Principio y Fin (1993) Arturo Ripstein

Despite the fact that he's commonly underrated by the Mexican audience and critics,  Arturo Ripstein is definitely one of the best Mexican filmmakers.  From all his movies I've watched, I think Principio y Fin is my favorite.  There's no doubt that it's completely sick and depraved, but I think that's what makes it so good, it isn't shy about its own essence, but rather upfront and forward about it.



I have to say that the beginning isn't that good, actually it's awful...it feels overacted and over-dramatized.  I think it was a risky choice to begin with the father's death, since it's hard to empathize with the suffering of strangers... and when you get too close too fast to the suffering of others, their reactions tend to feel too real and it becomes awkward.  

The movie begins to take shape during the sequence of the brothel and the carousel and Guama singing... the whole scene is beautifully decadent.  The place, the drawings of naked women in the walls, the people, the darkness, the song, the long take, the movement of the camera perfectly well-done... And from that moment on the movie starts to rise, and until the very last minute it never lets you down.

It's amazing that being such a long film, and filled with all those long takes, it doesn't get boring or tiring.  The truth is most of the long takes are simply brilliant.  I mean, you might not like the movie, you might find it too raw or something, but you gotta give Ripstein credit for the way he moves the camera... the way he choreographs all his scenes... he really knows what he's doing.

Ripstein keeps pushing you to the edge, all the time testing your limits... the whole sexual tension latent between, and throughout, the whole family... the scene where Nicolás and Isabel start a sexual foreplay in front of her sick dad, the scene where Gabo unvirginzes his own girlfriend against her will with his fingers and then makes a joke about the whole thing, the way Gabo asks his sister to kill herself in order to regain the family (or may I say, his own) pride.  It's abominable, that last scene is simply tragical... the whole movie has this aura of a Greek tragedy... I guess that's the only way it could have ended.