampire mythos, cronyist corruption and the more mundane horror that is a squabbling family divvying up their patriarchal inheritance while the patriarch is still around — coils itself around an inventively nasty literalization of the idea that the evil that men does lives after them. Those words, spoken over Caesar’s body in “Julius Caesar,” sparked a war that ended a republic. With his iteration, Larraín aims to do his part in delivering a republic instead, bringing his elegantly foul exercise in gallows humor to bear,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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