Thinking Aloud About Film: Cadena perpetua/ Life Sentence (Arturo Ripstein, Mexico, 1979)

https://notesonfilm1.com/2023/03/15/thinking-aloud-about-film-cadena-perpetua-life-sentence-arturo-ripstein-mexico-1979/ A great noir, currently on MUBI, that brings to mind Crime & Punishment, Jean Valjean, Bresson's Pickpocket and I Was a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, among others. A petty thief and former pimp, now a banker, s forced back into a life of crime by the very police who are meant to uphold the law. The story is told in flashback, through voice-over; the setting is contemporary; the indictment of the culture in the final shot, brutal. Whilst a society of spectacle is obsessed with a football match our hero's odds against tomorrow are nil. There's no exit, he's got no way out. He's no good, but the structures of the culture are even worse. A great film.