EL 4K Review: Bunuel's Cruelty in High Def

Directed by famed Spanish surrealist Luis Bunuel, El is coming to 4K and Blu-ray tomorrow here in North America, courtesy of our friends at the Criterion Collection.

El is the adaptation of Mercedes Pinto’s 1920s novel “He,” which explores the hell of a woman trapped in a bad marriage with an abusive man. Sadly, she lived this reality, like many, many women have throughout history. I hope the book was a sort of catharsis. However, Pinto was a strong woman. She divorced, which was practically unheard of, and escaped the bounds that shackled and diminished her brilliance.

Bunuel’s adaptation is astute because he identified with the abusive husband character; the director even admitted this in interviews, one of which is reprinted in the thick, deluxe booklet included in this release. Honestly? It’s absolutely horrifying. There’s even one admission that the director reveals, saying that he’d thought about killing the interviewer here. At least most of the bad men these days in the arts hide in the shadows. Mostly. Or at least, they used to. Be cool if there were real consequences for any bad behavior, artist or not.

Actress Delia Garces plays the unfortunate, long-suffering woman and wife to which a sudden rando man (played very well by Arturo de Córdova) clings to. He spots her in church, starting with her high heeled shoes, lovingly photographed by director of photography, Gabriel Figueroa. (Sidenote: his son Gabriel Figueroa Flores, also a cinematographer, supervised this 4K release from a 35mm duplicate positive.)

The entire plot revolves around this man unravelling until it’s clear that he’s quite unsafe to be near. He’s a paranoiac, as they were labeled back then when El was released in 1953. Today, the character might well be classified as a paranoid schizophrenic. Granted every right in the world as a rich man, he’s obviously escalating, and we know how dangerous these kinds of men are, these wife killers, these family annihilators. not stopped until it’s almost too late. These scenes of abuse are difficult to watch.

Sometimes they even get to rule the world, these terrible men, and we all suffer for it. Thankfully, this character is delivered to a monastery in the end, to keep from destroying all around him. But even as a kind of melodramatic morality tale from the early 1950s, there’s no real justice to be had. And so, this is a movie that doesn’t quite hit the mark for me as a storyteller and a woman.

Seeing an abuser never get real retribution for his deeds, however true to reality that is, is not satisfying.

Other critics, overwhelmingly male, conveniently hedge the film in terms of “love gone wrong,” and “male obsession.” Yikes, Batman. YIKES. No wonder the world is in such shambles. Women would like a word. We’d like the boot off our necks.

El is not a film I’m ever likely to return to, no matter how well it’s shot, no matter how well-directed the film is, no matter how great the tension, actors, and production design are. It feels like there’s a poison there, imbued by a collaborator in this cruelty, leeching off the screen.

Yes, the film was effective. Clearly. But it leaves a strong taste of duplicity in its wake.

Let’s discuss the sound and picture, then. The film looks beautiful, though there’s minor flickering in a few outdoor scenes. It sounds fine, if not slightly muddled in the way very old films can be. Good enough.

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised by photographer Gabriel Figueroa Flores, director of photography Gabriel Figueroa’s son, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New video essay on director Luis Buñuel by scholar Jordi Xifra
• Appreciation by filmmaker Guillermo del Toro
• Interview with Buñuel from 1981 by writer Jean-Claude Carrière, a longtime collaborator of the director’s
• Panel discussion from 2009, moderated by filmmaker José Luis Garci
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by critic Fernanda Solórzano and an interview with Buñuel by critics José de la Colina and Tomás Pérez Turrent
• New cover by Eric Skillman and Polly Dedman

Despite the film itself, I tremendously enjoyed Guillermo del Toro’s interview about the film, and Bunuel. Every time del Toro speaks, it’s with love for cinema, and it feels like instant film school. That interview is wonderful.

So too, is the booklet; the essay entitled “Mad Love” from Fernanda Solorzano was thoroughly enlightening, and I either enjoyed or endured the other special features.

If you’re a diehard Bunuel fan, or you love torturing yourself, El is out tomorrow. Check out Criterion’s page for the film here.