NERUDA

Chile, 2016, 106 minutes, Colour.
Luis Gneccho, Gail Garcia Bernal, Mercedes Moran.
Directed by Pablo Larain.

For a Chilean audience this would be a significant film. Pablo Neruda, Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1971, was the nation’s significant literary personality, was a politician, had ambassadorial duties, but also had a lifelong commitment to the Communist Party and suffered periods of being hunted and exiled.

For a worldwide audience, with, perhaps, limited knowledge about Pablo Neruda, a googling of his name, seeing the biography in Wikipedia, would be a fruitful exercise.

The film is directed by Pablo Larain who is emerging as one of Chile’s most significant directors, Tony Manero, The Club, No, Jackie. It is interesting to note that his 2013 drama, No, focused on the 1988 election which challenged the authority of General Pinochet. At one moment in this film, showing the prisons and the political prisoners in 1948, the man in charge of the camp is Pinochet.

The action of this film takes place in 1948, corresponding to the time when Neruda (Luis Gneccho) had been a successful Communist Senator in the Parliament, had been critical of the US, pro the Soviet Union with and Communist principles, but was criticised by fellow senators and then exiled by the President and hunted, a number of escapes from the police, moving from place to place with the help of Communist security guards and drivers, ultimately escaping to Argentina across the Andes.

While the film seems to play like a historical narrative, establishing the character of Neruda, his politics, his staunch Communist stances and sympathetic approach to ordinary people and workers, his marriage to his French mentor, Delia, and her accompanying him in hiding, the fact that he was also a womaniser, but, above all, in the mind of the Chilean people, he was a great poet.

However, the screenplay is something of a fantasy, a blend of fiction and reality. The voice-over narrative is that of the police officer in charge of the pursuit, Oscar Peluchennau (Gael Garcia Bernal), whose mother was a prostitute and whose putative father was the establisher of a strong police force. Oscar has a commission from the authorities to hunt down Neruda, searching from house to house, place to place, almost catching up with him, Neruda leaving copies of detective stories with messages for him.

In fact, this is a fictitious character, giving a symbolic meaning to the hunted and the hunter. Neruda seems to flirt with being caught, going out against the wishes of his minders, leaving the messages for Oscar. There is a significant scene in a brothel, where a transgender prostitute sings, encourages Neruda to recite his poems, and pledges his loyalty to Neruda while interrogated by Oscar.

Ultimately, there is a confrontation in Argentina, Neruda escaping by car, then on horseback, into the snow. Oscar’s motorbike breaks down, he also rides a horse into the snow for an ultimate confrontation with Neruda.

For a non-Chilean audience, the narrative and the fiction are interesting but the audience still might feel somewhat detached from the situations and Neruda’s character. For a Chilean audience, the film is an exploration of a significant historical era, the eventual emergence of Allende as president, with the support of Neruda, followed by Allende’s assassination and the oppression of General Pinochet.

1. A significant story from Chile? History, politics, art and poetry?

2. Audience knowledge of Pablo Neruda? As a poet, in the 1930s and 40s, later? His political presence? Communist?

3. The screenplay as a blend of reality and fantasy? A creative interpretation of Neruda, his politics, his being hunted by the government?

4. 1948, Chile, the country, postwar, Communist Party, allegiance to the Soviet Union and its principles? The government, the Senate, the gathering of the senators and their bickering? The attack on Neruda? The sitting of the Senate? The president, the outlawing of the Communists, the imprisonment, the role of the police?

5. The screenplay creating the story of a hero, the poet, central to the Communist Party, morale-boosting, the Hunted? The Hunter and his narration, his perspective on Neruda, novels, the poems? The role of Delia? Partner of Neruda, collaborator, art? Moral support?

6. The Communist Party, strong, the social causes, the Central Committee, the meetings, the decisions, the underground revolution, motivations, Neruda as the figurehead?

7. Neruda in himself, no shoes age 12, a fat man, poet? His allegiance to communism? His involvement in politics? Disdain for the US? Admiration for the Soviet Union? His age, his first wife and leaving her, the Dutch background, the police calling her to Chile, Oscar and his briefing her, the radio program, intended to denounce him, yet her support and admiration? Neruda’s relationship with Delia? Their life together? In hiding? Neruda as a womaniser, the impact of the scene of the brothel, the women, the dancing, the cross-dressing singer and his admiration for Neruda, even defying Oscar in the interrogation? Neruda as a philanderer, his drinking? Yet his wanting to be one with the people – the scene with the little girl, the book, Oscar searching her?

8. Oscar, a fictional character, his father and the police, the statue? His mother, the brothel? Going to the police, relied on by the authorities? His commission? Determined? His associates, the searches, Neruda’s house and his liking it, the hideout, following him from town to town? Neruda leaving the books for him? Detective stories? The messages? His character?

9. The attempt to cross the border into Argentina, the passport issues, Neruda’s real name, his literary name? Their being turned back?

10. Delia, her personality, her monitoring of Neruda, support, love? Art? Ready to leave him if he wished?

11. The various Communist security men, the drivers, their attitudes towards Neruda, his breaking free, making their jobs difficult? The scenes of the prison – and the indication
of the man in charge, Pinochet?

12. Neruda as wilful, going out, his daring the police, the variety of escapes?

13. Moving to the south, in the car, the transition to the horses, to cross the border, his growing a beard?

14. Oscar, going south, the motorbike, running out of petrol, the discussion with the peasants, the horses, the associates? The landowner collaborating with the police but defying him? Neruda and his scream in the snow, Oscar replying? His pursuing Neruda, his men knocking him out? Tramping through the snow, his collapse, the bleeding? Neruda finding him? His death, the coffin? The burial – and yet the voice-over, his coming alive in the story of his pursuit?

15. The place of Picasso, Neruda’s messages to him? The final sequences in Paris, exile, Picasso and his speech, and the French admiration for Neruda?

16. Neruda – and his future?