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Viva la Muerte
France/Tunisia 1970
produced by Hassen Daldoul (executive), Jean Velter (executive) for Isabelle Films, S.A.T.P.E.C.
directed by Fernando Arrabal
starring Mahdi Chaouch, Núria Espert, Anouk Ferjac, Jazia Klibi, Ivan Henryques, Mohamed Bellasoued, Víctor García, Fernando Arrabal, Jean Louis Chassigneux, Suzanne Compte
screenplay by Fernando Arrabal, Claudine Lagrive, based on a story by Fernando Arrabal, music by Jean-Yves Bosseur, animation by Roland Topor
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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The final days of the Spanish Civil War: While soldiers roam and
pillage the countryside to get their spoils of war, young Fando (Mahdi
Chaouch), a circa 10-year-old boy, tries to uncover the secret of his
father's (Ivan Henryques) disappearance - and has to eventually realize
that his father was betrayed to the authorities by his mother (Núria
Espert), who apparently had no problems to brand her husband as a Atheist
and Communist.
Fando now tries to find out what has happened to his father since he
doesn't believe his mother's claims that he has just hanged himself in
prison, but he is met with a wall of silence that only make the boy fear
the worst - until eventually he is brought down with tuberculosis which
lands him in hospital and back in his mother's care.
Ultimately Fando escapes the hospital but breaks down, and only his
little girlfriend Thérèse (Jazia Klibi) is there to help him get away
...
Now this is one synopsis that doesn't do the film which it sums up any
justice: The story I have told here makes the film sound like some weak,
overly clichéd and dumbed down based-on-a-true-story (which Viva la
Muerte incidently is) kind of film - and nothing could be further from
the truth: The movie is a surreal masterpiece, full of hallucinatory
scenes, shocking sequences made up of violence, (real) dead animals, gore,
feces and the like, allusions to incest and sado-masochism as well as
scenes of desecration and sex. The finished film might not be pretty
(depending on your point of view) but it's pretty impressive, a nightmare
come to life if there ever was one.
Recommended.
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