Review: El Conde

Directed by: Pablo Larraín

Written by: Pablo Larraín & Guillermo Calderón

Starring: Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro, Paula Luchsinger

Rating: [4/5]

The truly evil and vile figures of our world history can evoke feelings by merely saying their names. Seemingly every nation has one whether they operated as dictators or caused a level of harm that still gets felt after many generations. Trying to contextualize this level of evil within a single human feels daunting, leaving a fictionalization to help drive home the point. Pablo Larraín attempts to do just that with the vicious Augusto Pinochet in El Conde, where he decides to represent the horrific former dictator as a vampire. 

Alive for over 250 years of existence, Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) lives on a remote farm as a vampire with his wife and butler. Receiving a visit from his children, they seek to ensure they receive their inheritance while Carmen (Paula Luchsinger) arrives at the property as an undercover nun trying to find proof of the dealings of this family and the riches they have amassed. 

One does not have to do much digging to learn of Pinochet’s atrocities during his rule of Chile. To imagine that level of evil one could have takes aplenty and Pablo Larraín decides to equate it to one of the most evil creatures in all literature, a vampire. A creature that lurks in the dark and lives by sucking the literal life force out of human beings. Quite the apt way to describe what dictators do but the approach taken in this film operates as a satire of this entire circumstance where we have Pinochet continually going out and feeding but then we have his ridiculous children. 

Aware of their father’s dealings but only focused on ensuring the funds they tire of continually having to wait for the immortal father to finally die to receive. Almost cartoonish in their approach throughout the film, they act like a bunch of spoiled children throughout and then it cuts to their father who has lived for such a long time and has seemingly lost the will to live. Apparently living for nearly three centuries will finally have someone or at this point something get bored with what the mortal world has to offer. Whatever awaits for him on the other side, which is certainly not heaven, it feels like he just wants to get to and get whatever current existence he has to cease. This underlying comedy brings a different approach to this story that allows for quite the way to take in a tale of pure evil. 

As we have all of this duplicitousness happening with the other characters surrounding Pinochet, the use of narration truly took me aback and done so with an intentionality that well and truly drives home the point of evil. This particular surprise should not be spoiled for anyone taking in this story for the first time, but pay attention to the gender and accent of this narrator, who will eventually directly play a role in the narrative. A fantastic touch by Pablo Larraín, who has an insane output as of late and seemingly does not come close to missing. His run from 2016 on just continues to blow me away with the ways he can capture the essence of these protagonists he chooses both fictional and real to get at something much deeper. 

Further enhancing this viewing experience is the cinematography by Edward Lachman, who utilizes black-and-white cinematography to a great degree. Not only does this decision add a particular timelessness to the narrative occurring here considering it centers on a vampire but it presents several striking moments. Particular scenes like when Pinochet takes flight to go off and feed looks spectacular, that further compounds the aura being built about this pure evil. Everything happening in the house gets captured in such a cold demeanor matching not only the cold blood a vampire would have but also the general coldness of the family members who only visit the estate in order to ensure they receive their inheritance. This coldness matches up well with the comedy of this whole circumstance, allowing this film to serve as a visual treat in addition to the biting screenplay on hand in crafting these characters. 

Another exquisite production by the ever-impressive Pablo Larraín. With El Conde he utilizes these horrific figures of our past to tell a timeless tale of how evil continues to persist even after the individual who originally crafted it is thought to no longer breathe. Larraín along with his screenwriter Guillermo Calderón craft a hilariously bleak tale that goes in places I did not entirely suspect it would and allows these actors, particularly, Jaime Vadell as Pinochet, to thrive in what they needed to deliver within this tale. It comes with many surprises and moments that truly took me aback, showing how much this film had up its sleeve and ultimately what it all means to us in our current understanding of the monsters we know.