Film ReviewsNeruda: Language, Myth, & Resistance
Feb 22, 2017 Anchorage Press
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Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
(Excerpt from “Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines” by Pablo Neruda)
Pablo Neruda’s work is eternal. Readers who cherish his books and carry them throughout their lives, never leaving them behind or trading them in for used bookstore credit—as well those readers who have never read Neruda—are in for a treat in the film directed by Pablo Larraín, written by Guillermo Calderón, and titled Neruda.
The film is set at a time in Neruda’s life when he was Senator for the provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta as a leading Communist Party member. In 1947, Gabriel Gonzalez Videla assumed the Presidency and immediately allied himself with the United States and against the Soviet Union, thus breaking with the Communist Party. By 1948, Videla was determined to oust Neruda, as he was not just a communist and leading Senator, but he also held the heart of the Chilean people. In February of 1948, Neruda’s impeachment was approved and he was forced to flee his home and live in hiding until March of 1949. During this time, Neruda made several attempts to leave Chile. The film is a fictional account of Pablo Neruda’s last attempt and seminal journey out of Chile, through the wintery mountains and into exile, and about the invented character of Óscar Peluchonneau, the policeman who is tasked with apprehending Neruda.
Calderón pens a story rich in imagination and saturated in nostalgia for the poet as myth, and rightly so. Few artist or writers achieve the status of cultural icon and embody the mythology of the desire of an entire people, and Pablo Neruda, like Frida Kahlo, achieved this type of magnanimous status.
Latin America is comprised of 25 countries, each with a unique history. Political systems rise and fall, governments collapse, revolutions happen and economic systems fail, but at the heart of Latin America language persists in speaking truth to power, and thus Spanish morphs into infinite variations that cement true political histories with indigenous identities. For example, Mexican Spanish is woven with Nahuatl, Chilean Spanish is woven with Mapudungun, Peruvian Spanish is woven with Quechua, and so on. Language becomes a unifying force, from the southern tip of Chile and Argentina to the Rio Bravo/Grande at the Mexico/U.S. border, without walls—language simply flows and in its wake, literature, music and art reveals the common human experience across the continents.
In Neruda, the filmmakers reflect a united Latin American through the casting choices, music and literary references. Chilean actor Luis Gnecco plays Neruda; Argentine actress Mercedes Morán plays Neruda’s wife, Delia del Carril; and Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays the imaginary police officer, Óscar Peluchonneau. The soundtrack is perfectly arranged, bringing in elements of the times and enriching the story with folksongs and regional music from Tangos to Oaxacan melodies.
As the chase for Neruda intensifies, the characters transform and the trek becomes a philosophical and spiritual revolution that gives a nod to the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’ profound writing, such as his collection of stories, Ficciones, in which Borges explores questions of existence and creation. As it relates to Neruda, the questions are about who controls the narrative. The tension between Neruda and Peluchonneau is arguably the tension between the government and the people, and the people and themselves. Gael García Bernal, with his prominent and beautifully aging profile, delivers a compelling character, small in stature but attempting to fill a rectangular and sharply designed jacket that is symbolic of the façade he has created for himself, only to discover that his love for the poet is at the heart of his desire to exist.
Neruda’s life and history reflects the unity found through language, from his close friendship with Federico García Lorca, to his falling out with Octavio Paz. With the former, Neruda found kinship and solidarity against fascist regimes; with the latter, Neruda fought for inclusivity against Paz’s inclination towards elitism in publishing. Both Paz and Neruda received the Nobel Prize in Literature, but while Paz is widely respected, Neruda is adored. The filmmakers built on the love that Neruda had for humanity. Naruda died just as the democratic government of Salvador Allende was overthrown and replaced with the vile dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Pablo Neruda left the Chilean people words, rhythmic as a heart beats, and divine in spirit to help them through violent and dehumanizing times. Crowds accompanied Neruda’s remains to the General Cemetery, there they paid homage to Neruda and Allende in defiance of Pinochet, thus making Neruda’s funeral Chile’s first act of resistance against the dictator.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Showtimes:
- Art House-
Monday, 2/27
7:45 pm
Run time: 1:47 h
Movie Rating: R. for sexuality/nudity and some language
Write, for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
(Excerpt from “Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines” by Pablo Neruda)
Pablo Neruda’s work is eternal. Readers who cherish his books and carry them throughout their lives, never leaving them behind or trading them in for used bookstore credit—as well those readers who have never read Neruda—are in for a treat in the film directed by Pablo Larraín, written by Guillermo Calderón, and titled Neruda.
The film is set at a time in Neruda’s life when he was Senator for the provinces of Tarapacá and Antofagasta as a leading Communist Party member. In 1947, Gabriel Gonzalez Videla assumed the Presidency and immediately allied himself with the United States and against the Soviet Union, thus breaking with the Communist Party. By 1948, Videla was determined to oust Neruda, as he was not just a communist and leading Senator, but he also held the heart of the Chilean people. In February of 1948, Neruda’s impeachment was approved and he was forced to flee his home and live in hiding until March of 1949. During this time, Neruda made several attempts to leave Chile. The film is a fictional account of Pablo Neruda’s last attempt and seminal journey out of Chile, through the wintery mountains and into exile, and about the invented character of Óscar Peluchonneau, the policeman who is tasked with apprehending Neruda.
Calderón pens a story rich in imagination and saturated in nostalgia for the poet as myth, and rightly so. Few artist or writers achieve the status of cultural icon and embody the mythology of the desire of an entire people, and Pablo Neruda, like Frida Kahlo, achieved this type of magnanimous status.
Latin America is comprised of 25 countries, each with a unique history. Political systems rise and fall, governments collapse, revolutions happen and economic systems fail, but at the heart of Latin America language persists in speaking truth to power, and thus Spanish morphs into infinite variations that cement true political histories with indigenous identities. For example, Mexican Spanish is woven with Nahuatl, Chilean Spanish is woven with Mapudungun, Peruvian Spanish is woven with Quechua, and so on. Language becomes a unifying force, from the southern tip of Chile and Argentina to the Rio Bravo/Grande at the Mexico/U.S. border, without walls—language simply flows and in its wake, literature, music and art reveals the common human experience across the continents.
In Neruda, the filmmakers reflect a united Latin American through the casting choices, music and literary references. Chilean actor Luis Gnecco plays Neruda; Argentine actress Mercedes Morán plays Neruda’s wife, Delia del Carril; and Mexican actor Gael García Bernal plays the imaginary police officer, Óscar Peluchonneau. The soundtrack is perfectly arranged, bringing in elements of the times and enriching the story with folksongs and regional music from Tangos to Oaxacan melodies.
As the chase for Neruda intensifies, the characters transform and the trek becomes a philosophical and spiritual revolution that gives a nod to the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges’ profound writing, such as his collection of stories, Ficciones, in which Borges explores questions of existence and creation. As it relates to Neruda, the questions are about who controls the narrative. The tension between Neruda and Peluchonneau is arguably the tension between the government and the people, and the people and themselves. Gael García Bernal, with his prominent and beautifully aging profile, delivers a compelling character, small in stature but attempting to fill a rectangular and sharply designed jacket that is symbolic of the façade he has created for himself, only to discover that his love for the poet is at the heart of his desire to exist.
Neruda’s life and history reflects the unity found through language, from his close friendship with Federico García Lorca, to his falling out with Octavio Paz. With the former, Neruda found kinship and solidarity against fascist regimes; with the latter, Neruda fought for inclusivity against Paz’s inclination towards elitism in publishing. Both Paz and Neruda received the Nobel Prize in Literature, but while Paz is widely respected, Neruda is adored. The filmmakers built on the love that Neruda had for humanity. Naruda died just as the democratic government of Salvador Allende was overthrown and replaced with the vile dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Pablo Neruda left the Chilean people words, rhythmic as a heart beats, and divine in spirit to help them through violent and dehumanizing times. Crowds accompanied Neruda’s remains to the General Cemetery, there they paid homage to Neruda and Allende in defiance of Pinochet, thus making Neruda’s funeral Chile’s first act of resistance against the dictator.
In Spanish with English subtitles
Showtimes:
- Art House-
Monday, 2/27
7:45 pm
Run time: 1:47 h
Movie Rating: R. for sexuality/nudity and some language