Dos monjes

An interesting early Mexican sound movie where two former friends meets in a monastery and madness drives one of them to hit the other down nearly killing him. What follows is both telling their side of what once happened between the two. Interesting concept with use of flashbacks and how people see things differently or lie to cover up their guilt. It's really a nice piece of work by Juan Bustillo Oro the way he visualize the story and emotions. This is a movie that deserves more fame.

Excellent art direction doing a fantastic job of carrying a story, as the off-kilter Expressionist sets and stark chiaroscuro (with attendant symbolic costume swap), Dutch angles, etc. conveying the mindset of these two far better than the often somewhat dry performances ever will. It is perhaps this contrast that makes for such an interesting comparison with the obvious German muses here, as there's a certain judiciousness to how this picture deploys its most dizzy moments.

Really liked the visual artifice of this gloomy and gothic tale.

The camera shots, cinematography, and music were great. The story itself didn't match the inventiveness and technical aspects of the film.

It's unfortunate that this movie looks so good on paper but falls so short of its expectations. One of the first Mexican talkies borrows from German expressionism? A catholic expressionist movie?! But really, the chiaroscuro lighting is alright, the exaggerated architecture doesn't have the motivation behind it that the likes of Caligari did, and the acting is pretty flat. You have to forgive early attempts at most anything, but Dos Monjes offers a couple cool shots, and not much else.

México Oculto #3