Sinopsis(1)
As the Spanish Civil War draws to a close, Fando, a young boy, is tormented by violently conflicting feelings towards his mother, who he suspects may have had a role in his father’s capture by fascists; feelings that manifest themselves as a nightmare onslaught of terrifying and bizarre imagery. Based on Fernando Arrabal’s own brutal experiences during the Civil War, Viva la muerte is a shockingly provocative work of surrealist cinema from the artist and filmmaker, who co-founded the ‘Panic Movement’ collective alongside Alejandro Jodorowsky. Acclaimed on release by critics and scorned by censors, Viva la muerte would later achieve notoriety as a midnight movie, and was a favourite film of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. (Radiance Films)
(más)Reseñas (1)
When the opening credits already resemble a painting by Hieronymus Bosch, one must prepare for both fantasy and brutality, in a single blend. A personal, symbolic, and surreal statement about one's own childhood thus blends with naturalism attacking our most intimate senses (not any ephemeral aesthetic abilities), with realism in the description of fascist atrocities. The story of a boy as the story of Spain torn between admiration for the father and love for the mother, where guilt and desire, life and death constantly fight each other - and again (without one side truly winning) come together in a single blend. Therefore, all of Arrabal's film images are predetermined by both desire and death, and the poignancy and dread of this necessity emerge in the person of the mother, whom our protagonist is forced to love despite her guilt – indeed, Spain faced difficult dilemmas in that terrible civil war.
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