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Friday, Oct 27, 2023
7 PM (88 mins)
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BAMPFA
Él
(This Strange Passion)
New Digital Restoration
Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, Luis Beristáin, Aurora Walker,
This is a study of “mad love” gone truly mad amidst the neurotic compulsions of the haute bourgeoisie. The protagonist, Francisco, is a forty-year-old virgin holding out for perfect—and perfectly respectable—love. Francisco’s apparent self-possession masks a ruthless severity, and his romanticism girdles insane misogyny. He takes a young wife, who tries to adjust to the tyranny of his jealous behavior, until the evening he enters her room with some menacing instruments: a rope, needle and thread, scissors, cotton wool, and antiseptic. “The influence of de Sade is everywhere apparent in a scenario that the majority of the Mexican public took for a run-of-the-mill melodrama on jealousy,” wrote Ado Kyrou. Luis Buñuel said of the film: “The character is certainly pathetic. I am touched by this man possessed by such jealousy, such solitude and interior anguish, such exterior violence. I studied him like an insect.”
FILM DETAILS
Screenwriter
- Luis Buñuel
- Luis Alcoriza
Based On
a novel by Mercedes Pinto
Cinematographer
- Gabriel Figueroa
Language
- Spanish
- with English subtitles
Print Info
- B&W
- DCP
- 88 mins
Source
- Janus Films
Event Accessibility
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at bampfa@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 642-1412 (during open hours) with as much advance notice as possible. More information on accessibility services.