Satirical 'El Conde' Has Little Sympathy for Chile's Devil

Michael Fox
Sep 15



Jaime Vadell as El Conde in 'El Conde,' now streaming on Netflix. (Pablo Larraín / Netflix )

Satirizing history’s mass murderers and their acolytes is risky business for filmmakers. The concern isn’t courting controversy as much as missing the mark: Jokes that don’t cut, humor with no bite, a misguided fear of offending the viewer that only succeeds in trivializing the tragedy.

Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s latest excursion into the inner lives of famous 20th-century figures, El Conde (The Count), debuting Sept. 15 on Netflix following its festival premieres, puts the bite where it belongs: on the infamous dictator Augusto Pinochet, his family, the elites who prospered by backing his repression — and even the Catholic Church, which always has its own agenda.

A stylish black-and-white cross between Southern (Hemisphere) Gothic and Grand Guignol opera, the bilingual El Conde is a beautifully crafted parable about corruption and itsM dissolute beneficiaries.

Larraín and co-writer Guillermo Calderon (whose previous collaborations include the marvelous Neruda) imagine Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) as a jaded vampire living with his fur-swathed wife Lucía (Gloria Munchmeyer) and longtime servant Fyodor (Alfredo Castro) in a remote, uninhabited corner of Chile. Like a retired, post-apocalyptic Bond villain, Pinochet has his memories, a basement freezer stocked of choice hearts for blender drinks and zero passion for life.

More:
https://www.kqed.org/arts/13934811/satirical-el-conde-has-little-sympathy-for-chiles-devil





Original photo of Nixon, Kissinger, and CIA-supported
Chilean blood-thirsty monster Augusto Pinochet.