Though recently in the Mexican movies we see basically the same kind of things like crossed stories or extremely "realistic" ones, or both, there are some things in the old ones that the new ones are forgetting: beauty. This movie is based in a true story where a man that is afraid to contaminate his family with the evils of the world (and actually he is already "contaminated", and very), decides to lock them inside their house for years, avoiding them any kind of contact with the world, even throw the windows. Not happy just with this, he makes the kids work in the family business that is making poison to kill rats. The characters are confocal created, ambiguous and confused, such as anybody is, and themes like loneliness or sexual curiosity in the kids while they are growing up is very well managed. However, even it is a sad story, it is so well treated, that it is beautiful. This is a movie that I would certainly recommend, specially because Mexican movies has not good fame.
9 Reviews
Life through rain
gilles-ha-francois11 March 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Weird and depressing paranoia fest. Maybe it was the late screening session or the overload of films I had seen that day (Cinema Novo Festival Bruges with focus on Buñuel and contemporaries this year), but this film made me glad I could get out of the theatre and just ride home in the rain.
To me, this film's about a man who's totally fed up with his fellow human beings caused by paranoid schizophrenia. When he married his wife, the arrangement seemed to be that the only one who ever was to set a foot out of the house was the man. Not his wife, not his children (the eldest is 18 and hasn't been outside of the house once). The only living daylight the children (Utopía, Porvenir, Voluntad) see, is via the atrium in the centre of the old house. And the only thing that 'window on the world' seems to have to offer is, rain, rain, rain. Only few times do we get to see the sun shine, and most of the times it's in the scenes where the man goes out of the house. When he does, he mostly is about to sell the raticide his children manufacture. The rest of their time, they spend playing old games, with old toys. Or they get punished for something their father doesn't really like. Sometimes it seems he even locks them up for fun. What a father doesn't have to do, to keep his children away from that rotten world outside! This movie may be a good case study (I really saw some symptoms of the disease I mentioned above, like I can see in someone I know myself), but it was, however, annoying and boring at times. This film is a must see for anyone who likes a powerful film that has a lot to tell, but do acknowledge you're up for one hell of a depressing experience. I don't regret seeing it, but there are many films I like better.
To me, this film's about a man who's totally fed up with his fellow human beings caused by paranoid schizophrenia. When he married his wife, the arrangement seemed to be that the only one who ever was to set a foot out of the house was the man. Not his wife, not his children (the eldest is 18 and hasn't been outside of the house once). The only living daylight the children (Utopía, Porvenir, Voluntad) see, is via the atrium in the centre of the old house. And the only thing that 'window on the world' seems to have to offer is, rain, rain, rain. Only few times do we get to see the sun shine, and most of the times it's in the scenes where the man goes out of the house. When he does, he mostly is about to sell the raticide his children manufacture. The rest of their time, they spend playing old games, with old toys. Or they get punished for something their father doesn't really like. Sometimes it seems he even locks them up for fun. What a father doesn't have to do, to keep his children away from that rotten world outside! This movie may be a good case study (I really saw some symptoms of the disease I mentioned above, like I can see in someone I know myself), but it was, however, annoying and boring at times. This film is a must see for anyone who likes a powerful film that has a lot to tell, but do acknowledge you're up for one hell of a depressing experience. I don't regret seeing it, but there are many films I like better.
7/10. Recommended
athanasiosze16 March 2024
Hard to watch but a good movie nevertheless. Not an enjoyable movie but every cinephile would be glad to watch it. Acting is great, Claudio Brook gives an acting performance for the ages, he is one of the most evil characters i have watched recently, and it's not just that, i mean it's easy to play a villain but it's difficult to play a character that he doesn't even realise how evil he is. A menacing hypocrite, breaking down the soul and the courage of his family, convincing them that everything he does, he does for their own good. Of course, Rita Macedo's character is a villain as well, letting her husband hurting her children.
Not much to say, it's heartbreaking and devastating but it's a piece of Art simultaneously. I can't rate it higher and maybe i am being unfair giving this rating, but i didn't love it, so a 7/10 is all i can give. In any case, i urge every person who love quality movies, to watch it.
Not much to say, it's heartbreaking and devastating but it's a piece of Art simultaneously. I can't rate it higher and maybe i am being unfair giving this rating, but i didn't love it, so a 7/10 is all i can give. In any case, i urge every person who love quality movies, to watch it.
Mexican cinéaste Arturo Ripstein shows that a tyrant can read great philosophers as well as punish innocent people.
FilmCriticLalitRao15 May 2013
Cinema and painting are different forms of art. While the former is a mode of telling stories, it can be said that the latter is a form of visually representing those stories. For an astute viewer, true cinematographic art is created when a film director is able to merge both these forms of art. It is with Castle of Purity/"El Castillo de la Pureza" that Mexican cinema auteur Arturo Ripstein has directed a film wherein one sees cinema being portrayed on a big screen as an art form. It can be said that through this film he has depicted that in some ways a director can also be a small scale painter. He has made great use of closed spaces and nature as each frame, each shot bears the mark of an accomplished painter. His film is about a strict yet hypocrite disciplinarian who would go to any length in order to enforce discipline. Sensible viewers would be able to relate to the film's theme as it is quite possible for people to find a cruel misanthrope in their midst. It is not a daily occurrence that one gets to see a film whose protagonist likens human beings to rats. Mexican actors Claudio Brook and Rita Macedo play important roles in this film. In 1995, on the occasion of 100 years of cinema, Variety International Film Guide asked its national correspondents to list their country's top 10 films. The name of Mexican film Castle of Purity "El Castillo de la Pureza" appeared in that important list. It has been universally hailed as the film which got its author Arturo Ripstein immense critical acclaim. Film critic Lalit Rao watched this film during 14th International Film Festival of Kerala 2009 at Trivandrum,India where a retrospective of Arturo Ripstein's films was organized.
Philosophy
mrdonleone14 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
How sad! It almost turned out well! You see, this is a philosophical movie and as thus it should be reviewed as well. Obviously the father-figure meant it well but he just couldn't maintain his state of purity -see as well the title-. If anything, this movie made me hungry. This poor people in the house didn't make a proper meal for the man! Of course ends up going mad! And have you noticed what those children were doing?!? Naughty naughty!! A good punishment that's what they deserve!! No?? A good movie with a proper lint. I'm tired now. Let me go to bed. Why are these reguews always so terribly long anyway?!
Why is this not a Criterion film?
BandSAboutMovies30 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
In the book Customs and Cultures of Mexico by Peter Standish and Steven M. Bell, the authors refer to the films of director Arturo Ripstein's films as ones that "highlighted characters beset by futile compulsions to escape (their) destinies." As such, many of his films feature bleak colors and pathetic characters who struggle to retain any scrap of dignity. The Harvard Film Archive referred to him as the link between "Mexico's studio-era and the new generation of auteur directors."
The title of this film was given to Ripstein by Mexican surrealist Octavio Paz by way of a seminal essay on Marcel Duchamp. In it, Gabriel Lima (Claudio Brook, Simon of the Desert, Licence to Kill) imprisons his family from the temptations of the rest of the world, dominating them and subjugating them in the same way that a totalitarian government would hold them against their will. Meanwhile, the family struggles to subsist with their homemade rat poison business. It was based on a real life story.
The father is the ultimate in evil, as despite him abusing his sons for not memorizing passages about how a man should be, he does not follow them. In the outside world that he has forbidden them from ever seeing, he is a continual debaser of virgins while in his own domain, he continually attacks his wife for knowing any man before him.
The film was nominated for ten Arial Awards, winning Best Picture (in a tie with Mecanica Nacional and Reed, Mexico Insurgente), as well as awards for Arturo Beristain for Best Supporting Actor, Diana Bracho for Best Supporting Actress, Ripstein and José Emilio Pacheco for Best Original Screenplay and Manuel Fontanals for Best Scenography.
In 2009, the film Dogtooth was a critical and commercial success for Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos, but to many, it seemed that it outright stole the story and several key moments from Ripstein's film. The director's response? He considered sending him a message that said, "I hope we win" when the film was nominated for an Oscar. Such is life, as many Mexican films are truly lost on the world stage and unacknowledged at best.
It's hard to call this a horror film. It exists in its own strange universe, beyond the world of normal man while at the same time it struggles to inform us in a parable-like way of what happens when pride comes before the fall.
The title of this film was given to Ripstein by Mexican surrealist Octavio Paz by way of a seminal essay on Marcel Duchamp. In it, Gabriel Lima (Claudio Brook, Simon of the Desert, Licence to Kill) imprisons his family from the temptations of the rest of the world, dominating them and subjugating them in the same way that a totalitarian government would hold them against their will. Meanwhile, the family struggles to subsist with their homemade rat poison business. It was based on a real life story.
The father is the ultimate in evil, as despite him abusing his sons for not memorizing passages about how a man should be, he does not follow them. In the outside world that he has forbidden them from ever seeing, he is a continual debaser of virgins while in his own domain, he continually attacks his wife for knowing any man before him.
The film was nominated for ten Arial Awards, winning Best Picture (in a tie with Mecanica Nacional and Reed, Mexico Insurgente), as well as awards for Arturo Beristain for Best Supporting Actor, Diana Bracho for Best Supporting Actress, Ripstein and José Emilio Pacheco for Best Original Screenplay and Manuel Fontanals for Best Scenography.
In 2009, the film Dogtooth was a critical and commercial success for Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos, but to many, it seemed that it outright stole the story and several key moments from Ripstein's film. The director's response? He considered sending him a message that said, "I hope we win" when the film was nominated for an Oscar. Such is life, as many Mexican films are truly lost on the world stage and unacknowledged at best.
It's hard to call this a horror film. It exists in its own strange universe, beyond the world of normal man while at the same time it struggles to inform us in a parable-like way of what happens when pride comes before the fall.
Evil Captain Fantastic
oscarsanchezg17 September 2020
Just Set out to Sea to Drift on Its Own
fatcat-7345031 December 2023
It's a sensational true crime story that tells itself. The seriously disturbed patriarch of a family decides to keep his wife and chyldren locked up eternally for the purposes of protecting them from a cruel and sexually deviant outside world. And this is perhaps the greatest depth to which the movie aspires, with the head of this family clearly shown to have a severely dysfunctional obsession with sexual matters throughout the run of the film.
Aside from that, it wisely sticks to the real life story it was based on very closely. The chyldren live together in solitude making products which the father goes out to sell. We see the punishments they have to endure, the bizarre educational system imposed on them, and their thirst for sexual stimulation and novelty that naturally increases uncontrollably in the adolescents.
Through the simple telling of the real story we can ponder the important philosophical questions. For example, why is dictatorship wrong? Because you might get a crazy and not a benevolent dictator who takes you down a completely skewed and unhealthy path. How far are people willing to go to excuse the behavior of a bad family member? What happens when you do your utmost to supress natural urges?
Beyond the obvious interest of the story, the plot is too simplistic to go much further. We see glimpses of how attached the chyldren are to their father despite all he's done and the madness of said father, but nothing is extremely well fleshed out. If you simply take it as a dramatisation of a crime story and use it as food for thought, though, it does its job well.
Honourable Mentions: The Girl Next Door (2007). A dramatisation of the real life murder of Sylvia Likens, who was tortured to death by her caretaker, a woman who was also obsessed with sexual issues of some sort. A good film with the same essence as this one although it changes up more details of the case than Pureza, which is a pretty direct adaptation of the story.
Aside from that, it wisely sticks to the real life story it was based on very closely. The chyldren live together in solitude making products which the father goes out to sell. We see the punishments they have to endure, the bizarre educational system imposed on them, and their thirst for sexual stimulation and novelty that naturally increases uncontrollably in the adolescents.
Through the simple telling of the real story we can ponder the important philosophical questions. For example, why is dictatorship wrong? Because you might get a crazy and not a benevolent dictator who takes you down a completely skewed and unhealthy path. How far are people willing to go to excuse the behavior of a bad family member? What happens when you do your utmost to supress natural urges?
Beyond the obvious interest of the story, the plot is too simplistic to go much further. We see glimpses of how attached the chyldren are to their father despite all he's done and the madness of said father, but nothing is extremely well fleshed out. If you simply take it as a dramatisation of a crime story and use it as food for thought, though, it does its job well.
Honourable Mentions: The Girl Next Door (2007). A dramatisation of the real life murder of Sylvia Likens, who was tortured to death by her caretaker, a woman who was also obsessed with sexual issues of some sort. A good film with the same essence as this one although it changes up more details of the case than Pureza, which is a pretty direct adaptation of the story.
Lead can't act
madwand612 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Sorry, but this dismal mess was hard to watch. The guy playing the father either can't act to save his life or the ridiculous dialog makes it seem so. The guy runs around screaming, "I will kill!" Is that bad translation or just stupid writing? The kids and mom acted like they've done it before, so good for them. So it's hard to tell, because it's based on a true story, if the stupid things portrayed in the movie are actually what happened, or just the result of horrible scripting. Do Mexican cops really just stand around like idiots when a guy throws a molotov towards them? This is bad.
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