Arrabal's first directorial effort, 1970's Viva la muerte, paints a surreal portrait of the Spanish Civil War during which a young boy, Fando (Mahdi Chaouch), lives with his protective mother (Nuria Espert) whose husband, she claims, committed suicide in prison. Fando's status as the son of a convicted traitor elicits mockery from his classmates, but the boy's mental health deteriorates far more rapidly when the discovery of a hidden letter reveals that his mother may have actually turned his father in and initiated his tortuous demise. Violent, depraved fantasies consume the boy's waking hours, and his physical health begins to suffer as a result. Filled with brutal imagery (including some casual and very real animal brutality that would easily get this banned in Britain), Arrabal's film is not easy to forget but certainly an acquired taste, filled with fractured storytelling and an abundance of shock value.
Three years later, Arrabal returned with the only moderately more accessible I Will Walk like a Crazy Horse (J'irai comme un cheval fou), which trades in most of the prior film's visual savagery for a greater focus on sexual activity and love, of a kind. Retreating to the desert in a jeep to escape perverse memories of his domineering mother, businessman Aden (Sugar Cookies' George Shannon) encounters Marvel (Hachemi Marzouk), a diminutive, shaman-like man who can fly through the air and change day to night. Infatuated after sharing wisdom as well as some communal excretion, Aden talks Marvel into accompanying him back to the industrialized city, where Marvel experiences a number of bizarre encounters including being rolled around naked in a big plastic ball. Disillusioned by their environment, the two men return to the desert for a grisly but spiritual finale.
Easily the most mainstream of the trio is Arrabal's third film, The Guernica Tree, which is only available exclusively in this set. Sort of an impressionist take on the Spanish Civil War (largely influenced by painters, Goya in particular), the film finds its villain in the form of Count Cerralbo (Bento Urago) whose tyrannical grip on a village begins to slip, costing him his temper and his sanity. Meanwhile his four sons each react differently in true King Lear-inspired fashion, with the youngest exhibiting the strongest moral fiber as he sympathizes with the oppressed people and falls for Vandale (Lina Wertmuller regular Mariangela Melato) who plays a more crucial role in the impending revolution than he realizes. Though spiced with an occasional blasphemous flourish and enough brutality to make American war films look pallid, this feels like Arrabal's attempt to go for critical acclaim thanks to its prestige-heavy cast and emphasis on aesthetic beauty. Certainly watchable and fascinating, it's a surprisingly optimistic conclusion to one of the most outrageous cinematic trilogies ever unleashed.
Cult Epics' beautifully mounted DVDs look terrific for the most part, preserving films that have otherwise remained elusive on home video. Viva la muerte is presented with its optimal French soundtrack with English subtitles, though the alternate dubbed Spanish track is included as well. The disc also includes a bizarre, 17-minute interview with Arrabal (in French with optional English subtitles), in which he punctuates his comments by posing with an upraised chair and touting the appealing odor of his feet. The disc also contains a French lobby card gallery and an informative insert essay by Shock Cinema's Rayo Casblanca. I Will Walk like a Crazy Horse is likewise in French with optional subtitles (the American Shannon is dubbed) and includes extensive liner notes by critic Rayo Casablanca, a trailer for Viva la muerte (while that disc contains the trailer for this film), a lobby card gallery, and a second video interview with Arrabal who continues waving that chair in the air. The Guernica Tree features a much shorter Arrabal featurette as the director wanders around Hollywood, the theatrical trailer, and a nifty postcard featuring original Arrabal artwork apparently inspired by the martyrdom of St. Sebastian.
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by Nathaniel Thompson
