X
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 47 m
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 47 m
Summary Beloved poet Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) is also the most famous communist in post-WWII Chile. When the political tides shift, he is forced underground, with a perseverant police inspector (Gael García Bernal) hot on his trail. Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo Picasso cl...
Directed By: Pablo Larraín
Written By: Guillermo Calderón, Nazareno Obregón Nieva
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 47 m
- 2016
- R
- The Orchard
- 1 h 47 m
Neruda
7.1
Where to Watch
Summary Beloved poet Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) is also the most famous communist in post-WWII Chile. When the political tides shift, he is forced underground, with a perseverant police inspector (Gael García Bernal) hot on his trail. Meanwhile, in Europe, the legend of the poet hounded by the policeman grows, and artists led by Pablo Picasso cl...
Directed By: Pablo Larraín
Written By: Guillermo Calderón, Nazareno Obregón Nieva
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
82
96% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
4% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 28 Critic Reviews
82
96% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
4% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Referents and identities are always slightly unfixed in Neruda, a film that reaches dizzying, exhilarating velocity by flouting the conventions of its hidebound genre.
An exuberant visual poem reflecting the life and politics of the Chilean poet, Neruda is much more than a simple biopic.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 27 User Ratings
7.1
67% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
30% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
4% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 27 User Ratings
7.1
67% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
30% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
4% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
An inventive, semi-surrealistic chronicle of the manhunt for Chilean poet and Communist politician Pablo Neruda after the government issued an order for his arrest as a subversive. The sometimes-campy, somewhat noir-esque tale, told from the perspective of the self-absorbed police inspector who fancied his search for his prey as his own work of art, presents its material with ample laughs, great style and beautiful cinematography. The film certainly pushes the limits of the biopic genre, but it does so in such a refreshing and well-written way that it's hard not to like this innovative offering. Far from normal, but immensely entertaining to watch.
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Neruda raises thought-provoking questions, offers no easy answers, and does it in with top-notch performances and a cinematic style that is intellectually, artistically and thematically compelling.
Where “Paterson” is tranquil to the point of inertia, Neruda, with its jumpy shifts of scene, its doses of casual surrealism, and its mashing of high politics against low farce, struck me as more of a poem. It reminds us that movies, by their very nature, owe far more to poetry than they ever will to the novel. The story is only the start.
Neruda takes a lot of wild chances and, like the poet whose life acts as inspiration, it’s unwilling to play by the rules. Dizzily constructed and full of more life and meaning than most “real” biopics, it’s a risk worth taking.
Calderon and Larrain (also director of the Golden Globe-nominated “Jackie”) have taken great dramatic license with Neruda’s story, and the payoff is more than worth the risk.
Tonally, it’s a touch awkward (like the movie as a whole), but Larraín’s endgame set on a snowy mountainside is as abstract as the final moments of "The Shining" — a film that’s also about the life of the mind.
Chile's own catch me if you can!
It was Chile's Oscars pick. It made into Golden Globe, but not the Oscars. After I disliked his previous film, looks Larrain back in action. Though, not entirely. This was a biopic, more or less a Chilean version of 'Catch Me If You Can' with a less intensity in its contents. If you are a fan of this director's narration then you might enjoy it. But I thought it was a little boring, due to slow moving story. Especially, half of the film was a background narration than the direct dialogues between the characters. The issue was, it was like someone in the bed, ill and they are narrating a tale. Too low voice like whispering which is equal to lullaby.
On the other hand, now and then there were some fine scenes. It was a cat-mouse game. But nothing thrilling enough like you would expect from a cop chasing a bad guy films. The story was not deep or detail. Only those limited life events of Neruda were present on the screen. Most of them were silly ones, or maybe made it to look like that way. That's why it felt like a dark comedy. From the cop's perspective, don't expect like Sherlock Holmes level. The cast was good. The locations too, but not those projectors clips for backgrounds during vehicles scenes. So just an above average film. Though should have been better.
6/10
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When will I learn to walk out of a movie that is boring me?! I went to see “Neruda” only knowing that Pablo Neruda (Luis Gnecco) was a Nobel Prize winning poet and I left knowing even less. How much was true? How much was the imagination of the screenwriter Guilermo Calderon and director Pablo Larrain? The last movie I saw by Larrain was “Jackie” and a lot of that was made up dialogue supposedly spoken by the first lady.
Is Detective Oscar Peluchonneau (Gael Garcia Bernal) a real person, a figment of Calderon and Larrain’s imagination and/or a nod to Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the Pink Panther series? Is it Bernal doing all the narration or a mix of him and Gnecco or Emilo Gutierrez (as Pablo Picasso)? Was his wife Delia (Mercedes Moran) as abused, mentally and emotionally, as pictured and being a very smart woman would she have put up with it for so long?
More important, did the meaning of the movie just go above my head? To be honest I really didn’t care whether all the questions were answered or not as I was just waiting for something, anything to keep me watching it for a few minutes, waiting for the film to redeem all the time I was wasting watching it!
For whatever reason, I can no more stop reading a book before ‘the end’ as bad as it may be, and I don’t walk out of a movie until the last scene as boring as it may be.
Save your time and money and don’t see “Neruda”!
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Production Company
Fabula,
Participant,
Funny Balloons,
Setembro Cine,
AZ Films,
Reborn Production,
Televisión Federal (Telefe),
Radio Televisión Española (RTVE),
Banco Estado,
Elipsis Capital,
Movistar+,
Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes,
Fondo Audiovisual Corfo,
Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA),
Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA),
Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO),
L'Aide aux Cinémas du Monde,
Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC),
Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Développement International,
Institut Français,
Ad hoc studios,
Casting del Sur,
Willies Movies
Release Date Dec 16, 2016
Duration 1 h 47 m
Rating R
Tagline Olvida lo que sabes. [Forget what you know.]
Website
http://www.neruda-der-film.de/
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 1 Nomination
Premios Fénix (Fenix Film Awards)
• 4 Wins & 9 Nominations
The Platino Awards for Iberoamerican Cinema
• 5 Nominations
