(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Famous Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain, internationally known for What (2016), has now returned to his favorite themed Chilean politics, and entertained in a feature film based on real events: Socialist President González Vidal turns against his former allies and bans the Communist Party PCCh in 1948 under pressure from the United States. The backdrop is as colorful as the movie: President Vidal also wants to ally with the wealthy landowners and the right-wing side as well as remove any pretext for military coup. In doing so, he breaks promises of social reform and cuts down on the labor movement.
The paradox of Neruda. In the midst of this buzzing and hot time color, we find the poet Pablo Neruda, senator of the Communist Party. He tips the pen and agitates for illegal strikes, and he uses international media to insult the president. At the same time, he willingly proclaims from his well-known love poems to cheering audience. This makes it boil around the poet – who loves the attention.
The film is as much about Neruda's self-staging and personal paradoxes as the authority's witch-hunt for the poet. Neruda floats at the start of the film on his recognition and elite status: He escapes the press's flash rain and enters a distinguished hall that serves as both a urinal and a politician's salon. The director plays with facts and fiction – and the "urinal salon" becomes a double metaphor in which the Neruda character eases the pressure while at the same time, in dialogue with the president and senate, "pisses off" their policies. There is a consistently cheeky tone to the film.
The closeness Neruda is portrayed in this film makes me interested in the man despite his obvious weaknesses.
The hunt for Neruda is also a picture of something more – the need to dictate oneself big, see oneself in a larger, more flattering context. The repetition is repeated: The storyteller and antagonist, the police inspector Peluchonneau, measures his intrinsic value precisely against being remembered as the one who arrested the national poet. He and Neruda are not only complete and persecuting; they also share dreams. And both dreams are ambitious.
The focus on the creation of self-myth is central and topical – but also Neruda's Achilles heel. The more the authorities chase him, the more he chases his own political weight. Many believe this pursuit of a political ego spoiled Neruda's art. His arrogance stands for fall, and he is about to steer himself toward the artistic abyss as his aristocratic wife Delia tries to pull him back to poetry. As a child who does not want to give up a toy, Neruda refuses to give up the cat-and-mouse game with the authorities. He wants to conquer the place as oppositional colossus. Neruda loves the role of chasing, and the ink splashes inspired. His fingers hammer over the keyboard, he dictates and declaims. He escapes with the ever-growing script General Song under the arm.
Knocking heart. Neruda departs from his guarded, claustrophobic hiding place and seeks a brothel. The Chilean police are notched and stormed in shortly afterwards. A prostitute transvestite fights for Neruda's attention with another sex seller. To the police inspector, the transvestite says that Neruda treated her as an equal – that he cared, that he was reciting love poems close to her ear. That he listened to her makes sense to her and her life. The meeting is meaningful for both. Neruda is willing to risk arrest for meeting its audience. He became an important voice for those who could not speak on their own behalf, and the film shows that this was not undertaken. On the run, Neruda even takes the time to embrace a female beggar since he lacks the money to give her.
Neruda fights between the privileges of the cultural elite and being the man of the masses – it is portrayed intuitively and gives the narrative resilient dynamics.
This close, warm portrait of Neruda contrasts with the low-voiced beautiful, but somewhat distant, film about Neruda in The postman from 1993. The proximity Neruda is portrayed in Larrain's film makes me interested in the man despite his obvious weaknesses: the infidelity, the madman madness and the failing political gaze only makes him more human and real.
The film hurts with the government's attempt to put Neruda in disarray. An ex-wife is arrested and broadcast live on a radio show what a wonderful man and lover he is. Or was it the police inspector who chased him like his lovers' boast? Reality slides into delicious poetry. The government promises a great reward to the one who catches the poet – yet the poor population is on Neruda's side. He is covered but does not want to hide too well.
Class distinction in pursuit. International celebrity Neruda is flirting with its persecutors while poor workers are brutally beaten and arrested by the same authorities. In addition, Communist Neruda sits at the privileged restaurant table and enjoys. The sealed female waiter asks a timely question: After the revolution, when everyone is equal, will they be the same as her or him? After a long thought, Neruda replies that they will all be like him.
The focus on the creation of self-myth is central and relevant in the film.
The loyalty of this full woman, who has just passionately kissed Neruda, is called into question. She giggles at the table's concern – had President Vidal wanted to imprison his internationally known opponent, it would have happened long ago. The whole thing is a game for the gallery, and world renown is the poet's reward. As a provocation, Neruda constantly smuggles manuscripts and letters. One of them goes to Picasso, who was central to the establishment of the international myth of Neruda.
Superstar. Although I read Neruda early on, I haven't thought of him as one of his superstars of his time until now. He was born in simple condition in 1903, and wrote under a pseudonym to evade his father's anger. Equally, the change of name is an early sign of his choice to transform himself; the versatile poet and politically significant Neruda became known for his poems as a decade. In 1945 he read for a crowded stadium with 100 audience in Brazil. Just as the award of the Stalin Prize and the Nobel Prize to Neruda led to a larger audience for the poet, this film makes me want to read more of his work.
