Él (1953)

This film is also showing at our sister cinema, Ritz Cinemas

Australian Premiere - 4K Restoration

‘After years of neglect, Buñuel’s corpus before Viridiana is finally getting recognised as the subversive achievement it is, and this raving melodrama is a key work – an ostensibly orthodox “woman’s film” trapped in the full nelson of Uncle Luis’s ardour for psychosexual irrationality.’ – Michael Atkinson, Sight and Sound

Distinguished middle-aged bachelor Francisco (Arturo de Córdova) successfully courts the younger Gloria (Delia Garcés) despite her previous engagement. Once they are married, Francisco’s paranoia, pathological jealousy and manipulation condemn Gloria to a nightmarish reality from which even her most trusted confidantes won’t allow her to escape.

Drawing from his own personal demons, Luis Buñuel brings us inside the unstable mind of his hypocritical, sexually repressed bourgeois protagonist in this adaptation of Mercedes Pinto’s autobiographical novel, expressionistically shot by Gabriel Figueroa and made during the director’s underappreciated Mexican period. Although largely dismissed during its initial release, Él was reportedly highly esteemed by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and is now regarded as a major achievement.

Introduced by Stefan Solomon at Ritz Cinemas and Nadine Whitney at Lido Cinemas.

Rating

Unclassified 18+

Duration

92 min

Country

Mexico

Language

Spanish (English subtitles)

Cast

Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, Aurora Walker, Carlos Martínez Baena, Manuel Dondé, Luis Beristáin

Director

Luis Buñuel