Ensayo de un crimen

Plot synopsis:
Archibaldo de la Cruz (Alonso) is a wealthy Mexican man. As a privileged child during the Mexican Revolution, he witnessed the death of his governess, who died as she told him a fable about a music box that his mother had just given him. Because of the contents of the story and the coincidental timing of the governess's death, a young Archibaldo concludes that he had killed the woman using the music box. It is from there that his desire to kill begins.
As an adult, Archibaldo relates this story to a nun, and threatens to kill her with a straight razor. The terrified woman runs from Archibaldo, eventually running into an empty elevator shaft to her death. Archibaldo is called in by a judge investigating the incident. He confesses that he is responsible for her death, and for many others.
Patricia Terrazas (Macedo), is rather loud and constantly at conflict with her lover. After witnessing a fight between her and her lover, Archibaldo follows her and offers to drive her home, which she accepts. On arriving, he fantasizes of killing her with his straight razor, but is interrupted when her lover arrives home. The next morning a police officer arrives at Archibaldo's home, with news that Patricia had committed suicide.
Next, Archibaldo turns his attention to Carlota Cervantes (Welter), a woman who outwardly appears very religious, and is purported to be a virgin. However, she is having an affair with a married man. Archibaldo approaches her saying that he is very conflicted between good and evil. He thinks that Carlota can fix his problems, and proposes to marry her.
In the meantime, Archibaldo pursues another woman, Lavinia (Miroslava), whom he met in an antique shop, and later a bar. Lavinia works as a model for mannequins, and also shows American tourists around town. Archibaldo invites Lavinia to his home under false pretenses. He tells her that when they met, she reminded him of Joan of Arc being consumed by flames. He plots to strangle her and burn her in a kiln, but unexpectedly, the doorbell rings. It is Lavinia's tourist friends, the gringuitos. Lavinia has a disappointed Archibaldo take them on a tour of his home. When they leave, Lavinia says that she must go as well, and that she cannot see Archibaldo again because she is getting married.
Just as this is happening, Carlota comes in with her mother to accept Archibaldo's proposal. But Archibaldo soon learns of her adulterous relationship, and is displeased. He fantasizes about making her kneel and pray on her wedding night, and shooting her while she is praying. The wedding goes through, however, her jilted ex-lover ends up shooting her instead.
After having heard all of this, the judge says that Archibaldo has committed no crimes, and that merely thinking of killing people is not a crime. Archibaldo, despite his intense feelings of guilt, is deemed innocent. As if to be processing this unexpected reaction, Archibaldo takes a walk in the park. He then throws his music box into a lake, and moves on. He runs into Lavinia, whose marriage did not work out. The two walk together and the film ends.

Tags: psychedelic, comedy

Review:
EL (1952)/THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ (1955) - Films Sans Frontieres DVD Review.
Following your advice, I recently `relented' to buying from Alapage the two Luis Bunuel Double-Feature discs released in France by Film Sans Frontieres.
After watching them in their entirety, I cannot believe that I, who consider Bunuel my all-time favorite director and one of the true masters of the medium, have waited this long to acquire these DVDs. Actually while Alapage listed these DVDs at EUR25.73 on their site, they only cost me EUR21.51 each (excluding EUR12 shipping charges).
It afforded Bunuel ample opportunity to make practical use of overt Freudian symbolism without lending the film a heavy-handed air of pretentiousness.
While there are some critics who consider it as merely `an engaging, minor work', I regard it as being among Bunuel's finest; arguably, with this film, Bunuel reached the culmination of his work in Mexico, but it also looks forward to similar sequences and themes he would tackle later on in his career, especially TRISTANA (1970) and, his last film, THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE (1977).
EL was beautifully abetted by another of his low-budget Mexican films, the great black comedy THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ (1955).
Again, critical reception was a bit muted in some circles, dismissing it as `just a throwaway oddity' typical of Bunuel's films of the period.
It allowed Bunuel to create some of the most memorable images in all of his films, especially the celebrated dummy incineration scene, which could have been "inspired" by a similar scene in Michael Curtiz's marvelous MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) which Bunuel must have seen while working at Warner Bros.
For me, one of the enduring assets of THE CRIMINAL LIFE OF ARCHIBALDO DE LA CRUZ is the charm and great beauty that was Miroslava Stern (who played the part of Lavinia and was the model for the ill-fated dummy).
Tragically, she would take her own life a mere two weeks after the film's release with her body, ironically enough, ending up cremated!
However, EL's overall visual and aural qualities where distinctly superior to those of ARCHIBALDO which suffered from excessive specks and slight audio dropouts at times, but were never so alarming as to dispel from one's viewing pleasure of the film..
Psychological Dark Comedy  Another Great Film of Buñuel.
In the 50's, in Mexico, Archibaldo de la Cruz (Ernesto Alonso) comes to a judge to confess crimes of his own.
He tells his life since he was a spoiled boy, in the days of the Mexican revolution, when he won a music box from his mother and developed a bizarre desire of killing women, becoming a serial killer.
In the end, this movie is a psychological dark comedy of the Mexican phase of Buñuel.
I have just had the chance to see this film on DVD, recently released by the best Brazilian distributor (Versátil), and I found it another excellent work of Buñuel, one of my favorite directors ever.
The story is very ironic and unpredictable, and I totally disagree with the User Comments `Minor Buñuel' indicated for this film.
I don't understand why some reviewers call "Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz" (1955) - "minor" Bunuel.
I consider Bunuel one of the best and original filmmakers ever and nothing he had done is minor for me."Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz is B/W comedy of Don Luis' Mexican period which is surreal, disturbing, erotic and funny satire about a perverted young wealthy man, an amateur sculptor.
Since he was a boy, and one evening witnessed the sudden death of his young attractive governess and became sexually exited by it, Archibaldo De La Cruz dreams of committing a perfect crime of an attractive woman to recreate the feeling but something always prevents him from fulfilling his dreams.
As he often did with his even unlikable and perverse characters, Bunuel gives some of his own sexual fantasies, fetishes, and dreams that he freely admits to Archibaldo thus making him more human and sympathetic..
Perhaps my favorite of Buñuel's Mexican years.
As a child, Archibaldo de la Cruz willed the death of his young, sexy nanny through the device of a magical music box.
As an adult, he finds this box at a pawn shop, and it awakens the exciting feelings he had as he stood over the corpse of his nanny checking out her exposed thigh.
Every person he sets out to kill ends up being murdered by another's hand.
Actually, I shouldn't say "person," as Archibaldo's violent emotions only arise towards women.
Watch the two actions Archibaldo performs with his cane.
Ensayo de un crimen should be watched back to back with Buñuel's 1953 film, Él, also about a man being driven insane over his wife because of his strict religious beliefs.
Is this the only Bunuel film with a seemingly happy ending?
There are still, of course, many shocking moments, like the bloody/sexy death of the woman looking after him as a child, the whole business concerning the mannequins (that seems burned in my memory for ever) and the most surprising early death of the nun/nurse.
I've seen Los Olivados, El Angel Exterminador, L'Age D'Or and Un Chien Andalou and i thought Archibaldo matched up well alongside them.
I found it both interesting/sensual/compelling and with interesting meaning."The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz" begins with a childhood memory of Archibaldo's governess making up a myth about Archibaldo's new music box, to distract him from misbehaving: "The King compelled (his Queen) to look at him, but she lowered her eyes, and the King took it as a sign of guilt.
Without a second thought he opened up the little music box and immediately the queen was struck dead." As she is telling this story, and gets to the part of the Queen looking down, Archibaldo's governess looks down.
Archibaldo immediately desires to open the music box, with his governess in mind, and at that same moment a stray bullet from the fighting in the street breaks through the window and kills the governess.We cut to Archibaldo telling this story to a Nun, who dismisses his childhood memory, "I think you like to pass yourself off as being wicked." She leaves the room, and Archibaldo retrieves a flick-knife from his drawer.
Archibaldo: (pause) I'll give you that joy.Archibaldo de la Cruz is a fascinating look into the meaning of the label "criminal." I believe you need to go into a Bunuel movie not having heard too much about it, to get full enjoyment out of it, so i won't say anything else, just commend it to you.
If you've never seen a Bunuel movie, i would start with El Angel Exterminador, then you'll be hooked and won't be able to keep from checking this and others out..
The film has some wonderful touches like the demented music box theme, the fantasies when Archie gets in one of his murderous moods, and again a focus on the lower half of the female form.
Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, The (1955) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Luis Bunuel film that sounds more interesting than it turns out to be.
As a young child, Archibaldo is told of a magical magic box that when turned on will kill.
As an adult, Archibaldo comes across this box again and this times plans to use it to help him become a serial killer.
There's a lot of black humor scattered throughout the film but very little of it made me laugh.
Adapted from a mediocre novel by Mexican playwright Rodolfo Usigli (gladly the only one he wrote) "Ensayo de un Crimen" gathers several of the worst cinematographic moments issued from such an uneven filmmaker as Luis Buñuel.
Its many clumsy aspects are generously distributed on all areas of its making: there is not a single actor that can deliver his/her lines without sounding like your average end-of-semester College play.
To mention just one, in the initial flashback Archibaldo (as a young child) is playing in the 20's with a Lionel train from the 40-50's!
Buñuel's directing job is plainly bad, even if he tries to embellish it with a couple of his famous "oniric" sequences that just don't work here.Maybe the worst part of all is the script.
Undoubtedly this shows that to most moviegoers and critics -moviegoers of the Summa cum Laude species, I guess- suppose that the sole name of a famous filmmaker must mean you're watching a work of art.To this I must add that practically none of the movies that Buñuel filmed during his stay in Mexico is a true masterpiece.
Maybe Buñuel considered necessary giving a little lick to the hand that was feeding him at the moment....
You can go through Ensayo de un crimen looking for symbolism and satirical details about bourgeois life.
The smooth Buñuel style only works when the script is witty enough to keep you brisk with every single line and every single move.
Example: El Angel exterminador (1962) keeps you awake, caring for a dozen characters and not having time to think it over.The criminal life of Archibald de la Cruz can be divided in three parts depicting three criminal cases told by Archibald himself.
(Spoilers) Misogynistic, yet emasculating serio-comedy from the great Buñuel.
Although it has misogynistic implications (actually rather more explicit than implicit), the fact that Archibaldo (perfectly played by Ernesto Alonso)never does succeed in carrying out his daydreams of harm to the various women in his life, this fact emasculates his character.
Therefore, the misogyny prevails.I was a bit offended by this film the first time around (when I saw it about 3 years ago), but having seen more of Buñuel's work and more films, both foreign and domestic (US)) of its ilk since, I decided to give it another chance, and am glad that I did.
That and the fact that, after the talk with the doctor, Archibaldo seems to reform at the film's end, drowning (in effect burying or suppressing) the music box (the symbol of his deranged desires, and the object to which he attributes dominance, power and virility), throwing away his cane (another crutch), and walking off with Lavinia, who seemed to make him happiest during the film (as opposed to the other women).The characters of Particia and Carlota (and Lavinia, to a slightly lesser extent) are seen as shrewish and scheming  they certainly all have their own agendas and never come across as wholly innocent  which lends feelings of sympathy towards Archibaldo (who is being used by all of them).Themes of Catholicism pervade the film, although not in a heavy-handed way.
The symbolism, typical of Buñuel, was strong and put to good use, i.e.: the mannequin (represents Lavinia), the music box (see above), the straight razor (a phallic symbol and violence), the cane (a `crutch'), the pottery wheel (goes around and around and no way out, representing Archie's situation), the flaming drink (foreshadows his fantasy for Lavinia), her tour guide/interpreters job (language barrier miscommunication/repression of the true feelings of the characters).It is interesting to note that Alejandro, the married man with whom Carlota is having an affair, is often addressed as `Architect' instead of by his name.
An architect creates and builds, whereas his character destroys  another great touch in a movie full of them.Some thoughts: 1) How long will Archie's reformation last  if it is genuine at all?
2) I felt sorry for Archie for not being able to actually carry out one of his dastardly fantasies  instead, in each case, he was `saved' by circumstance.
4) I think the writer(s) and director did a an excellent job of conveying to us Archie's early life at home with his mother (who didn't seem to care about him), the hated Nanny (whose death started the chain of events), and the (absent) father.
In including this glimpse of his early life, we gain a better understanding of Archie's character (his up-bringing plus this event) and can perhaps conclude that these may be contributing factors to why he did what he did/why he was who he was.RECOMMENDED!.
"Ensayo de un Crimen" describes a man that after a childhood experience intimately connected with a music box revels in murder dreams - sex, pleasure and murder being intimately linked: In the time of the Mexican revolution his baby-sitter was killed by a stray bullet in front of him.
All this is punctuated by the sound of a musical box.
In the chaos of the times the musical box disappears and these feelings are buried and forgotten.
One day, Archibaldo de la Cruz, already a grown man, finds that musical box in a shop and, barely concealing his excitement, buys it and his old dreams come to the surface again.In the beginning of the film (after a mysterious accident suffered by a nun), he goes to the police station in order to confess a murder and tells the story of his life to the police chief.
From now on it is difficult to tell reality from dreams.Buñuel is a very good actor's director and aptly describes the straight-jacket morality of the time where official marriage is mandatory (for women this is like a prison where the warder is her husband), and the icons of the catholic church are a dominant presence.
Here are the essential elements present in the films of Buñuel.
Fantasy/ Reality, double-standard morality and the church - the only road to freedom seems surrealism, fantasy overtaking reality.Buñuel's films are sensuous and full of atmosphere and here as usual reality is not what it seems.
Even if he, in his early Mexican films, seems to make concessions to the producers, you will notice under the surface all the themes that obsessed Buñuel and that would come to the foreground in films like "Viridiana", "El Angel Exterminador", "Belle de Jour" etc...
That of course is where Jesus supposedly said "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." That is to say, thinking about doing a thing is as bad as doing it.
That precept never made much sense to yours truly, and apparently it didn't to Luis Bunuel either, because the whole point of this movie seems to be to refute that notion.
The title character fantasizes about killing various women he comes across, but circumstances always seem to conspire to prevent it.
You didn't do anything." The best part of the film is the opening sequence apparently taking place around the end of the Mexican revolution period c.
1920, with Archibaldo as an insufferably spoiled only child giving grief to his long-suffering but stoic nanny.
Filmed in Bunuel's trademark style with long takes and barely perceptible camera movements, this battle of wills is fascinating until the arrival of the lad's rich idiot mother (rich idiots being one of Bunuel's favorite lifelong targets).
Meanwhile the nanny watches through the window as a gun battle unfolds in the street below; she catches a stray bullet, and young Archibaldo finds himself fascinated with her corpse.
Cut forward to the adult Archibaldo, now a rich idiot in his own right plus an obsession with being a serial killer.
This main part of the film was less interesting for me, mostly because Bunuel allows the adult actor to perform almost like a cartoon, with bulging eyes and goofy leer, like a mentally retarded Snidely Whiplash.
There are some nice fantasy sequences, such as Archibaldo ordering his bride to undergo an elaborate Catholic ritual before shooting her.
Probably the best known sequence, Archibaldo cremating a mannequin, left me more or less unmoved, although it probably seemed more sensational in 1955.
Also there's a lack of that great sexual tension that Bunuel was able to generate in some of his other Mexican work, such as "Susana" or "El Bruto." But certainly it's a must see at least for Bunuel fans; like Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry" from the same year, this is the closest this director comes to true whimsy (especially the parts with the American tourists) in a career of mostly much darker shades..
The most ironic thing about this early Bunuel film is the English title: Archibaldo does not commit a single crime in the entire course of the film!
Actually, much like his murderous plans, the film plays better in one's mind than in reality; the opening is intriguing and there are successful isolated moments, but on the whole this black comedy is talky, meandering and belabored.
The ending is almost jarringly happy - Bunuel must have been in an especially good mood when he was making this one.
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) **1/2.
My third Luis Bunuel film, and interesting enough, if not as good as the others I've seen so far (EL - ***, and BELLE DU JOUR - ***1/2).
In this movie I missed being treated to some of director Bunuel's more representative stylish flourishes, and I didn't know quite what to make out of this erratic story about a laid back type of fellow who keeps getting the urge to murder the various women he encounters, only to have his plan sabotaged always at the last moment.
I'm thinking this was intended to be a black comedy, but it didn't strike me as very humorous except in occasional moments.
This seems more of a "middle of the road" Bunuel film, based solely on the few I've seen.
The ending left me thinking about the female character (which I suspect may be the idea) but when I read the biography of the young actress Miroslava Stern and the circumstances of her premature death just two weeks after completing this film, it sort of gave me a chill...