El

Saw El, a film by the great surrealist Luis Bunuel. In the last review I asked for hysterics and symbolism and with this film the film gods have smiled upon me. Yes, this is an intense psycho-drama about a man and a wife. The man is rich and important, fighting an eternal war with the government to reclaim his ancestral home. His wife is an angel of a woman, but the man has deep insecurities and a jealous mind. He imagines her pleasantries and politeness to be wanton flirting. He imagines her slightest protest to be a cruel condemnation of his personality. This being a Bunuel, this starts off as pretty squabbles and mounts into extreme, unbelievable hysterics. Great stuff!

The film illustrates two of Bunuel's great interests: the hypocrisy of the so-called respectable class, and the use of sexual deviation which exposes it. In this case the sexual deviation is a deep-rooted insecurity. In a bit of hilarious symbolism, the husband's tie gets subtly shorter and shorter throughout the film! Throughout the film, the husband makes unreasonable demands of the wife. She must be charming, but not too charming, she must be beautiful, but only for him. Similarly, we get no indication that the land he's fighting for actually belongs to him. He may just feel entitled to it, as he feels entitled to controlling his wife's every movement.

In addition to being the vehicle for some some fine hysterics, this film is all too depressingly realistic. The wife turns many times to her upper-crust friends, but they are all too willing to believe that she's a flirt than to believe that one of their own has emotional problems. It's maddening at times to watch, but I believe the situation. Sad to imagine that this surrealist psychodrama may be some women's lives. Great film anyway though!