10 · 05 · 21

Buñuel: DEATH IN THE GARDEN and FEVER MOUNTS AT EL PAO

Rafael Aviña

In the period between two masterpieces such as The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) and Nazarin (1958), Luis Buñuel was able to make two European productions that referred to Mexico in several senses. Thus, both Death in the Garden/La mort en ce jardín, whose shooting began on March 26, 1956 at the Tepeyac Studios, and Fever Mounts at El Pao/Fiévre monte á El Pao, filmed between May and June 1959 at the San Ángel Studios, not only share Buñuel's direction and Luis Alcoriza's collaboration as screenwriter, but also other points in common.

They are co-productions with France filmed in Mexico, with the usual French dubbing of the Mexican actors, both were produced by Oscar Dancigers and the musical soundtrack is by composer Paul Misraki. Both films deal with dictators of imaginary Latin American countries, prison matters, fascism and also the vulnerability of human rights, political prisoners and, curiously and unusually, they lack that Buñuelian grace and satire and without any hint of atypical or surrealistic elements.

Fever Mounts at El Pao, inspired by the novel by Henry Castillou, in a film version by Buñuel, Alcoriza, Charles Dorat and Luis Sapin, with dialogues by the latter (the Mexican version was supervised by José Luis González de León) and photography by Gabriel Figueroa, tells the story of the governor of a tropical prison colony in Ojeda, an island in the Atlantic Ocean (locations: Acapulco, Guerrero; Cuernavaca, Tetecala and Tepoztlán, Morelos) starring Miguel Ángel Ferriz, whose wife Irene (María Félix in her only participation under Buñuel's direction) cheats on him with the military man played by Roberto Cañedo and, after the dictator's assassination, begins a romantic relationship with the dictator's discreet and idealistic secretary: Vázquez (Gerard Philipe), who manages to improve the conditions of the political prisoners.

Between betrayals and political intrigues involving figures such as Domingo and Andrés Soler, Víctor Junco, and supporting actors such as José Muñoz, Raúl Dantés, José Chávez Trowe, Enrique Lucero, Luis Aceves Castañeda, David Reynoso and a very young Pilar Pellicer, the unlikely love story between María and Philipe is narrated in a film that is worthwhile, once again, for its Mexican actors, its locations and its dozens of extras. Fever Mounts at El Pao, which alludes, among other themes, to an epidemic that is taking over the town, attempted, in turn, a portrayal of the political ambition and misery of Latin American communities, Mexico among them, as well as the humiliations that Maria Felix receives at the hands of the corrupt Gual (Jean Servais). By the way, Gerard Philipe died a few months after the shooting, thus mourning this film and the French cinema of that time. Death in the Garden and Fever Mounts at El Pao were released respectively in 1960 at the Mexico and Roble cinemas, only four months apart.

Translated by Adrik Díaz