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NOTES FROM A VIDEO STORE BURNOUT:
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CALENDAR * PICKS
by Paul Malcolm
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January 10 - 16, 2003
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El Imperio de la Fortuna (The Realm of Fortune) |
| Cockfighting may be among the most ignoble of blood sports, but in the fixated mobs that teem around its death pits several filmmakers have found the stuff of great movies. In Cockfighter (1974), director Monte Hellman and star Warren Oates tap the pulpy thrills of Charles Willeford’s novel to examine the alienation at the heart of masculinity, while in No Fear, No Die (1990), French director Claire Denis uses a similar story to offer a seductive critique of post-colonial capitalism. This week, another cockfighting classic makes its way to home video with the DVD release of Mexican director Arturo Ripstein’s El Imperio de la Fortuna (1985). Based on a story by novelist Juan Rulfo, Paz Alicia Garciadiego’s script traces the rise and fall of Dionisio (Ernesto Gómez Cruz), an impoverished town crier with a withered arm who at first elicits our approval by rescuing a wounded gamecock and nursing the animal back to health. Our sympathies evaporate, however, as Dionisio reveals himself as yet another ruthless exploiter, trampling on whoever gets in his way, his fortunes turning on a string of victories in the cockpit. From ramshackle fairgrounds to Dionisio’s crumbling mansion, La Fortuna unfolds as a Buñuelian riot of carnies, hustlers and gamblers, even as Ripstein (once the master surrealist’s assistant director) gives grim life to the dissipated passions behind such blood-soaked diversions. |
