El Condedirector Pablo Larrain on using satire to confront a real-life monster.
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The film was produced by Netflix and premiered globally on the platform September 15.
El Condeis many things, some of which tend not to coexist in movies.
(You canread my full review here.)
Its a broad satire shot in shimmering, moody black-and-white.
And some of those satellites are old.
I always had an idea of making a black-and-white movie, but I wanted to make it organically black-and-white.
So we started to put together this fable and finding the right approach.
Your films have always had political layers, but this might be your most overtly political film.
Do you think of it that way?No, not really.
I think that every movie is political.
This one, its probably about how the structures of power are connected.
A part of that is Vietnam.
And then Nixon and Kissinger organizing the coup detat with the Chilean far right.
Its been 50 years since the coup detat.
Pinochet gets in power and becomes a symbol, protected by U.S. intelligence.
Do you understand how the CIA through Kissinger, under Nixon, ordered to destabilize our country?
Theres more documents coming out every week.
They met with rich businessmen and media owners.
They co-financed it, and they helped put him there.
Its sort of a patronizing perception of reality and geography.
We dont like them.
They arent very smart.
So, they put this violent but not very bright soldier in charge.
Yeah, we are with him, but we dont support this.
But when hes doing it, theyre quiet because hes doing the dirty job for them.
It isnt just a Chilean reality.
You dont have to be shouting in German and wearing a swastika in your arm to be that person.
Sometimes its more hidden and has to find new words.
They said, No, no, no, no, no.
That happens in Mexico.
It stays there, the cartels stay there.
When theyre rich, they come here.
We are not going to have an ocean of blood on the streets of L.A.
Were not going to have these guys just pulling out shotguns and cutting off heads and all this slaughter.
We want to see that on television, not in our neighborhoods.
He has never been shot on film before in any movie or a TV show.
So, how do you make a movie about it?
You cant have that.
Dr. Strangeloveopened that path only 20 years after the Second World War.
Black-and-white really helps; its not only beautiful and poetic and artistic, but also creates a parallel reality.
I think theres a sense of humor that is hidden in bothBarry LyndonandDr.
Do you want to give me a couple of examples of such films?No, why would I?
If you want to hear some references, it’s possible for you to find them.
So theres an element of pop culture, too.
The narration says one thing, she says something else, and then her behavior suggests something entirely different.
And as the film goes on, she becomes more and more complex.
Then he can die in peace.
She realizes that she can flirt with eternity.
That idea is old as bread, but its so moving and motivating.
I love the scenes where Carmen is interrogating the family members.
Shes got this big smile on her face, but shes asking these horrific questions.
Theyre idiots, and shes getting all this stuff out of them.
She maybe gets seduced in the film, but shes also seducing them.Of course.
I think its a key element of the farce.
I dont know if this movie does that.
That doesnt mean that theyre not monsters anymore.
That doesnt mean that theyre forgiven.
That doesnt mean that you have to accept them through the tools of compassion.
It only means that if you want to kill it, you have to accept it.
About properties, amounts, dates, how they move the money.
Basically, that they operated like a money-laundering cartel.
Its an official truth.
I grew up hearing stories about Pinochet and Chile, but what is Pinochets legacy in Chile now?
Is it one that people still debate?Yeah.
Thats why its so relevant.
I dont know if you saw last year, Santiago Mitres movie,Argentina 1985.
That movie is about justice and how they were able to put those guys into jail very quickly.
Its the same in Uruguay.
They created a pact where they would say, Never again.
But our guy died in 2006, free and a millionaire, and that broke our society forever.
Unbelievably enough, theres some people who still protect his figure and legacy.
This is completely immoral and absurd.
But theres another leg of his legacy.
Greed is probably one of the most complicated and unspoken and invisible sequels that we have.
Not only in the rich people that just want to have more money, but in all of us.
We all want to just have more and more and more and more.
And the lack of compassion that we have among each other.
This is because Pinochet brought this wild capitalism, with no rules.
Today Chile is one of those that has the greatest distance between rich and poor.
Seventy percent of people in my country make less than $800 a month.
And the top one percent holds half the wealth.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
