El Conde

I'm still not too sure what to make of Pablo Larrain's "El Conde", a movie that while artistically impressive, seemingly has a ton of historical context that's lost on anyone not familiar with the Chilean history it tries to critique and satirize. The obvious is that it portrays Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a centuries old vampire, and while what follows could(?) hold a lot of interpretive value to those who are of its ideal target audience, it is almost a gimmick gradually overstaying its welcome to those who aren't.

It's undoubtedly a visual masterpiece, with some of the most surreally beautiful cinematography you'll ever see, and its exploration into themes of power and corruption are amusingly perceptive. But at the end of the day, it feels like "El Conde" was intended for a particular audience who could fully appreciate the movie, and unfortunately to those of us who aren't part of it, it might come across as just another gimmick.

The B/W cinematography is one of the best elements of the movie whilst the nun character is pretty useless because everything just could have unfolded in the same way without it.

Regardless the latter, the performances are great, but I think Chilean audiences should understand in a better way the jokes, allusions to Pinochet family and his actual political history than any other. I think that's not very efficiently worked in the script.

In the other hand what the script does work smartly enough is the relationship between him and his wife Lucia showing clearly who was in charge of everything.

A weird, not fully accomplished but in a way entertaining movie.

Beautifully shot in 99.9% B&W from a very leftist perspective about the eternal legacy of power, corruption, greed and wealth using vampirism as a metaphor. Here the church in the embodiment of a condescending nun, who though in nature should be the liberator of vampire souls, is in reality secretly in pursuit of the same forces through lust. It's really quite bizzare, surreal, expressionistic, kind of incomprehensible and black as black comedy can be. The humor can suddenly jump at you and make you laugh and it has some famous political figures in it to set its political stance. Watch it if you want to experience something mesmerizing but weird from the other dimension.

Pablo Larraín in his excellent black comedy offers us here an act of commitment to the most basic desires and thoughts of the dictator, murderer, coward and thief Augusto Pinochet, at a time when the entire progressive and left-handed world is quick to consider him dead.

Larraín shows us that this Beast acted in the name of justice, which cannot be reduced to law or right and deep down he never cared at all what the rest of the people thought. It elevates greed to the highest motivation in the spirit of Pinochet. That was Pinochet's great work in Chile, in transforming us into heartless and greedy beings. Pinochet is more alive than ever. Jacques Derridá would say "the specters of Pinochet fly over Chile."

Many people in Chile not only forgive the 3,000 deaths and 200,000 tortured, in fact, they applaud him and many of them even condemn the fact that he would not have murdered more left-handed people.

But what they don't want to believe and go into denialism is all the money that this criminal stole. They would never forgive themselves for that and that is why the Neanderthal brain of the fascist majority in Chile blocks these facts and ignores them. Because a hero would never be a professional thief like Pinochet was.

Great premise; oddly executed. Chile's brutal fascistic former leader Pinochet was actually a vampire who started as a soldier in Napoleon's army. This film takes place while he's living in seclusion after faking the death all the world thinks it had witnessed. The Church sends a brilliant young nun there to try saving whatever soul may lie within him, and snatch what she can find among his massive hidden wealth for the Kingdom of God. His non-vampiric wife and five middle-aged children have their own financial aspirations, gathering in anticipation of the REAL death the old guy now wants. Pinochet can't remember where he stashed all the documentation of his global holdings, accounts and investments, so the hunt begins.

This setup could have played out as a zany farce, mocking real-life historic figures, as was done in the delightfully caustic satire, The Death of Stalin (2017). But this pursues a completely opposite comedic direction. It's shot in extremely gloomy B&W, in bleak and barren settings resembling a ghost town in a desert. The lack of color links it to the seminal vampire flicks of the 1930s -'40s, tones down the visceral impact of the gory stuff, and amplifies the craven aspects of human nature. Film students may admire the techniques for sustaining such extreme understatement.

This may unfold too slowly and subtly for many, but the satire hits multiple targets, with a wonderful bonus twist in the last 20 minutes that rewards one's patience.