Ensayo de un crimen (Rehearsal for a Crime, aka The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz). 1955. Mexico. Directed by Luis Buñuel. Screenplay by Luis Alcoriza, Eduardo Ugarte, Buñuel. With Ernesto Alonso, Miroslava, Rita Macedo, Ariadna Welter. In Spanish; English subtitles. DCP. 89 min.
Buñuel’s dislike of the supernatural kept him away from Mexico’s popular horror genre, but he came close with this black comedy. Archibaldo (Ernesto Alonso) is an amiable society fop who has grown up the belief – encouraged by the sudden death of his governess when he was a child – that he is responsible for countless deaths because he fleetingly wished for them. For Buñuel, he becomes the ultimate victim of Catholic doctrine, a man so burdened by guilt that he goes out looking for crimes to justify his own self-loathing. As Archibaldo moves through the deftly caricatured world of the Mexican bourgeoisie, he encounters a number of women whose behavior would seem to justify his intervention, only to discover over and over that fate is a gifted ironist.