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The Criminal Life of Archivaldo de la Cruz film image; intimidating man hovering over a woman lying on a table

The Criminal Life of Archivaldo de la Cruz

Ensayo de un crimen

Mexico Noir

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Wealthy aesthete and amateur ceramicist Archie (Ernesto Alonso) has a confession to make, beginning with the innocent nun he chased to her untimely demise. Sadly, she is but the latest in a long line of his victims stretching back to his governess when he was but a child during the Revolution (he kills her with a music box). Luis Buñuel’s black comedy about Eros and Thanatos is an elegant study in perversity, steeped in Freud, and revelling in the repressed. It’s a kinky, funny, sick movie.

We appreciate the support of STPC // DCP Courtesy of Cineteca Nacional México

Gleefully perverse… Against a background of revolution and restoration, Catholic mysteries and aristocratic manners, Buñuel unfolds, in images akin to Freudian X-rays, the repressed desires that respectable society both embodies and conceals.

Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Director

Luis Buñuel

Cast

Ernesto Alonso, Miroslava Stern, Rita Macedo, Ariadne Welter

Credits
Country of Origin

Mexico

Year

1955

Language

In Spanish with English subtitles

19+
89 min

Book Tickets

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Credits

Producer

Alfonso Patiño Gómez

Screenwriter

Luis Buñuel, Eduardo Ugarte

Cinematography

Agustín Jiménez

Editor

Jorge Bustos

Original Music

Jorge Pérez Hernández

Production Design

Jesús Bracho

Also in This Series: Mexico Noir

Curated by best-selling novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic), Mexico Noir is an invitation to discover a new shadow world.