La vie criminelle d'Archibald de la Cruz

Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, The (1955)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Luis Bunuel film that sounds more interesting than it turns out to be. As a young child, Archibaldo is told of a magical magic box that when turned on will kill. As an adult, Archibaldo comes across this box again and this times plans to use it to help him become a serial killer. There's a lot of black humor scattered throughout the film but very little of it made me laugh. The opening segments bashing the rich were funny but the film slowly falls apart in the middle and never regains any speed. The story is a very good one but the director does very little with it, which is a shame because this should have been a whole lot better.

In the 50's, in Mexico, Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ernesto Alonso) comes to a judge to confess crimes of his own. He tells his life since he was a spoiled boy, in the days of the Mexican revolution, when he won a music box from his mother and developed a bizarre desire of killing women, becoming a serial killer. In the end, this movie is a psychological dark comedy of the Mexican phase of Buñuel. I have just had the chance to see this film on DVD, recently released by the best Brazilian distributor (Versátil), and I found it another excellent work of Buñuel, one of my favorite directors ever. The story is very ironic and unpredictable, and I totally disagree with the User Comments `Minor Buñuel' indicated for this film. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): `Ensaio de um Crime' (`Rehearsal for a Crime')

I have often cited this as my favourite Bunuel film and one of my favourite films of all. Watching it again after a period of some years, I am surprised that it seems so light and amusing instead of dark and dangerous. I suppose this is partly because when first seen the misogyny, the gleefulness at the prospect of killing a woman, is so shocking, that we notice less the playfulness. Whereas on a subsequent viewing we are less affected, having some idea how things pan out. Is this the only Bunuel film with a seemingly happy ending? There are still, of course, many shocking moments, like the bloody/sexy death of the woman looking after him as a child, the whole business concerning the mannequins (that seems burned in my memory for ever) and the most surprising early death of the nun/nurse. Maybe it's partly that when I watched this in my youth I rightly saw it as stunningly original and displaying conduct contrary to that shown elsewhere, whereas now the old cynic in me has been exposed to much more and is smiling throughout with barely a pause for a gasp. Always going to be fun to watch though.

The delirious journey of a mental disordered man (Archibaldo de la Cruz) , who is obsessed in making the perfect crime. As boy, Archibaldo witnesses his governess' death and is fascinated by what he feels . As a man he's obsessed with murder and dying . Undoubtedly, death encircles the always obsessed Archibaldo, and the targets are ordinarily unfortunate women (Miroslava who subsequenly committed suicide , Rita Macedo, Ariadna Welter).

A bitter and attractive diatribe about a boy who seeing the death of his governess has a lasting effect on his adult life , as he grows up to be a demented cretin -well played by Ernesto Alonso- whose failure with women leads him to conspire to kill every one he meets , a task at which he also fails . Buñuel marshals all of his characteristic amoral wit in this story of a would-be murderer at every turn in his efforts to get his kicks from a unsuccessful sex murder . This is an enjoyable but minor psychological drama from Buñuel in Spanish with English subtitles , dealing with a strange and powerful obsession stemming from a pampered childhood . As usual, the Spaniard master schews the visual fussiness of style , opting for the straightforward camera set-up at all times. The use of props like the toy music box from his infancy which triggers off Archibaldo's lust and the wax dummy burned one of his attempts is thwarted , is all the more hilarious and surprising as a result .

This agreeable motion picture was produced in short budget by Roberto Figueroa and Alfonso Patiño Gómez ; being compellingly directed by Luis Buñuel who was voted the 14th Greatest Director of all time . This Buñuel's peculiar film belongs to his Mexican period ; in fact , it's plenty of known Mexican actors . Born in Calanda , Aragon (1900) , Buñuel then moved to Madrid to study at the university there, where his close friends included Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca . After moving to Paris , at the beginning Buñuel did a variety of film-related odd jobs , including working as an assistant to director Jean Epstein . With financial help from his mother and creative assistance of the surrealist Dalí, he made his first film , a 17-minute short titled "Un Chien Andalou" (1929), and immediately catapulted himself into film history thanks to its disturbing images and abstract plot . The following year , sponsored by wealthy art patrons, he made his first picture , the scabrous witty and violent "Age of Gold" (1930), which mercilessly attacked the church and the middle classes, themes that would preoccupy Buñuel for the rest of his career . That career, though, seemed almost over by the mid-1930s, as he found work increasingly hard to come by and in the pre-Spanish Civil War , he made the documentary ¨Las Hurdes¨(1933) , the Luis emigrated to the US where he worked for the Museum of Modern Art and as a film dubber for Warner Bros . He subsequently started his Mexican period and he teamed up with producer Óscar Dancigers and after a couple of unmemorable efforts shot back to international attention with the lacerating study of Mexican street urchins in ¨Los Olvidados¨ (1950), winning him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. But despite this new-found acclaim, Buñuel spent much of the next decade working on a variety of ultra-low-budget films, few of which made much impact outside Spanish-speaking countries , though many of them are well worth seeking out . As he went on filming "The Great Madcap" , ¨The brute¨, "Wuthering Heights", ¨El¨ , "The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De la Cruz" , ¨Robinson Crusoe¨ , ¨Death in the garden¨ and many others . Rating "Criminal life of Archibaldo de la Cruz" : 6.5/10 , decent movie , but much too talky , it sounds far more interesting than it plays.

Handsome and well-heeled Archibaldo has been convinced from boyhood that he possesses a music box that has the power to kill. He embarks upon a career as a serial murderer in which his intended victims are ravishing looking females but Fate continually thwarts his lethal intentions and his murders never get past the fantasy stage.

The most notorious scene in the film and one of which only this director is capable, is where Archibaldo consigns to the flames of a kiln a wax model of one of his potential victims who has slipped through his grasp. This macabre episode has acquired a tragically ironic overtone as the woman who has modelled for the dummy is played by Miroslava Stern who was cremated shortly after filming completed, having taken her own life. Bunuel was of course to employ a 'prosthetic limb' to great effect in 'Tristana'.

Working within the budgetary limitations of Mexican cinema, director Luis Bunuel has fashioned a stylish, sophisticated and technically polished piece that contains some delicious performances and bizarre Bunuelian moments that linger long in the memory.

Although condemned by circumstances to being innocent of murder Archibaldo still feels the need to 'confess' to the police. He is politely dismissed by a detective with the words:"thinking about murdering someone does not constitute a crime." This will strike a chord with most of us I am sure!