Neruda (2016) User Reviews (34)

Subtly Sophisticated

[necid-70967 · 8/10 · 24 October 2016]

This is a fictional plot around the very real character of Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet who, during the 1940's, had also been a senator in the Chilean congress on behalf of the communist party. The film is set in 1948, when the authorities crack down on communists - a time that may be viewed as a chilling precursor to 1970's Pinochet - and the basic plot is about Neruda's escapes from the police, endeavors that force him all over Chile. Luis Gnecco as Neruda is fantastic and so is Mercedes Morán as Delia, Neruda's aristocratic wife. At one level, the film offer a troubling inquiry into the personality of this esteemed poet-intellectual-communist. He is an admired spokesperson for the workers and the downtrodden but he is also a hedonistic drunk and a spoiled womanizer; rough and gentle, strong and weak, Neruda's character and image keeps shifting, and it is to the credit of this film that it never for a moment tries to offer a solution to these complexities. In one memorable episode, a waitress asks Neruda, as he sits at a club-restaurant surrounded by his intellectual-hedonistic friends, suffused with alcohol, whether equality means that everyone will live like he does or whether it means that he, Neruda, will settle for less. I shall not disclose his response.

The camera-work covers a wide range of scenes, from film-noire urban settings to stunning snow covered terrains, all very precisely accompanied by period costumes, designs, motorcycles and horses. However the film aspires, and succeeds, to be by far more than a good period piece. Rather, it is a film about obsession. The psychological roots of this obsession are only hinted to, and this is a good thing too. And the obsessed is Gael García Bernal, playing the detective who relentlessly pursues Neruda. His performance is nothing short of stunning. As the film progresses, and it never rests for a moment, we gradually lose, alongside the characters in the film, any firm grip on reality. Just like in captivating poetic gestures, it becomes less and less clear what is real and what is fiction, what is an event and what is a fantasmatic representation of it, who is a character that actually acts and who is an imaginary ghost. And this is the film's most important achievement.

Chile/Spain/Argentina co-production about a wild manhunt in which a police inspector pursues Pablo Neruda

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 29 January 2019]

A nonstop and riotous pursuit in which an implacable inspector called Óscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal) hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) , who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s . Finding himself threatened with arrest for joining the Party Communist , Neruda went into hiding and he and his 2ª wife (Mercedes Morán) were smuggled from house to house hidden by supporters and admirers for thirteen months . Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When President Gabriel González Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest . Friends hid him for months in the basement of a house in the port city of Valparaíso ; Neruda escaped through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina.

This interesting film holds itself on three premises really described : A renowned poet , an unknown inspector and a legendary manhunt . Engaging picture inspired on facts , about a relentless human chase through roads , mountains , rivers and a cold environment . The movie concerning about two main roles , a burly , fatty and intelligent poet : Neruda , very good played by Luis Gnecco , and a tough , merciless pursuer Inspector , magnificently played by Gael Garcia Bernal . Support cast is pretty good , such as : Mercedes Morán as his second wife Delia del Carril ,Pablo Derqui as Víctor Pey and Emilio Gutiérrez Caba as Pablo Picasso . The motion picture was well directed by Pablo Larrian . It won several Awards: Nominated for 1 Golden Globe and another 11 wins & 30 nominations.

Adding some remarks about his tumultuous life : Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 - 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name Pablo Neruda) , was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924). Bolstered by his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, Neruda, like many left-leaning intellectuals of his generation, came to admire the Soviet Union of Joseph Stalin, partly for the role it played in defeating Nazi Germany and partly because of an idealist interpretation of Marxist doctrine. This is echoed in poems such as "Canto a Stalingrado" (1942) and "Nuevo canto de amor a Stalingrado" (1943). In 1953, Neruda was awarded the Stalin Peace Prize. Upon Stalin's death that same year, Neruda wrote an ode to him, as he also wrote poems in praise of Fulgencio Batista, "Saludo a Batista" ("Salute to Batista"), and later to Fidel Castro. Neruda escaped from Gonzalez Videla dictatorship , once out of Chile, he spent the next three years in exile.Neruda moved to Valdivia, in southern Chile. From Valdivia he moved to Fundo Huishue, a forestry estate in the vicinity of Huishue Lake. Neruda's life underground ended in March 1949 when he fled over the Lilpela Pass in the Andes Mountains to Argentina on horseback. He would dramatically recount his escape from Chile in his Nobel Prize lecture. In Buenos Aires, Neruda took advantage of the slight resemblance between him and his friend, the future Nobel Prize-winning novelist and cultural attaché to the Guatemalan embassy Miguel Ángel Asturias, to travel to Europe using Asturias' passport.Pablo Picasso arranged his entrance into Paris and Neruda made a surprise appearance there to a stunned World Congress of Peace Forces, while the Chilean government denied that the poet could have escaped the country His fervent Stalinism eventually drove a wedge between Neruda and his long-time friend Octavio Paz, who commented that "Neruda became more and more Stalinist, while I became less and less enchanted with Stalin. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.Neruda was a close advisor to Chile's socialist President Salvador Allende. When Neruda returned to Chile after his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Allende invited him to read at the Estadio Nacional before 70,000 people. Neruda was hospitalised with cancer at the time of the coup d'état led by Augusto Pinochet that overthrew Allende's government, but returned home after a few days when he suspected a doctor of injecting him with an unknown substance for the purpose of murdering him on Pinochet's orders. Neruda died in his house in Isla Negra on 23 September 1973, just hours after leaving the hospital. Neruda is often considered the national poet of Chile, and his works have been popular and influential worldwide. The Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language", and Harold Bloom included Neruda as one of the 26 writers central to the Western tradition in his book The Western Canon.

It's so good, it will send you right to his poetry.

[JohnDeSando · 20 December 2016]

"If nothing saves us from death, at least love should save us from life." Neruda

The Chilean Noble laureate Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco)is depicted in Pablo Larrain's Neruda, a fiction showing the poet-politician as heroic, profane, poetic, and fat. He's a stew that can seduce women and provoke presidents, a genius communist in the late 1940's who became a fugitive for joining the party.

The film is alternately serious about this leftist politician and writer pursued by fictional police detective Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael Garcia Bernal) and playful as he cavorts with strumpets to remind us of his vigorous friend, Picasso (Emilio Guttierrez Caba). Neruda is less the poet and more the champagne Communist.

Larrain's filming is poetic, too, full of lush, shadowy shots that reinforce the complex lyrical details of a poet on the run. Yet, this is not a biopic; rather it is an imaginative rendering in the poet's own spirit as it comes through in his poetry and Stalinist affections. A scene with a drag queen discussing how Neruda incites passion is all you need to know about the difference between Neruda's magical words and the lower order of his daily life.

Although Oscar's pursuit of Neruda smacks of Javert's obsession in Les Miserables, Bernal plays him as a serious policeman with a thirst for connection to Neruda. In large part, everyone who meets Neruda, even his fellow legislators when he is a senator, seems to be hypnotized by his words and his bravery.

Most of all the film does an exemplary job of depicting Neruda as a demigod whose very presence demands devotion and a shared passion for life and happiness only through the patient devotion to one's country and one's loves:

"Love is not about property, diamonds and gifts. It is about sharing your very self with the world around you." Neruda

Neruda: very poetic but lacking in substance

[ottelien-muller · 6/10 · 21 October 2016]

Neruda is an ambitious and out-of-the-box kind of film that in a poetic way tries to combine fiction with nonfiction, saluting the work and wit of Neruda and other artists of his time. However, in my opinion the film does not quite move the way it is supposed to. Cinematographically, it is very well done, with a lot of care for the use of light and surrounding elements. The underscore engulfs the scenes with a sense of drama and vibrant energy, but this is also where it goes wrong: the scenes themselves, do not bring the kind of energy and drama to the screen one might expect from this kind of tale. The minimalism and introvert approach to the acting in Neruda is perhaps somewhat too subtle, reversing the characters to almost two-dimensional beings that lack the personality or warmth that is needed to draw the viewer in. The script and the way some dialogues are cut and played out in different rooms confirm that ultimately Neruda's attempt to escape is a long poem on its own. Only, unfortunately, it is a bit too long and too cold to truly sink in.

Am I the lead character?

[ferguson-6 · 7/10 · 19 January 2017]

Greetings again from the darkness. There is little offered by the history of the country of Chile that would lead you to believe that some laughs, giggles and chuckles are in store if you watch director Pablo Larrain's film about Pablo Neruda. But that's exactly what happens as we watch a police inspector hunt down the Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet and Senator. While you would probably not describe it as an outright comedy, it's a serio-comedy that will educate (a little) and entertain (a lot).

The opening scene takes place in the men's room as a most serious Senate debate has flowed into an inappropriate locale. Apparently there is no relief during this time of relieving. It's here that Neruda's spoken words are as important as those he writes, and those spoken words lead directly to his need to go on the run. The poet/senator and his artist wife Delia del Carril become fugitives in their own country, and most of the film has them negotiating the Chilean underground. Set in 1948, three years after the end of WWII, a fascinating game of cat and mouse between hunter and hunted evolves. Director Larrain and writer Guillermo Calderon employ a generously creative license, and play quite fast and loose with facts resulting in a delightfully complex quasi-detective story.

Luis Gnecco plays Pablo Neruda, and actually looks very much like the Chilean icon who was influential, but also a bit prickly and burdened with his own sense of entitlement. Gael Garcia Bernal plays Inspector Peluchonneau, who is charged by the President to hunt down and capture the now enemy of the state. It's a wild chase that involves up to 300 policemen in support of the Inspector who romanticizes the chase. The filmmakers have more fun with traditional story structure as the Inspector's internal dialogue questions whether he is the lead character … an idea that would never be considered by the man he is chasing.

The film has a retro look and feel, and borders on farcical at times – the shots inside a moving car appear right out of the old 1940's detective movies. But the harsh realities of the times are never far removed. It could be a Picasso speech or a concentration camp director named Pinochet (soon to play a more important role in Chile). Neither the Inspector nor the fugitive make for a trustworthy narrator, but their different perspectives constantly provide us with more bits to consider.

Luis Gnecco, Gael Garcia Bernal and Mercedes Moran (as Delia del Carril) are all excellent in their roles, and the use of music is spot on … especially the score from Federico Justid (whose work I noted in Magallanes and The Secret in Their Eyes). Director Larrain also released the high profile Jackie (with Natalie Portman) over the holidays, and deserves to be discussed as one of the more creative filmmakers working today. It's pretty tough to name another contemporary film that blends an oddball inspector, a tough woman losing touch, and a narcissistic fugitive – all with bases in reality, while never settling for something as mundane as the truth.

A Crafty Piece of Political Filmmaking

[bkrauser-81-311064 · 8/10 · 21 August 2017]

"You are a work of fiction." The words of femme fatale Delia del Carril (Moran) hits us with head-cocking absurdity. The noble wife says what she says matter of factly; as if observing the glorious excesses of a dime novel or glancing at a Grecian urn. Her criticism is pointed at Oscar Peluchonneau (Bernal), a Prefect tasked with bringing the Chilean Communist poet Pablo Neruda (Gnecco) to justice. The crime in his eyes - treason. The crime in the eyes of the average Chilean - doing to his readers what the spring does to cherry blossoms.

The iconoclastic life of Pablo Neruda is seen through the bile- filled gaze of Investigator Peluchonneau, whose hatred for communists is eclipsed only by a fear of being a supporting character in his own story. Upon President Videla's (Castro) orders, Peluchonneau is to find and arrest Neruda. Yet as a .22 caliber mind in a .357 magnum world, Peluchonneau finds the poet always at arm's length. Despite being a wanted criminal, Neruda walks about in relative safety through the streets of Santiago and Valparaiso, connecting with all those he meets with uncommon sincerity. Pelunchonneau envies him, he hates him, though he's fascinated by him too.

The world of Neruda is a manufactured but playful one. It's a formal mix of noir, surrealism and melodrama connected to its fiery political center like a figure clinging to its ominous shadow. Peluchonneau's dogged pursuit of the libertine poet is punctuated by steely-eyed rides through the Andes, leaning, mate drinking poses in the dusk and Pink Panther (1963) levels of happenstance and near misses. It sometimes feels like he's even in on the ruse, always finding time to give the camera a rube-like smirk. As if to taunt him, Neruda leaves behind detective novels for the indentured gumshoe which he reads not to find clues but for leisure.

Neruda isn't just satisfied with giving its audience genre thrills and a neo-classicalist milieu however. Ancillary plot details pop out of the celluloid like thickets of antimetabole. The elliptical editing and change of viewpoint coaxes the audience to really look at the screen and analyze what they're seeing. Are we watching reality or are we watching someone's supposed ideal of reality? And whose ideal are we really seeing? Add to that emotional crescendos in a brothel and haughty political demagoguery in a vast senate bathroom and you got yourself a movie stitched and laced with absurdity.

Yet Neruda, for all its high-minded fun isn't a perfect film. The coarse tonal shifts feel purposeful a lot of the time though I doubt they all managed to hit their targets. Two thirds of the way through, a Communist laundress asks in a stupor if "when the revolution comes, will we all be like you, or will we all be like me?" Veiled in Neruda's answer is sharp social commentary that collides uncomfortably with the intention of the film like an uncalled for Augusto Pinochet cameo. Additionally, while Neruda is far more cerebral than the similar Il Postino (1994), it doesn't quite register on an emotional level. A large oversight considering this is a film about a poet.

Overall Neruda is a handsome, literate and crafty film that is unafraid to take bold risks with its real-life subject. It has an uncommon clarity of thought that shines through its intimate tale and while it may be accused by some as stuffy, the story and direction by Pablo Larrain can't help but give it color.

Larraín's deconstruction-inflected modus operandi brings a wheeze of freshness in the time-worn biopic genre

[lasttimeisaw · 7/10 · 1 April 2018]

Pablo Larraín's biopic about Chilean Nobel-winning poet, diplomat and politician Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) (Gnecco), revolves around his at-large cat-and-mouse game with a relentless but allegedly made-up police officer Oscar Peluchonneau (Bernal) closely tailing him during the persecution of Communists issued by the Janus-faced President Gabriel González Videla (Castro) in 1948.

Right out of the box, Larraín archly lays bare his derogative slant toward Videla's government by showing a then-Senator Neruda wrangle with others in the Parliament's resplendent bathroom, before lends him a rodomontading stage of poem recitation during a private gathering, and later doesn't hold back in sending him into a brothel for debauchery, further on, venting barbs to his loyal helpmate Delia del Carril (an age-defying Morán), whom he must leave behind in the third act when heading to the Andes mountains where he will secretly escape to Argentina on horseback. On balance, Larraín's view of Neruda is a solid composite of varying complexities, a larger-than-life character exuding a ghost of mystique, also on the strength of Luis Gnecco's fine performance.

But essentially the film is a meta-fictional dyad of Neruda and Oscar, it is the latter's self-inspecting voice-over traverses the entire running time and whose inexorable pursuance is futile in foresight but, by virtue of Larraín's curve-ball construct of obfuscating the boundary between fiction and non-fiction, Oscar's quest of finding his identity (by the time of the third act, the predator-and-prey pursuit is saliently evolved into a poetic voyage), in fact strikes a more affecting chord with audience by being sublimated into a sort of existential mulling over an individual's congenital frailty: blindly overreaching oneself to compensate for (mostly self-induced) one's deficiency in self-esteem. Gael García Bernal effectively engineers Oscar's painful self-sacrifice with an almost pilgrim-like piety and gravitas.

On the one hand, Larraín's innovative deconstruction-inflected modus operandi brings a wheeze of freshness in the time-worn biopic genre (so is his JACKIE 2016), but on the other hand, it is still an inchoate approach that overly relies on a director's artistic propensity, in this instance, the whole package of NERUDA's saturated, purple-bluish hue, starkly freewheeling camera movement, and a disconcerted accompanying score could not be every cinephile's cuppa, notwithstanding how stimulating it might sound on paper.

The hound from Hell pursues a poet

[jakob13 · 9/10 · 17 December 2016]

Like the poetry of Neruda, Pablo Larrain's film tells the story of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda during his years underground before he made his way to Argentina then to Paris. The narrative has a variety of styles: surreal, a political manifesto, autobiography and passionate love poems. Neruda embraced Communism, marked as he was by the Spanish Civil War that only the Soviet Union supported the democratic Republic that Franco and his generals overthrow during three years of violence. The film opens in 1948: Neruda is a senator and the Communist Party has strength among workers and peasants, intellectual and students, allies among the bourgois as well. And it hopes that soon it would be the government. Cut to 1948, the year of the beginning of the Cold War. The CPs in Italy and France met defeat at the voting booth. A 'coup' in Czechoslovakia brought the communists to power. Greece is in Civil War, and the fear of triumphant Soviet Communism has sent a shiver up and down the spine of North, Central and South America. Gonzales Videla outlawed the CP of Chile. Those like Neruda went underground; the less fortunate were rounded up, sent to prison, one governed by Pinochet and camps; still other were tortured, assassinated and became 'non-citizens', depriving them of a livelihood. And it is in this watershed of Chilean history, Larrain situates his film. We see Neruda, wonderfully embodied by Luis Gnecco, physically and magically in the way he uses language. as a devotee of luxury and sensual vices; he finds pleasure in bordellos, where fancy imagines a transgendered man sings his poems. And in the fleshpots, awash in champagne, you see the magnetic personality of Neruda. He finds a common thread of humanity and offers a message of class and human equality that is a fundamental truth of communism. The full measure of Neruda as a beacon of the masses is the oblique reference to the power of the Word; Neruda read in 1945 to 100.000 in Brazil his poetry that entranced the audience. In Chile, he addressed 10.000s and his poetry was read and sung by workers, by the common people. Of course his poetry speaks to them, but furthermore, he spoke to them of their condition, hopes and dreams and a common humanity that made Neruda dangerous to the government. An inspector played with understate by Gael Garcia Bernal. He is Oscar Peluchonneau, the illegitimate son of the creator of the national police. A child of the whore house, born with a venereal disease, says he. He is a personage who practices self-denial and austerities; he denies worldly pleasures and comforts. Tracking Neruda, he is like the Hound in Francis Thompson's poem. He has a talent for pursuing Neruda; he's intuitively keen, but he is no match for Neruda, who, contrary to Party disciple, roams the streets, visits prostitutes, to the existential pain of his minders. And as Neruda goes from hidden houses, he leaves a book of poetry for Peluchonneu, who diligently reads the poems. They don't chame him, only strengthens his resolve to capture Neruda; the capture of the poet would wash him of his low birth and to him worthy of a father who never really knew of his son. The camera takes us from cities to the Andes; it is well controlled and wonderfully filmed. We may be bewitched by Neruda the poet, and if we know something of Chilean history, a indebted morally or ethically by his politics. (With the rise of Trump, the film may also speak to what an authoritarian would do to those who don't hold his orthodox radical views.)

Parable

[theta30 · 7/10 · 20 April 2017]

I think the movie is a parable of Chile's or Latin America's modern tragic history. Dictatorships of any sort ravaged the continent for some decades. Artists such as Neruda suffered under these regimes. Remember Chilean's Victor Jara executed on a stadium? I think Chileans viewers will find clues in the movie that other ones would miss.

Oscar Pelochonneau represents a typical instrument of these dictatorships: the military/cop/bureaucrat/judge who executes the unjust sentences. Even if he reads Neruda's poetry, he does not understand it; he is under the weight of his mediocrity. Moreover, he despises the rebels-in a scene we see how he calls them scums; and this shows his ignorance.

Neruda represents then the creator, the artist whose words transcend historical time-his words survive the temporary regimes and give hope to those who suffer. In this sense, in a surprising act, we see how Neruda's friends give away clues to where he might be - he can't be apprehended because his creation cannot be apprehended, so we might just well tell you where he is. Also, in this sense, even his follower and what he represents is an idea that the writers of age imagined already.

Common in Latin America literature and cinema (eg Madeinusa, Jauja), we encounter a mysterious, lawless, remote and harsh territory. In these territories one uninitiated foreigner might experience transformation and sometimes redemption. Now, we have Oscar following Neruda in such a territory at the country border. We may expect that after his experience here, the typical Oscar will raise somewhere to be a better person.

Perhaps due to the focus on the above themes and the pursuing story, there is a smaller emphasis on the actual poetry or on his socialist views. It's interesting to glimpse into the beginnings of socialist attempts in Chile. The movie raises other questions-say, how a bourgeois as Neruda is after all, is understanding the lower class - and he is confronted about this by a peasant. Other question: up to what point you risk your freedom to help him escape?

The Hunt for Red Neruda

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 5 March 2017]

"Neruda" is a Chilean Spanish-language film from 2016 directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Guillermo Calderón, not the first collaboration by this duo. It runs for 105 minutes roughly and focuses on the post-WWII years in writer Pablo Neruda's life. Do not be fooled by the title here: This is not a biopic and this is maybe also the film's biggest problem. Of course, you need to use an actor like Gael Garcia Bernal if you have him at your disposal, but he really took away from the film here in terms of quality and with this I am not talking about the performance, but about his character in general. I really would have liked this film to focus exclusively on Neruda, but many times you have a feeling that he just plays second fiddle to GGB's character here. The latter is a police officer in charge of finding Neruda and the longer the film goes, the more mysteriously it all becomes. Is he just a figment of Neruda's imagination? Is he a character from one of Neruda's works? Is he an actual police officer? Is it Neruda himself? There is no definite response to any of these questions. But the occasionally pretentious voice-over coming from Óscar (that's his name) as well as the fact that Bernal is credited first makes obvious that Neruda is just means to the story and his co-lead here, a tool basically, but not the man in charge, even if the police officer's actions are all consequences of Neruda's.

I personally would have preferred this film to be entirely about Neruda or at least to keep it a more factual, more thrilling tale of one character ruthlessly chasing the other. More realism would have helped. instead questions arise like why does he not have any officers under him that help him. Why is he always chasing him like a lone wolf? Or why does he seem to die at the end and then magically reappears again. These may all be symbolisms or metaphors, but it's mostly over the top and the link to realistic events gets lost inevitably the longer the film goes. This is a shame as the subject of Neruda could have made for a really great film. From what we see in here, the character is very interesting, as a politician as well as writer. Now we have to wait probably another decade till we get a new Neruda film and maybe that one will be as weak as this one here too. I think the idea of Óscar having doubts about his own worth and how he needs to be an artist too to take down Neruda, not just a supporting player was a really nice one and the entire film and protagonist's inner conflict could have been about this all the time. Instead the script feels lost and lacking focus on more occasions than one. It also shows how little awards recognition Gnecco received for such a baity character that it is all about GGB, even if he didn't receive that much either. I think all the consideration for this film in foreign language categories (also at the Golden Globes) feels very exaggerated. It is Larraín's weaker 2016 film compared to the Oscar-nominated "Jackie" and also compared to "No". I have to give "Neruda" a thumbs-down and say the Academy got it right in not nominating Chile's submission this year, also not including it among the final nine. Not recommended and you can certainly say this is "Catch Me If You Can" gone wrong because it did not try to tell a memorable story, but be way too artistic for its own good.

An unexpected, but welcome, glimpse at a time, place and perspective unfamiliar to most of us.

[dickmckinlay · 8/10 · 7 March 2017]

I agree with "jakob13" in his review of this fascinating movie. But I believe that it warrants more historical perspective, only hinted at in the movie. The influence of the US in enforcing its post-war anti- communist zeal throughout the Americas is mentioned, but not reinforced. The rise of Pinochet (also referenced in passing) is barely revealed.

On balance, though, I'm not sure how much this matters, since the thrust of the movie is not historical recreation, but rather, the revelation of those aspects of character and consciousness that guide poet and public, hunter and hunted in extraordinarily threatening times.

too much artistic

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 25 December 2017]

In post war Chile, Communist poet Senator Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) enrages the political establishment. He decides to go into hiding as Óscar Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal) leads a large police dragnet to arrest him. Soon, anti-communist repression takes hold in the country and many are imprisoned.

This has too much of an artistic flair. I get the connection with a poet protagonist. I would like to understand the political climate at the beginning. Neruda talks about strikes. It would be helpful to see more of the anti-union brutality. It would set the stage for his initial escape. Not everybody knows the history or even who Augusto Pinochet is. I like the Captain Ahab aspect of Peluchonneau. It would be good to have less artistic flair. I want less literary exposition and more intense thrills. I like the turn as the political roundups take its toll and the darker character descend. There is a more intense take on this story but I'm not completely opposed to this artistic rendering.

FLATTERY WILL GET YOU NOWHERE...!

[masonfisk · 4/10 · 5 July 2018]

Naruda is a segment of the great poet's life when he was accused of communism by the government & needed to flee. In pursuit of him, a loyal officer of the law tracks his prey, in what amounts to a person living vicariously through another's, we're meant to glean insight into the man's thoughts & why he's at odds w/the ruling class. Ultimately as presented we have 2 modes of film in conflict w/each other. Whereby the biopic is sorely lacking since we only focus on a glimpse of his life & the procedural, the hunter who tries to imprint his quarry's worldview onto himself to better acquire his target. Handsomely produced & the second film from Pablo Larrain during the same year (!) as Jackie, this uneven film does have some merit.

a poem

[Kirpianuscus · 27 August 2017]

about art , politic, joy of life, Neruda and his universe, a hunt remembering the obsession of Javert, music of freedom and the Communism in Chilian version. a short sketch of Pinochet. admirable performances - especially Luis Gnecco - and a surprising Gael Garcia Bernal who knows use in the best manner the pieces of sketch defining his character. it is a poem not because it reflects, in subtle, seductive , eccentric, courageous manner a slice from Neruda life but because the significant result after the final credits is a special state. it could be emotion or impact with the new perspective about well known things, the state after a splendid show or the work with the pieces of a large puzzle. because the film is not exactly a biographic one. but a reflection about great, large universal themes in seductive manner.

Picturesque and of Course Poetic

[iquine · 7/10 · 28 July 2020]

(Flash Review)

A Chilean police officer is assigned to track down influential poet Pablo Neruda as he has become a fugitive for joining the communist party and insulting political heads in the 1940s. Neruda is encouraging them to come and find him; for the attention to raise his own notoriety. The film has some decent nuggets of an officer hot on the trail of a fleeing fugitive and some subtle inner-character physiological depth. Yet it felt a bit stuffy and tedious even while also taking place in fancy locals in the first half and shifting gears and opening up with adventures into nature in a snowy climate. Will this desperate officer catch the slippery poet? Something different for those in the mood for a slightly contemplative foreign film.

Chile's own catch me if you can!

[Reno-Rangan · 6/10 · 24 November 2017]

It was Chile's Oscars pick. It made into Golden Globe, but not the Oscars. After I disliked his previous film, looks Larrain back in action. Though, not entirely. This was a biopic, more or less a Chilean version of 'Catch Me If You Can' with a less intensity in its contents. If you are a fan of this director's narration then you might enjoy it. But I thought it was a little boring, due to slow moving story. Especially, half of the film was a background narration than the direct dialogues between the characters. The issue was, it was like someone in the bed, ill and they are narrating a tale. Too low voice like whispering which is equal to lullaby.

On the other hand, now and then there were some fine scenes. It was a cat-mouse game. But nothing thrilling enough like you would expect from a cop chasing a bad guy films. The story was not deep or detail. Only those limited life events of Neruda were present on the screen. Most of them were silly ones, or maybe made it to look like that way. That's why it felt like a dark comedy. From the cop's perspective, don't expect like Sherlock Holmes level. The cast was good. The locations too, but not those projectors clips for backgrounds during vehicles scenes. So just an above average film. Though should have been better.

6/10

It's hard to explain, but these movie is a poem.

[bola_de_pu · 8/10 · 18 September 2017]

Just mesmerizing. Hard to explain, like the title of these review says, the writers of these masterpiece has one job and they can't do it better. It's like the vast majority of the dialogues in these movie carried their own beauty, there's no words that describe the impact of the script if you don't see the movie. The setting/scenario was amazing, the soundtrack 5 stars, and the cast, oh my, Luis Gnecco on his portrayal of Neruda was top notch and Garcia Bernal with another strong performance help his case to be one of the best latinamericans actors in Hollywood in 21th Century.The movie has a slow pace, but that pace help the purpose of the movie and the dialogues because facilitates to the common eye the way yo identify herself with Neruda and Peluchonneau. If you're a fan of latinamerican movies, I recommend these one. Probably one of the best latinamerican movies of the decade and with a lot of phrases to remember.

A fine biopic

[proud_luddite · 7/10 · 29 March 2018]

Part fact / part fiction: based on the life of renowned Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, the film takes place in the 1940s when Neruda (played by Luis Gnecco) is a communist senator being hunted by a detective (Gael Garcia Bernal) as communism has just become illegal.

Director Pablo Narrain approaches his film with techniques that are very much like that of a poem - very appropriate considering the title character is a poet. Such techniques include dark rooms that are lit only with sunbeams streaking through windows, outdoor shots where the camera faces the sun which makes the actors into silhouettes, film-noir music, carefully crafted camera movements, voice-over narration by the main characters - all in very brief scenes.

With the deliberate choice of style over substance (though there is much substance), "Neruda" comes off as more a director's film than one that highlights story and performances. This limited scope ends up having a limited result for a film that might have been more. But if the choice was to turn film into poetry, Narrain must be given credit for a successful venture.

More than a thriller

[pauedi1998 · 8/10 · 6 February 2022]

As I watched this movie I thought about giving giving it a solid 7 but I'll give it an 8 because the last 20 minutes were poetical. Actually that's why I decided to write a review here: the ending. The landscape. The poetry. The acting. Beautiful.

A revolution is not a day's work but a lifetimes

[ridi-arahan · 7/10 · 5 June 2020]

What worked:

• it's an story of a true amazing figure that I was totally unaware of before watching the movie. The naturalistic setting and the storytelling, since it's a new topic for me, was interesting to know.

What did not work:

• screenplay and overall execution; the movie failed to really get me believe in his ambition, his ideas, and the movie overall did not work. There were many loopholes and plot holes, and many unanswered questions even when the movie ended. Also I would have wanted a strong ending that what we have here.
• too many recitals; I agree the figure here is also a poet, but many scenes which could have been used to narrate the movie was used for poetry, and after a point it felt excessive.

Final verdict: I would not recommend this movie if you want to know him as a person, it's an okay watch.

not enough food for thoughts, not enough poetry to sail away

[qeter · 3/10 · 31 October 2016]

Seen at the Viennale 2016: every year there is a surprise movie. And we went for that. And it was Neruda. I wonder whether the shown digital copy was compressed (screening was in Gartenbaukino in Vienna). The colors were colorless and the images were blurred. The movie itself very slow. The getaway of communist and poet Neruda out of Chile is shown. It is told in poor poetic words and voice by his chaser, a policeman. It is not clear whether this policeman is just a fiction by Neruda or the real chaser. After few minutes in the movie it is clear that the hunt will fill the movie time and that the policeman will not catch Neruda. Only how the end will be arranged is not clear. That meant, sitting through a powerless movie, waiting for the final 5 minutes...

Dark and soulful poetry

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 15 January 2017]

"I am convinced there will be mutual understanding among human beings . . . in spite of all the suffering, the blood, the broken glass" - Pablo Neruda, Memoirs If the genre known as bio-pic has evolved into a predictable linear account of a well-known person's life, Chilean director Pablo Larraín has turned the genre on its head in Neruda, his impressionist and surreal examination of one year in the life of the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Written by Guillermo Calderón, the film continues Larrain's exploration of recent Chilean history, following on the heels of "Tony Manero" (2008), "Post Mortem" (2010), and "No" (2012), works concerned with the effects of U.S.-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet. Neruda centers on the period 1948-49 after President Gonzalez Videla (Alberto Castro, "The Club") banned communism from Chile and issued a warrant for Neruda's arrest after he publicly protested the government's imprisonment of Communist mine workers.

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, Neruda, called "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language" by author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, was a member of the Chilean Communist Party and served as a Senator as well as in several diplomatic posts. Luis Gnecco ("Much Ado About Nothing") portrays Neruda as a corpulent middle-aged man full of contradictions – hero of the Communist working class and an admirer of Joseph Stalin, an outspoken enemy of the state and a man of exuberance and love of life, given to attending orgies, hanging out in brothels, and reciting his poetry to prostitutes and drag queens. In one telling scene, Neruda is dressed up as Lawrence of Arabia, reciting "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines," one of his most popular poems.

In the film's flamboyant opening, attacks on Neruda by his colleagues in the Senate are delivered in a spacious Senate chamber which doubles as a men's bathroom, suggesting that the rest of the film should not be taken literally. Referred to as "Emperor Caligula," he is told that "Communists hate to work. They'd rather burn churches. It makes them feel alive," Neruda defiantly fends off attacks. The film is narrated by a disembodied voice that we later learn is that of mustachioed police detective Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael Garcia Bernal, "No"), the son of a prostitute, ordered by his superiors to apprehend Neruda and humiliate him. As the poet moves around with the assistance of Communist friends, he leaves behind pulp detective novels for Oscar to find, a mocking trail of clues that somehow forge an unspoken bond between the hunter and the hunted.

As it unfolds, the film is as much about the policeman as it is about Neruda, both of whose lives are linked by a dark and soulful poetry. Neruda's wife, Delia del Carril (Mercedes Morán, "Chiametemi Francesco – Il Papa della gente"), tells the inspector that he exists solely as a supporting character in one of Pablo's stories: "He created you as the guard of an imaginary border. He thinks about you thinking about him." This does not sit well with Oscar who pictures himself as a central character in the nation's history, not playing a secondary role in a fictional story. Hidden for months in the basement of a house in Valparaiso, Pablo is turned back when he and his wife attempt to cross the border into Argentina because his name does not match the birth name on his passport, Ricardo Reyes Basoalto.

Protected by friends from the pursuing police, the couple is forced to move into a small apartment where Delia, a well-to-do Argentinean, complains about having to clean. When someone gives her rubber gloves; she asserts that, "hygiene is a bourgeois value." Though confined under the watchful eye of Jara (Michael Silva), a Communist Party member who becomes one of Neruda's primary handlers, Neruda still manages to sneak out to a brothel dressed as a priest and presents himself in drag at a later visit after Peluchonneau searches the premises in vain. To put events in context, Larraín shows us leftists being rounded up and sent to a prison camp run by a young military officer named Augusto Pinochet. There is also a memorable scene in which Neruda dresses in a white suit and hat pretending to be a Central American visitor.

Neruda shows his connection to ordinary Chileans as he hugs a street beggar and gives her his white jacket and also reassures a hotel maid that the revolution will end her long hours of hard work and low pay. The final phase of the film is the most revealing as Neruda attempts to escape from Chile on horseback over a mountain pass in the Andes near Maihue Lake into Argentina. Still being pursued on motorcycle by the determined, almost comical, police inspector, whose love-hate relationship with his prey has become obsessive, Neruda must call upon all of his inner resources to keep going to freedom. As Oscar's motorcycle runs out of gas, the illusion that will die on the mountain is reborn as poetic truth.

Only interesting for those who have profound ties with Chilean culture

[kluseba · 5/10 · 1 August 2021]

Neruda is a biographical drama that shows how Chilean poet and communist politician Pablo Neruda escaped the fascist regime of his home country to Argentine and later on to France. Even for those who are interested in Chilean culture and history, Neruda is at times hard to sit through and an average movie at best.

On the positive side, the story includes multiple historic facets and introduces the viewers to an interesting set of side characters. The locations have been chosen with care and especially the mountaineous territories between Argentine and Chile are impressive. The cinematography is calm and precise which makes for a timeless film.

On the negative side, the movie mostly focuses on repetitive dialogues that are at times hard to sit through. It's difficult to empathize with the lead characters as Pablo Neruda comes off as a pretentious intellectual who likes to recite his poems, drink expensive wine and seduce every woman he meets as his actions contradict his political convictions. His opponent Oscar Peluchonneau is a puppet of the fascist regime who has neither family nor friends and seems clueless in his helpless attempts to capture the titular character.

At the end of the day, Neruda is only interesting for those who have profound ties with or interests in Chilean culture. The movie itself drags on for far too long and can only convince with its cinematography, costumes and settings. I would neither watch it again nor recommend it to anyone.

Definitely not what was expected

[Red_Identity · 9 April 2017]

I had never seen a Pablo Larrain film until 2016's Jackie, which turned out to be a unique and singular directorial vision. Because of it I became a fan of him and perhaps that's why I expected more of the same free-form storytelling here. In that respect it was not what I expected, but the film is still very much distinct from what usual biopics are. I can understand why there seems to be so much frustration from some viewers, and while the film did lose me at times, the acting, cinematography, and fluid directing were enough to keep me more engaged as it went on. The finale is also really well done, and that final shot is very memorable.