Customer Reviews

Viva La Muerte

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A film that quivers on the fringe, the fringe of ideas, of intuitive mysticism, as it probes into the artifices of intelectual snobery. It is playful, it is violent and disquieting, it touches and transforms conventions, in what has now become a classical preconception of surrealism
-That is: yes, in some aspects the film is outdated, since it is in fact a response to the time in which it was created - but as anything with actual content, it is, timeless. Though maybe not timeless for everyone.
The film is the creation of a man that is obsessed in probing the fibers of reality, and bringing out the bloody absurdity of man.
This type of movie is not concerned with moviemaking in the more orthodox sense that Tarkovsky or Kurosawa, for example, are. This is the vision of a creative man using film to express ideas, they are brought to us by a film. There is no way to compare the approach you might have in viewing the great film makers as in wiewing Arrabal. But he uses the medium quite well, and in his joviality you can spot the similarities with Jodorowsky.
This DVD release is quite good. Aside from the great movie you get an interview with Arrabal. In this interview, Arrabal delivers an image of a man that is immersed in his persona -he takes his shoe off and is holding it up to his head-, a person fractured and irreverent, in such a way that makes you wonder what his real intentions may be, is this intentional or not? it doesn't. But if you know anything about him it is clear he is an intelligent person. When you see the movie you are not concerned with these questions. You are just put face to face with ideas. And ideas are powerful depending on how you may put them to use. So there you are, faced with ideas tied together in panic fashion.

Maybe Fernando Arrabal didn't enjoy the cult popularity that his partner and cofounder of " Panic" Jodorowsky did, but I'm pretty surprised that nobody has written anything on this nice and little seen movies, since they are to a certain extent better than what we have out there by Jodorowsky ( Fando & Lis, which is based upon a play by Arrabal by the way), and most fans of Jodorowsky would be familiar with Arrabal's name because of that. Besides, I don't think there's another non "studio" DVD edition that's as nice as what they did with this particular one. Arrabal is an important artist in many fields. This film and, of course, the other one that's on the market, are full with truly challenging imagery and narrative technique, and are better productions than " Fando y Lis". Even if you heard the name just because their films are known as brutal, offensive, violent and disgusting, and are not really into " art" filmmaking ( as many people would categorize this pieces) you should really chek them out: Either way, no other film comes closer to Arrabal's films. We are very lucky to have them uncut perhaps for the first and last time ever. Many people are waiting for stuff like "Saló" or " Cannibal Holocaust" to be released. They sould know that they may not be the daring landmark films legend's made out of them, at least not the only ones.

I hope this DVDs are selling good so they release sometime " The three of Guernica" (which is his best movie). and " The Automobile Graveyard". I guess they didn't want to risk it that much since Arrabal, as good as he is, is most well known in Europe than here in the U.S., where barely anybody remembers his contributions to theatre, fiction and movies. For example, he even directed a movie with Spike Lee in the 80s.

If you can't stomach real animal torture and real bloodletting then read no further. If you can remember this is a movie about atrocities so its not entirely inappropriate to have moments of the theater of cruetly. The "plot" if you can call it that concerns a young boy growing up in fascist Spain and it is a shocking, horrifying indictment of that era. Remember this film was made when Franco was alive and well albeit in France, not Spain who, however, promptly banned this film. This was a pleasent surprise to be on DVD and it is far better than the incoherent rambling El Topo. Anyway, if you can handle the strong images you may find this film fascinating. If not then make it a Blockbuster night.

"Viva la Muerte" (Long Live Death - 1970) is the first and best film by Spanish surrealist, Fernando Arrabal. It's an unusual aesthetic experience (even by surrealist standard), but an aesthetic experience worth having. If you've heard of the film before, chances are it was described similar to the Amos Vogel (author of the amazing "Film as a Subversive Art"), "Viva la Muerte is a paroxysm of anguish, a scream for liberty and probably one of the most ferocious, violent films ever made." I was expecting something even more vicious than "Last House on the Left". What I got was a sweet, wistful story about a young boy growing up amidst state-sponsord repression in Franco-era Spain, although the context isn't explicitly stated and can thus stand for a more general reading of the human spirit versus the hegemonic political monster.

How could Vogel, who wrote a fantastic book on subversive film, get it so wrong? The only explanation I can offer is that his readers know him as an expert on extreme films and he wanted to see Viva as such. Sure, there's some violence, but from the perspective of surrealism, it's comical. It's shocking and there are some disgusting images such as the slaughter of a cow, but we know that the surrealists desire to shock us and they we shouldn't take it too seriously. They're just trying to be provocative.

The story involves a boy, Fando, who is fascinated by his father, a free-thinker leftist who was turned into the police by his moralist, and crazy, wife. He has fantasies/visions/dreams throughout the film of his mother torturing and murdering his father. He dreams of becoming a radical and following in his father's footsteps.

My criticism is that these dreams and fantasies look terrible due to awful camera work and annoying color filters that obscure the action. Arrabal goes to a lot of trouble to set up very bizarre and disturbing images, but then films them in such a way that you can hardly tell what's happening. If it was an aesthetic choice, that's one thing. However, I think it's probably more the case that Arrabal isn't much of a film maker and in the process of wanting a way to differentiate between filmic reality and fantasy, he ended up making these scenes look pretty bad.

Another interesting feature is what these actors are willing to do for art. One lady eats a LOT of mud, another wrestles the main character in spaghetti, the mother slaughters a cow, spilling massive amounts of the blood in the process which she then rolls around in, you get the idea . . . I wouldn't even wear the stretchy pants required to perform Vinko Globokar's "Corporel?" for body percussion, so there's no way someone is forcing fistfuls of sand down my throat!

OK, maybe the film does have some extreme content, but the mood is one of discover and wonder. It's a semi-autobiographical look at Arrabal's childhood, a time he happily remembers. I would highly recommend it to any fan of surrealism. He goes a lot further than Bunuel ever did (not necessarily good or bad), so make sure you know what you're getting into. That said, it's a unique cinematic experience. Just don't try to rent it at Blockbuster.

A must see for any lover of surrealist movies. Viva La Muerte along with The Holy Mountain and El Topo are the 70's surrealist Masterpieces (panic movement). Not for the faint hearted!!!

There were two great surrealist filmmakers/playwrights in the Panic Movement, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal. Jodorowsky is the better known of the two (and is more talented in my opinion), but Arrabal's films are still pretty good. This is his best film, a shocking, visceral (to say the least), surreal diatribe against Franco's Spain, fascism, the Catholic church, and just about everything.

There are many phenomenal scenes in the film. The opening credits scene is wonderful. It's designed by Roland Topor, who made the magnificent Fantastic Planet. There's a scene where a priest "eats" (which is pretty shocking even today, so you can imagine the outrage back in the 1970's when this film was made), and the scene in which the mother in the film dances in a pool of cow's blood (WARNING! The scene shows a cow getting slaughtered). It's one of the most visceral scenes I've ever seen, but it does work in the context of the film. The film really doesn't have any spiritual elements like a lot of Alejandro's work does. It feels to me to be the work of a rabid atheist, one who just hates religion and just wants to trash the Catholic church without finding (or attempting to find) an outlet for the spiritual in man.

Even though the film was shot originally in French, the Spanish language dub is actually better. Arrabal isn't as deep of an artist as Alejandro Jodorowsky is, but this film is his best. It's also available in the box set The Fernando Arrabal Collection, but the other two films in that set, I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse and The Guernica Tree, are not as good as Viva la Muerte. If you decide to buy an Arrabal film, make it this one. Rent the other two.

There is a very strange interview on this DVD with Arrabal, who looks pissed through the whole thing. He holds a chair during some of it, doesn't seem inclined to answer questions, and takes his shoe off and smells inside of it. I'm not sure why he was doing this (a bit of performance art, perhaps), but it's silly and distracting. He was interviewed for a documentary on Jodorowsky (which is available in Anchor Bay's box set of Alejandro's work), and Arrabal was much more cohesive and straightforward than he is here. The interview is worth watching initially, but you'll grow tired of Arrabal's childishness very quickly.

Despite some reservations, Viva la Muerte is worth picking up.

When I first saw Viva La Muerte I was 21 and living in Melbourne, Australia. It ran for two months at weekend midnight screenings, and I've never been more impressed by a film. This is most definitely an art movie, and its mere existence makes most "art" movies turn into television commercials for the brainless masses. It is set in the spanish civil war, but it could be Iraq, Afghanistan or Bosnia or wherever the next war is engineered. It concerns a family torn apart by war. The mother has reported her husband to the authorities, telling them that he is a communist. Whether he is or is not is irrelevant. It is a convenient way for her to get rid of him. Their child, a seven or eight year old boy, keeps asking the mother where is his father. She tells him his father ran away because he is a coward. We see pictures of the father being horrendously tortured by the authorities. The brutal imagery used to define these events is quite blunt and never veers from the truth. It shows how communism is just a word, and that the human urge to hurt others and conveniently dispose of the unwanted is so readily utilized by people's self-interests. This film reminds us who we are, how we are naive and reasonably innocent when we are young, and how idealists are just fodder for the savage beings we so quickly develop into when we don't get what we want. It's a humbling film that reminds us of how far we have to go before we can declare we are good people.

this movie was intense. there is so much meaning and so much absurdity to it. bt fernando arrabel is def. on eof the best and unique filmmakers out there. his visions ans representation of these visions, are unmistakably one of a kind! if u ove freaky films in general, or a film enthusiest, watch this movie!

Really liked 'I will walk like a crazy horse'.
This one is more tame.Something you can watch without your girlfriend leaving the room.
Not as far out as I expected,but still ok.