The Exquisite Cadaver
Encyclopedia
The Exquisite Cadaver AKA: The Cruel Ones is a 1969 Spanish
art house exploitation film
directed by Vicente Aranda
, based on the short story, Bailando Para Parker written by Gonzalo Suárez
. The plot follows a well-do-do publisher and family man, who begins to receive severed body parts in the mail two years after his mistress committed suicide. Along with one of these bloody parcels is a letter of blackmail from the dead woman's one time lesbian lover seeking vengeance.
Without a word, Carlos enters the car of the mysterious woman. She drives him to her remote home, where she feeds him lysergic acid embedded in red blotting paper. Suddenly, he is ambling down a long corridor drawn towards a woman's voice lamenting her lost love. He reaches the end of the hallway to discover the voice emanating from a tape recorder. He finds a woman's body in a refrigerator curled up, pale, but immaculate. When he awakens from the drugged stupor the editor is back at home, his body covered in a jaundiced yellow. His wife explains to him that she received a call from Parker, the mysterious woman, and she went to her house to fetch him. The wife neither believes the explanation given by her husband nor the one she receives from Parker about what have happened.
Trying to come clean with his wife, the editor tells her how two years ago he met the young woman of the refrigerator. Her name was Esther. In a flash back, Esther is in a coffee shop fiddling with some pills. She appears bored, yet eager to flirt with the older publisher. Shortly after they became lovers. In another fragment of the past, the newly formed couple of Carlos and Esther is out near the sea. As she edges toward the cliff, she says, "I'd die so that my love for you will last. So that indifference will not kill it".
Calmly the editor's wife confesses that she knew some of it all along. She had hired a detective to spy on her husband. In fact it was the detective who saved Esther when she put her head on the train track. Through the collective memories of the publisher, his wife, and Parker, the corrosion of the romance is recounted.
Sick and heartbroken after she was rebuffed by the editor, Esther fell under the spell of a scheming doctor claiming to cure leukemia. While still under his influence Esther met Parker in a hotel in Paris. In love with her, Parker rescued Esther from the false healer. However, Esther never fully recovered from her ill fated affair with the editor. After some suicide attempts one day Parker found Esther dead with an empty bottle in her hand. It is then when Parker planned to avenge her deceased lover. She started to send the macabre yellow packages. The last of which contains Esther's decapitated head. The editor then call the police, but when they arrive to Parker's house to investigate she has left with her driver heading back to Paris. Seduced by Parker, the editor’s wife goes inside Parker's car and leaves with her.
, the Argentinian Carlos Estrada, the British Judy Matheson and the Spanish model and actress, Teresa Gimpera.
Aranda had bought the film rights of Gonzalo Suarez's book Trece veces Trece (Thirteen Times Thirteen) that included the short story Bailando Para Parker (Dancing for Parker). Aranda and Suarez had a fall out after they have differences with Fata Morgana, a previous film directed by Aranda and written by Suarez who did not like the resulting film.
Long in the making there were at least five different scripts and the film ending diverts from its original source Bailando Para Parker which ends in a trial that is not in The Exquisite Cadaver. Aranda found inspiration for the script in the letters of Mariana Alcoforado, including the theme of her famous letters : To die for love which is used in the sequence when the editor discovers the cadaver of his former lover. Production took off when American producers showed interest in the project and accepted to co produce the film selling it in advance to the American market.
. From then on the film has been better known by its original title.
. The first part is Hitchcocknian
in its development of many unanswered questions, its intrigue and macabre humor, but on the second part the mystery is explain in detail.
. Antonio Ecera directed Cuerpo Presente (1965) for producer Elias Querejeta
. Saurez himself wrote, produced and directed Ditirambo (1967) and Vicente Aranda made Fata Morgana and The Exquiste Cadaver. Of these four films The Exquisite Cadaver was the only one that found an audience.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
art house exploitation film
Exploitation film
Exploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. These films then need something to exploit, such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
directed by Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
, based on the short story, Bailando Para Parker written by Gonzalo Suárez
Gonzalo Suárez
Gonzalo Suárez Morilla is a Spanish writer, screenwriter and film director.-Career:In 1963 he published his first novel De cuerpo presente....
. The plot follows a well-do-do publisher and family man, who begins to receive severed body parts in the mail two years after his mistress committed suicide. Along with one of these bloody parcels is a letter of blackmail from the dead woman's one time lesbian lover seeking vengeance.
Plot
With slow deliberation, a girl lays her head down on railroad tracks as an oncoming train plows forward. Two years later, Carlos, a well-do-do family man and publisher of pulp horror novels receives an anonymous yellow package containing a severed human hand. He buries it in a nearby park. The next yellow package he receives is left unopened on a bench in the city. However, when he arrives home, the package is awaiting him. This one contains a torn up dress and a photograph of a girl. His beautiful wife reads him a telegram asking if he would like a forearm. He feebly attempts to lie about the contents with a work-related explanation to his wife. Now suspicious, Carlos’s wife follows her husband and spots a mysterious woman in black following him as well.Without a word, Carlos enters the car of the mysterious woman. She drives him to her remote home, where she feeds him lysergic acid embedded in red blotting paper. Suddenly, he is ambling down a long corridor drawn towards a woman's voice lamenting her lost love. He reaches the end of the hallway to discover the voice emanating from a tape recorder. He finds a woman's body in a refrigerator curled up, pale, but immaculate. When he awakens from the drugged stupor the editor is back at home, his body covered in a jaundiced yellow. His wife explains to him that she received a call from Parker, the mysterious woman, and she went to her house to fetch him. The wife neither believes the explanation given by her husband nor the one she receives from Parker about what have happened.
Trying to come clean with his wife, the editor tells her how two years ago he met the young woman of the refrigerator. Her name was Esther. In a flash back, Esther is in a coffee shop fiddling with some pills. She appears bored, yet eager to flirt with the older publisher. Shortly after they became lovers. In another fragment of the past, the newly formed couple of Carlos and Esther is out near the sea. As she edges toward the cliff, she says, "I'd die so that my love for you will last. So that indifference will not kill it".
Calmly the editor's wife confesses that she knew some of it all along. She had hired a detective to spy on her husband. In fact it was the detective who saved Esther when she put her head on the train track. Through the collective memories of the publisher, his wife, and Parker, the corrosion of the romance is recounted.
Sick and heartbroken after she was rebuffed by the editor, Esther fell under the spell of a scheming doctor claiming to cure leukemia. While still under his influence Esther met Parker in a hotel in Paris. In love with her, Parker rescued Esther from the false healer. However, Esther never fully recovered from her ill fated affair with the editor. After some suicide attempts one day Parker found Esther dead with an empty bottle in her hand. It is then when Parker planned to avenge her deceased lover. She started to send the macabre yellow packages. The last of which contains Esther's decapitated head. The editor then call the police, but when they arrive to Parker's house to investigate she has left with her driver heading back to Paris. Seduced by Parker, the editor’s wife goes inside Parker's car and leaves with her.
Cast
The film has an international cast headed by the French actress CapucineCapucine
Capucine was a French actress and fashion model best known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat? . She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990...
, the Argentinian Carlos Estrada, the British Judy Matheson and the Spanish model and actress, Teresa Gimpera.
- CapucineCapucineCapucine was a French actress and fashion model best known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat? . She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990...
- Parker (Lucia Fonte) - Carlos Estrada - Editor
- Teresa Gimpera - Editor's wife
- Judy Matheson – Esther
- José María Blanco - the writer
- Alicia Tomás - the secretary
- Luis Ciges - functionary
- Joaquín Vilar - child
Production
After his previous films were met with indifference by critics and audiences, for his third project, Spanish film director Vicente Aranda took a commercial approach mixing fantastic and erotic overtones in The Exquisite Cadaver. The filmed was plagued with a series of problems: it was long in the making; Aranda suffered an accident during the shooting, which forced him to work from a stretcher and finally he had a legal battle with the producers. It would take Aranda many years to recover ownership of this film. The experience made him found his own production company..Aranda had bought the film rights of Gonzalo Suarez's book Trece veces Trece (Thirteen Times Thirteen) that included the short story Bailando Para Parker (Dancing for Parker). Aranda and Suarez had a fall out after they have differences with Fata Morgana, a previous film directed by Aranda and written by Suarez who did not like the resulting film.
Long in the making there were at least five different scripts and the film ending diverts from its original source Bailando Para Parker which ends in a trial that is not in The Exquisite Cadaver. Aranda found inspiration for the script in the letters of Mariana Alcoforado, including the theme of her famous letters : To die for love which is used in the sequence when the editor discovers the cadaver of his former lover. Production took off when American producers showed interest in the project and accepted to co produce the film selling it in advance to the American market.
Title
The Exquiste Cadaver was the original title of the film, but the producers rejected it, thinking that it had little commercial appeal. Aranda then proposed to call the film Las Crueles, a title that fitted the plot of the film, and was chosen when it was released. Years later, when the film was to be broadcast on television Aranda handed down a video transfer that still had the original title: The Exquisite Cadaver and that was also the title used when it was released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
. From then on the film has been better known by its original title.
Analysis
Director Vicente Aranda tried a more commercial approach for his third film, but he still framed it within the boundaries of the Barcelona School of FilmBarcelona School of Film
The Barcelona School was a 1960s group of Catalan filmmakers, concerned with the disruption of daily life by the unexpected, whose stylistic affinities lie with the pop art movement of the same years. Their aim was to move away from the social realist films that had become associated with the New...
. The first part is Hitchcocknian
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
in its development of many unanswered questions, its intrigue and macabre humor, but on the second part the mystery is explain in detail.
Reception
The Exquisite Cadaver was one of four films made at the end of the 1970s based on stories written by Gonzalo SuarezGonzalo Suárez
Gonzalo Suárez Morilla is a Spanish writer, screenwriter and film director.-Career:In 1963 he published his first novel De cuerpo presente....
. Antonio Ecera directed Cuerpo Presente (1965) for producer Elias Querejeta
Elías Querejeta
Elías Querejeta is a Spanish film producer.-Biography:He was a soccer player in Real Sociedad.Father of Gracia Querejeta. He has produced the best of Spanish films in 60's and 70's. He has worked with Carlos Saura in 11 films, Víctor Erice in 2 films, Montxo Armendáriz in 4 times or Fernando León...
. Saurez himself wrote, produced and directed Ditirambo (1967) and Vicente Aranda made Fata Morgana and The Exquiste Cadaver. Of these four films The Exquisite Cadaver was the only one that found an audience.