Isle of Ojeda

It’s looking more like Buñuel views the world as full of systemic corruption, greed, and hate. And that no one finds happiness with their true love because either they settle for the convenient choice, or it turns out to just be another illusory sexual infatuation. 

     But how often he tests this theory against individuals full of hope, innocence, romance, and ideals. And in the end they come out either stripped of these virtues, and are all the stronger for it; or, they are destroyed. 

 

Fever Mounts at El Pao (1959, Luis Buñuel) is a political allegory set on the fictional island of Ojeda, where there is no escape from. This trap is seen geographically, politically, and embodied narratively/morally through the protagonist VÁSQUEZ who seems to be stuck in more of a circular than linear path. His arc is that he trades his scruples for political leverage, but to what avail?

     Along the way these other characters, INÉZ and GUAL are what really shape this film into more of a Buñuel form. Inéz and Vásquez get into this romantic affair and fall in love. She’s the widow of the former governor of Ojeda, this dude VARGAS, who gets assassinated early on. When Gual steps in as new governor, he thinks she’s easy, yet she doesn’t welcome his advances. So he’s insulted, and that’s what in turn leads to a struggle for sexual power that clearly underlines what’s going on politically.

     After his rejection, there’s this great imagery done with Gual and his pet birds. He starts playing dirty and forces Inéz to strip for him in his office. And as she’s undressed, he summons a clerical orderly type of his to humiliate her, instead of having sex with her. And this whole time he fondles his bird Carlota. Obviously the birds symbolize him needing to possess a delicate object of submission. But nice touch is he asks Inéz to keep her stockings and heels on.

     And there’s this other scene between Inéz and Gual where he’s going to interrogate her, and ready to go so far as to resort to torture techniques. But it takes place in his bedroom, and it’s dark, so he lights candles. There’s also that chair in there with ropes on it. He wants to break her. He wants to dominate her. As he overpowers her, she’s under him on the bed and she plays into it. Later were we to ask if it turned her on or if she was putting on an act, I’m not sure if it’s such a clear answer. Of course I think she has to be, if we look at it as potentially a reflection of her political character. Also after that night they go to a bullfight. A romantic pageant of man and animal engaged in a battle of wits where both get poked, prodded, and mauled, is there a winner?

     The ending with that car racing to beat Inéz’s plane is that perfect blend of location photography and studio effects rear projection along with the fun of cinema Buñuel has mastered at this point. For all of their prowess, cunning and sexual provocations against one another, in the end where does it get them? Did Vásquez ever really love Inéz? With Buñuel, as always, isn’t it the house that always wins?