Dir. Luis Bunuel, Mexico, 1955, 91 mins, in Spanish with subtitles
Cast: Ernesto Alonso, Rita Macedo, Ariadna Welter, Miroslava
Review by Colin Dibben
Archibaldo (Alonso) is a wealthy Mexican who spends his days at the potter’s wheel. He is desperate to marry the virginal, young Carlota (Welter), who comes from a traditional, also wealthy, family.
But Archibaldo has a dark secret: he kills every woman he loves. Or, rather, he would kill them, except, time and time again, the women in his life die of other violent causes just before he can kill them.
His governess is killed by a stray bullet. A nun falls down a lift shaft. A lover is killed by her husband. So it goes on.
Archibaldo hands himself in to a judge but the judge laughs the whole thing off and suggests he seek professional help. One way or another, it will be up to Archibaldo himself to come to terms with and overcome his ‘disposition’. Then, he can marry Carlota and score a big one for Traditional Family Values.
The film plays out as a series of planned then thwarted murders. There are some striking, discordant images, and a long sequence featuring both a mannequin and flirty Lavinia (Miroslava) playing at being a mannequin is still doing my head in. But the major shock is the tone of the film as a whole.
The whole thing is played deadpan and filmed in rather a stodgy manner, so that the wriggling jakes of Archibaldo’s mind, his perverted mindset, comes across as completely normal. It is this discrepancy between an objective take on Archibaldo’s life and the stuffy normalcy with which it is shown that is remarkable. The difference, the schism, runs throughout the film, and indeed throughout Bunuel’s later career.
There are some rather annoying extras – a series of ‘artistic’ presentations from 2015 that just show how limited a format Powerpoint is – and another self-obsessed American mouthing off about not very much. But then aren’t these the perfect accompaniments to a Bunuel film that spikes the guns of normality?
The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz is out from Second Run in a 4K Blu-ray special edition on 8 June 2026.
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