"El Conde" presents Chilean dictator, among others, as a vampire

Written by Diane Carson

Director Pablo Larraín consistently and scathingly dramatizes the politics of his native country Chile. In “Neruda,” “El Club,” and “NO,” Larraín explicitly critiques the corrupt, ruthless dictator General Augusto Pinochet. During Pinochet’s regime from 1973 to 1990 thousands of citizens disappeared, endured brutal torture, and were murdered in heinous ways.

Now, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Pinochet’s coup d’état against Allende, Larraín’s “El Conde” again targets Pinochet. However, Larraín has departed from realistic storytelling, creating a grisly, at times even repulsive, presentation of Pinochet as a jaded vampire in his late eighties. He and his enablers retrieve fresh hearts from victims, put them in blenders, and feast on ugly smoothies. Legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman captures all this in rich, deep black-and-white, the only buffer against our aversion to these loathsome individuals.

Of course, that is exactly the point regarding such sociopathic, power hungry rulers. Expanding on this, the story stretches back two hundred fifty years to Napoleon, Marie Antoinette (via her head and a guillotine), and, in a stunning move, voiceover narration by Margaret Thatcher who humorously appears. In subplots, Pinochet’s five greedy, loveless children scheme to gain control of his assets, a nun is dispatched to perform an exorcism, pedophile Catholic priests appear, the butler gleefully shares a taste for the macabre, and Pinochet’s wife longs to join this bloodsucking world.

In a Q&A session at this year’s Telluride Film Festival, Larraín spoke of the current need to address the past as it continues to express itself in the far right, saying, “Any empathy is dangerous.” Cinematographer Lachman added that he looked at cinema such as “Nosferatu” and “Vampyr,” even using old lenses to visualize that world. He also ensured that light did not strike the characters’ eyes since they are, in his words, “hiding from themselves and each other,” participants in brutal, inequitable capitalism.

Noting other influences, Larraín cited pop elements such as Batman, Superman, and photos from the forties and fifties, pushing the absurdity for humorous relief. Larraín observed that some people are capable of monstrosity, and “hope comes only from awareness.” For those who dare, with several stomach-churning moments, “El Conde” streams now on Netflix.