Tag Archives: Óscar Peluchonneau

Neruda (2016) – Best of 18th JIO MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2016!

Neruda Review

written by Souranath Banerjee

The tale of a fugitive poet and his flitting poetries; Cinema at it’s best!

My Ratings: 4.3/5

There is nothing as beautiful an experience as a blend of pure poetry in cinema; when the dialogues turn into lucid verses, and the visuals infuse with the rhythm of the poet’s manoeuvring voice.

Yes, that’s exactly what the film Neruda is all about!

Neruda ReviewEssentially based on two characters – “In this fiction, we all revolve around the protagonist. A hero and a supporting character.” 

‘The protagonist’ is none other than the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. But this is a story that dates much before the poet’s international fame, in the late 1940s when Neruda is being hunted in his own country for being a Communist!

And the ‘supporting character’ is Óscar Peluchonneau (played by none other than Gael García Bernal), the determined police officer who has the specific orders to hunt down Neruda – to ‘catch him and Neruda Reviewhumiliate him’.

Thus in between the priceless poetries and the endless humours, between the artist’s vulnerability and the stalker’s frustration – we experience a classic cat and mouse game, ‘a wild hunt’ that ends the way you would have least expected!

Directed by one of my favourite filmmaker Pablo Larraín, this one has already been selected as the official submission of Chile for the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category for the 89th Academy Awards in 2017!

The performance of a life time by Luis Gnecco, as he plays the ever-popular, exotic, intellectual poet, Mercedes Morán as his aristocratic  wife and then of course the stunning Gael García Bernal, the man Neruda Reviewwho will chase down Neruda till the snowy surreal horizon.

Sergio Armstrong keeps the visuals artistic and beautifully wide-angled while Federico Jusid‘s music often adds a certain comic touch to the film.

Neruda, an unconventional biography, a poem in itself, a celebration of a genius and also a cinematic brilliance!

“Tonight, I can write the saddest lines.                                                                          I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.” – Pablo Neruda.

Poster courtesy: www.impawards.com.