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Él (film)

Él
Poster for the film El, by Luis Bunuel.jpg
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by based on the novel by Mercedes Pinto
Starring

Arturo de Córdova

Delia Garcés

Carlos Martínez Baena
Music by Luis Hernández Bretón
Cinematography Gabriel Figueroa
Edited by Carlos Savage
Release date
  • 1953 (1953)
Running time
92 minutes
Country Mexico
Language Spanish

Arturo de Córdova

Delia Garcés

Él (Spanish: Him; re-issued in the US as This Strange Passion) (1953), by Luis Buñuel, is a Mexican film based upon the novel by Mercedes Pinto. It deals with many themes common to Buñuel’s cinema, including a May–December romance between a woman and her obsessively overprotective bourgeois husband, and touches of surrealism. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.

The film opens during a foot washing ceremony in a Christian church where a man named Francisco sees an attractive young woman from across the room. They have seen each other many times before, and she seems reluctant to engage him. She leaves the church and escapes Francisco, despite his attempt to chase after her. Another day, Francisco finds her again in the church. He works up the courage to speak with her, but she seems uninterested, and insists that they can never speak to each other again. Francisco follows her to a restaurant and sees her meeting with Raul, a close friend of his.

Francisco later meets with Raul, who divulges that he and the young lady, Gloria, are engaged to be married. Francisco conspires to woo Gloria away from Raul by throwing a party and arranging for the couple to attend. When Gloria finds out that Francisco is the host, she seems wary of this ruse, but ultimately falls for his charm and social standing.

The film jumps to the future, where Gloria and Francisco are married, and have been for quite some time. One day, Raul is driving through the city and finds Gloria. As she tells the story to Raul, the film enters a flashback where the first weeks of Gloria and Francisco's marriage are reconstructed. In the flashback, Gloria tells Raul of how horrible her marriage is, because Francisco has turned out to be a jealous, paranoid husband whose socially upright, just appearance falls apart behind closed doors.


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