Neruda

2016
R
1h 47m

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

11K

YOUR RATING

Gael García Bernal and Luis Gnecco in Neruda (2016)

Play trailer2:12

2 Videos

53 Photos

True Crime Biography Crime Drama History Thriller

An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.

Director
- Pablo Larraín
Writers
- Guillermo Calderón
- Nazareno Obregón Nieva
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.8/10

11K

YOUR RATING

Director
- Pablo Larraín
Writers
- Guillermo Calderón
- Nazareno Obregón Nieva
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 18 wins & 36 nominations total

Videos2

Photos53

+ 46

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Several of the supporting characters in the film are based on real people who experienced the Videla era and Pinochet's 1973 coup. Neruda's then-wife Delia del Carril lived to be 104 years old, and died in 1989: the comment in the narration about her possibly living another four decades was accurate. Her house in Santiago (164 Avenida Lynch) is now a museum and cultural center. Alvaro (Alvaro Fernando Jara Hantke) who organized the effort to hide Pablo and Delia, was then a student in his twenties - he later became a respected historian, dying in 1998 at age 75. Victor (Victor Pey), the young Spanish-born engineer who offered his small apartment as a hiding place for the couple, helped copy and distribute Neruda's work - he survived until 2018, age 103.

Quotes
Álvaro Jara: What you want is a great escape. Yes?
Pablo Neruda: I won't play the fascists' game. I'll become their worst nightmare. In order to do that, I need to be a popular giant.
Álvaro Jara: You can't do that.
Pablo Neruda: I already have.
Álvaro Jara: No, you can't. People would say you used this persecution to become a saint. That we were never actually oppressed. That we like to play the victim. That we like to suffer. But they're killing us, for real. Look. I only ask you to be a bit more humble. Good luck on your journey.

Connections
Featured in 24 Horas Central: Episode dated 7 August 2016 (2016)

Soundtracks
Sabes que te quiero
Composed by Carlos Cabezas (as Carlos Cabezas Rocuant)
Performed by Danilo Donoso(Percussion), Daniel Espinoza (Trumpet), Bernardo Lama(Trombone), Fernando Julio(Contrabass)
Engraving, mixing and mastering in Estudios Cablesanto 2015 y 2016

User reviews34

Review

Featured review

6/10

Neruda: very poetic but lacking in substance

Neruda is an ambitious and out-of-the-box kind of film that in a poetic way tries to combine fiction with nonfiction, saluting the work and wit of Neruda and other artists of his time. However, in my opinion the film does not quite move the way it is supposed to. Cinematographically, it is very well done, with a lot of care for the use of light and surrounding elements. The underscore engulfs the scenes with a sense of drama and vibrant energy, but this is also where it goes wrong: the scenes themselves, do not bring the kind of energy and drama to the screen one might expect from this kind of tale. The minimalism and introvert approach to the acting in Neruda is perhaps somewhat too subtle, reversing the characters to almost two-dimensional beings that lack the personality or warmth that is needed to draw the viewer in. The script and the way some dialogues are cut and played out in different rooms confirm that ultimately Neruda's attempt to escape is a long poem on its own. Only, unfortunately, it is a bit too long and too cold to truly sink in.