El Conde movie review & film summary (2023)

An almost fairytale-like English-language voiceover (the reason for this choice will later be revealed) drives this grimly amusing account, first chronicling the malevolent escapades that Pinochet, then under a different name, enjoyed during the years leading up to the French Revolution. Moving along through history around the globe, always siding with the oppressive elite and actively destabilizing any left-leaning movements, he nourished not only his urge for blood but also his predilection for fascism. Pinochet has amassed a collection of morbid relics from his storied travels, including Napoleon’s hat and Marie Antoinette’s head. Production designer Rodrigo Bazaes fabricates his isolated lair with a strikingly lived-in authenticity; every item appears to have endured the passage of time. 

It’s all wrapped in the alluring timelessness of cinematographer Edward Lachman’s stark black-and-white images, at their most arresting when a shadowy figure in full military regalia takes flight like a literal batman over a seaside city. Turning still beating organs into a pulp—with the help of some powerful blenders—the flying killer (maybe Pinochet himself?) takes the lives of a few random people to feast on their elixir, his meal prep comically undercutting his mythical magnetism. Though beautifully silhouetted, the feeding process becomes something horrifically quotidian, no different in practical use from an office worker chugging a protein shake in the morning. 

News of the gruesome hunt, which has now made headlines, alarms Pinochet’s middle-aged children, a pack of greedy but listless individuals desperate to ensure their placid, entitled lifestyles remain undisturbed even if their patriarch wants to vanish. Concerned, they make the trek to Dad’s secret home to learn about his finances and future plans. Larraín and co-writer Guillermo Calderón lean into their idiotic squabbles and self-serving preoccupations over the family’s finances for some of the script's most acerbic, laugh-out-loud lines.