Film Forum

Mexico, 1953
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Starring Arturo de Córdova, Delia Garcés, Luis Beristáin
Cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa
In Spanish with English subtitles
Approx. 92 min. 4K DCP. 

“What starts as a foot fetish aroused at a Holy Thursday service morphs into romantic obsession and pathological jealousy… Francisco Galván (Arturo de Córdova), a rich middle-aged bachelor, becomes fixated on a proper young socialite (Delia Garcés). Under his relentless attention, she marries Francisco, who soon reveals himself to be a manipulative monster…. [isolating] her from her friends and family, [and getting] her to doubt her own behavior, her motives, and even her sanity.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Les Films du Camélia and Cineteca di Bologna with the support of OCAS, in association with Películas y Videos Internacionales. Funded by the Material World Foundation.

Presented with support from The Robert E. Appel Fund for Spanish and Portuguese Language Films

A JANUS FILMS RELEASE

Trailer

Reviews

“A TWIST ON GASLIGHT ... BUÑUEL GETS INSIDE THE MIND OF A MADMAN.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“Released at the pinnacle of his prolific Mexican period, ÉL remains one of Buñuel's crowning achievements.”
– Ed Gonzalez, Slant

“Why would a fanatically jealous husband creep up on his sleeping wife clutching a bottle of anesthetic and a needle and thread? In the gospel according to Buñuel, it’s because he’s a typically bourgeois male, terrified of female sexuality, projecting his own heavily repressed lusts onto every other male in sight.”
– Time Out