Profundo carmesí

The best Mexican cinema has its roots firmly planted in popular genres… "Deep Crimson" is a crime film, based on the real exploits of the so-called Lonely Hearts Club killers in the post-war United States…

Nicolás and Colar are a grotesque version of Bonnie and Clyde, who rob not banks but vulnerable rich women…Nicolás is a middle-aged man of abundant charm with an unconvincing wig, who appeals to the snobbery of elderly widows by his ability to pose as a Spaniard, affecting the accent and mannerisms of the expatriate… Coral is an overweight single mother who drives her children and takes off with Nicolás, pushing him from robbery to murder…

Though money is the apparent motive, Coral is addicted to romance, as we see in the first shot of her bedroom, stuffed with cheap but gaudy clothes, Mills & Boon-type novels, and photographs of film stars… The killings the pairs commit are dictated by Coral's passion for Nicolás… He seduces women in order to steal them, and this incurs Coral's murderous jealousy…

Arturo Ripstein's film is essentially a study of thwarted passion turning repugnant… Coral is vicious, even to the extent of killing a young girl who has witnessed her mother's murder… Yet her gesture of offering her own hair to make Nicolás a new wig is at once tender and ridiculous

"Deep Crimson", a subtitled Mexican film, tells of a man who uses his hair-piece, good looks, and charm to bilk mature women out of their money. When he woos a very large and homely woman longing to be loved, she divests herself of her children, insinuates herself into his life, and goes off scamming with him while pretending be his sister. The backbone of the story is the strange symbiosis which develops between the partner/lover duo as we watch their relationship grow deeper and their scheming more nefarious. A moderately entertaining though schizophrenic film, "Deep Crimson" is too much of a comedy to be taken seriously and too much of a drama to be funny. The result is a marginally engaging film which will play best to those with a taste for black comedies from south of the border. (B)

Mexican director Arturo Ripstein delivers one good drama after the other, and in so doing shows us ever changing aspects of this surprisingly rich country, so unfairly characterized around the world by cliched stereotypes. Though this crime drama doesn't help Mexico's image as a crime-ridden country throughout its history, it does tell a compelling story, free of cliches, of obsessed love driven to serial killings in an unusual road movie. This description, though long, sums up PROFUNDO CARMESI. Ripstein's direction is enhanced by the dramatic presence of Spain's Marisa Paredes in a crucial role. A must for those interested in contemporary Latin American cinema.

Coral Fabre is a troubled chubby middle-aged nurse and a single mom to two kids. She has a fling with charming Nicolás Estrella. She continues pursuing him despite him stealing money from her. She abandons her kids to follow him in a crime spree across the country. She pretends to be his sister while he dates older lonely women. Their crimes escalate leaving a trail of broken hearts.

This is a Mexican film similar to the American film The Honeymoon Killers which dramatizes the story of "Lonely Hearts Killers", the true crime partners Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck. The style is stripped down and minimal. These two are solid actors delivering compelling performances. Oddly for me, the most emotional scene is when she abandons her kids. These are troubled souls. She is possibly the more troubling of the two.

The plot has been commented by other viewers, so let's move on. I saw this movie when it came out in theaters and loved it, especially the development of the plot (based on the same true events portrayed in Leonard Kastle's cult classic "The Honeymoon Killers") and the way Ripstein expertly evolves from black humor to suspense to bloody tragedy. I also loved the bolero-like title (say it in Spanish -Profundo Carmesí- beauuutiful), the choice of colors (thick greens, reds, blacks and browns), the set decoration, the actors, the all-imposing Catholic symbols and Catholic guilt which are so present in Latin American cultures...

So I thought it was a film about SICK love and misleading appearances, how harmless-looking people can hide sick violent personalities that may ignite under certain circumstances, never to return to what they were before.

A few years later, I happened to see an interview with Ripstein about this film, which urged me to see it again. He said it was a film about the dangers of romantic passion, tout court -- in the sense that passionate love is just one step away from isolation from society's values and conventions - and I thought "yes, this makes sense!". "Profundo..." is (also) about the pathological potential of any passionate love: the anti-social, selfish, self-consuming and potentially destructive behavior a love affair can trigger, to the risk of excluding friends, family and professional life from the lovers' agenda, and when nothing really matters except each other, their plans and their being together against all odds or reasons. Coral's behavior, dumping her children, lying, stealing, killing, marching on regardless of everyone else's feelings or actual physical integrity is a depiction of a sick personality...or is just a step or two further than the average person "madly" in love??

"Profundo Carmesí" is great, but do I have to mention not to expect anything uplifting? My vote: a good 8 out of 10, just don't see it if you've been recently dumped by your lover/husband/wife; it might give you bad ideas!!