Noemi Riccitelli – 50 years. 50 years since September 11, 1973, when the infamous coup led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratic government of the president Salvador Allende in Chile, which led to the establishment of a brutal military dictatorship that lasted 17 years.
This year, to mark this sad but much needed anniversary, a new film is being released. Chilean director Pablo Larrain, El Condeintroduced during the 80th edition Venice Film Festivalas a result of which he also received Osella Award for Best Screenplayawarded to Larraín himself and others Guillermo Calderonboth are the film’s creators.
The film is only available on Netflix and in select theaters September 15.
This is not the first time Pablo Larraín’s work and inspiration has addressed the sensitive and painful history of his country of origin: in fact, three of his previous films have: Tony Manero (2008), Post-mortem examination (2010)e No – Rainbow days (2012) constitute a kind of unintentional trilogy that, through unique and original stories imbued with an intimate and powerful sense of judgment, follows the rise of Pinochet, from the coup d’état to the plebiscite that was then rejected in 1988.
However, the profile of a dictator has never been fully presented on the big screen and with El Conde Chilean director crosses this borderhowever, without choosing the realism that characterized his previous stories (remember the very recent Jackiewith Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy and Spencerreintroduced two years ago at the Venice Film Festival, where Kristen Stewart played Lady Diana), this time favoring one satirical deformation which, perhaps even better, can act as a magnifying glass.
Patagonia today. While for everyone the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Wadell) died in 2006, in fact he continues to live in an abandoned house with his wife Lucia (Gloria Munchmeier) and his faithful servant Fedor (Alfredo Castro), once also his brutal right-hand man during a ferocious dictatorship. 
Pinochet is essentially a 250-year-old vampire who continued to live by feeding on human blood, but now appears to have decided to die, tired and frustrated by the negative public opinion of him.
Black and white. Larren’s vision of one of the most controversial figures in history is entrusted to these two non-colors, a dark alliance: after all, his main character has the features of one of the creatures belonging, in fact, to the world of shadows, to darkness.
Pinochet is a vampire who has always fed on the blood of others in order to live, and his fascination seems to be eternal.
Metaphor tranche that the stylistic choice of monochrome photography (author Edward Lachman) helps to emphasize.
However, there is something to compensate for the lack of color. the insatiable spirit that permeates the script: Larrain and Calderon make sure that every dialogue and joke shows and expresses the atrocities, perversions and corruption of the main characters, delivering verbal blows that do not spare anyone involved in the historical structure of the dictatorship, between the present and the past, in the public sphere and in private.
A whirlwind of dry and direct words with accents of black humor, coming to life in brilliant and grotesque interpretations of the main characters, profiled with surgical infinity: Jamie Wadell and Alfredo Castro (Larraín’s last friend and in his other films), primarily in the roles of Pinochet and his right-hand man Fyodor respectively, stand out as two icy figures, untouched by time and never regretting their actions.
Next to them, the rest of the cast is somewhat okay, with a special mention to the female co-star: Gloria Munchmeier, Paula Luchsinger AND Stella Gone they are wonderful.
El Conde of course he offers interesting and original proposalwhich is worth the acclaim the film has received: Larren presents Pinochet as one might perhaps imagine a usurper (along with his accomplices), presenting him with a vivid and somewhat tongue-in-cheek caricature, but which also highlights the brutal aspect of the figure in question along with his legacy in modern political and social context. 
What is perhaps missing is the emotional involvement that such storytelling should bring with it.: last year it was presented in Venice Argentina, 1985 Santiago Mitera (review here), a film that also recalls the tragic past of another South American country broken by dictatorship, Videla.
Although this image belonged to a different genre, it was humane, full of feelings and historical accents; El Conde it has its own dimension, it, of course, distances itself from the classical and “good-natured” historical narrative, but it does not cement its identity with a completely strong statement and, although it causes indignation, it is only partially striking, as if the caricature, the “puppet” effect really alienated the main character, alienating him from reality and as the film progresses, one almost gets the impression that one is watching only the theater of a terrible fantasy, and not, as was the case, the painful and tragic truth.
