This Strange Passion

EL is one of the crown jewels of Buñuel's prolific Mexican period, which saw the director seeding everyday interactions and unpromising genre exercises with surrealist absurdities. We know where this is going from the opening moments when a priest lovingly caresses a row of bare young feet, no? Devout businessman Don Francisco sets out on an impulsive romantic conquest to win such a pair of feet and eventually steals Gloria from her fiancé. Their marriage is instantly marked by irrational jealousy and delirious compensations, mainly involving needles. Equally sympathetic to Gloria's untenable domestic nightmare and Don Francisco's unspeakable desires, EL is a violent and committed expression of l'amour fou.