The Devil Never Sleeps (film)

Last updated

The Devil Never Sleeps
The Devil Never Sleeps film Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
SpanishEl diablo nunca duerme
Directed by Lourdes Portillo
Written byLourdes Portillo
Produced by
  • Lourdes Portillo
  • Michelle Valladares
Narrated byLourdes Portillo
CinematographyKyle Kibbe
Edited byVivien Hillgrove
Music by
Release date
  • 1994 (1994)
Running time
84 minutes
CountriesMexico, United States
LanguagesEnglish, Spanish

The Devil Never Sleeps (Spanish : El diablo nunca duerme) is a 1994 Mexican-American documentary film directed by Lourdes Portillo and produced by Portillo and Michelle Valladares.

Contents

In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo receives a call that her uncle Oscar had died. Initially, the cause of death was claimed to have been a heart attack or homicide. However, the police later ruled his death as a suicide. Portillo goes to her hometown of Chihuahua, Mexico to investigate how her uncle died. She interviews family members, friends, community members, and acquaintances of Oscar and discovers new details about her uncle that she had never heard before. [1]

The police report of Oscar's death states that he was found dead at the sports facility with a gunshot to the back of the head and a pistol in his hand. Despite the police ruling his death as a suicide, his family questions the cause of death due to Oscar's perceived successful status as a rancher, produce exporter, politician, widow, and husband. Portillo investigates Oscar's life to determine if he or anyone in his life has a motive for his death. [2] As a result, Portillo discovers many unknown aspects about her family and Oscar about his remarriage, life insurance policy, business complications, a possible cancer and AIDS diagnosis, and a potential homosexual relationship. [3] [4]

Many of the details and theories surrounding Oscar's life are told by aunts, friends, colleagues, and business partners in interviews with Portillo where she allows them to express their details about Oscar freely. One significant interview is with Ofelia, Oscar’s second wife. Ofelia is never filmed in The Devil Never Sleeps, but her involvement in Oscar's life and possibly his death is a frequently mentioned theory. Ofelia is disliked for reasons such as the speed of Oscar’s remarriage, her treatment of Oscar's first two children, and her original socioeconomic class. Ofelia refuses to be interviewed in the film during a phone call with Portillo. Portillo’s camera crew films this phone call in the hotel room, capturing Ofelia's frustrations with the interview schedule. [4]

Portillo concludes the film without committing to any one reason behind Uncle Oscar's death. She uses different types of media, explores common themes in Mexican culture, and learns more about her favorite uncle throughout the film. [5] [6]

Production

Development and filming

The film was funded by ITVS (Independent Television Service). [7] with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. [8] Inspiration for the film came from Errol Morris' 1988 film The Thin Blue Line . [9]

The Devil Never Sleeps consists of a collection of different forms of media, such as individual video interviews, phone calls, photographs, home movies of the family, images of documents, segments of telenovelas, and additional images of the places and things that occur in Oscar's life story. Kyle Kibbe contributed to some of the cinematography in the film as well. [10] [11] Critics, such as Emanuel Levy, have described the film to be “visually shapeless” regardless of the collection of media, but Richard Brody claims it as “thrilling and psychologically complex”. [11] [10]

Release

The Devil Never Sleeps premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. [7] The film was shown on PBS on October 30, 1997. [12]

The film has been released on DVD, for sale on Women Make Movies and on Portillo's website. [9]

Reception

Desmond Ryan for The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked that Portillo used an imaginative range of techniques and allusions to illuminate the investigation of her uncle's death. [13] Emmanuel Levy writing for Variety , while noting the film to have "a healthy dose of humor and some introspective commentary", felt its scope was limited and was crudely executed. Despite criticizing it for lacking depth and calling its visuals "shapeless", Levy considered The Devil Never Sleeps to be mildly entertaining. [14] Portillo presenting the mystery of Uncle Oscar's death by intercutting it with soap operas and projecting interviews through sunglasses was described by LA Weekly 's Hazel-Dawn Dumpert to be "breathtaking". [15]

Reviewing for The New York Times , Stephen Holden, considered its concept to have promise, but overall thought the films conclusions were too vague and scattered to make a compelling drama. [16] Frank Zoretich, for the Albuquerque Journal, was negative towards the film and called it "pretentious and probably slanderous piece of baloney." Zoretich criticized its use of gimmicks throughout and believed that Portillo failed to prove her point. [17]

In 2020, Broady included the film as part of his "Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking" list. [18] The same year, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." [19]

Reactions from Portillo's family varied, with one of her aunts refusing to see the film. [20]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Luc Godard</span> French and Swiss film director (1930–2022)

Jean-Luc Godard was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Demy. He was arguably the most influential French filmmaker of the post-war era. According to AllMovie, his work "revolutionized the motion picture form" through its experimentation with narrative, continuity, sound, and camerawork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adrien Brody</span> American actor (born 1973)

Adrien Nicholas Brody is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski's war drama The Pianist (2002), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor at age 29, becoming the youngest actor to win in that category. He also became the second American male actor to win the César Award for Best Actor for the same film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Portillo</span> British journalist, broadcaster, and former politician (born 1953)

Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo is a British journalist, broadcaster, and former Conservative Party politician. His broadcast series include railway documentaries such as Great British Railway Journeys and Great Continental Railway Journeys. A former member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Enfield Southgate from 1984 to 1997 and Kensington and Chelsea from 1999 to 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agnès Varda</span> French photographer, artist, film director and screenwriter (1928–2019)

Agnès Varda was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter and photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Armstrong</span> American musician

Timothy Ross Armstrong is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Known for his distinctive voice, he is the singer/guitarist for the punk rock band Rancid and hip hop/punk rock supergroup Transplants. Prior to forming Rancid, Armstrong was in the ska punk band Operation Ivy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Brody</span> American actor (born 1979)

Adam Jared Brody is an American actor. His breakout role was as Seth Cohen on the Fox television series The O.C. (2003–2007). Brody appeared in films including Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Thank You for Smoking (2005), In the Land of Women (2007), and Jennifer's Body (2009). In the 2010s, Brody had supporting roles in comedies including Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012) and Sleeping with Other People (2015), and dramatic films such as Lovelace (2013). He appeared in a number of television series during this time, and starred in and produced the television series StartUp (2016–2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ida Lupino</span> British actress and filmmaker (1918–1995)

Ida Lupino was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, The Hitch-Hiker, in 1953.

<i>Sleeping Beauty</i> (1959 film) 1959 animated Disney film

Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Film Distribution. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, the production was supervised by Clyde Geronimi, and was directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, Eric Larson, and Les Clark. Featuring the voices of Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Barbara Jo Allen, Taylor Holmes, and Bill Thompson, the film follows Princess Aurora, who was cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent to die from pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. She is saved by three good fairies, who alter Aurora's curse so that she falls into a deep sleep and will be awakened by true love's kiss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haskell Wexler</span> American filmmaker (1922–2015)

Haskell Wexler was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 1966 and 1976, out of five nominations. In his obituary in The New York Times, Wexler is described as being "renowned as one of the most inventive cinematographers in Hollywood."

Sasha Montenegro, born Aleksandra Aćimović Popović, was a Mexican actress of Montenegrin descent.

<i>Pans Labyrinth</i> 2006 film by Guillermo del Toro

Pan's Labyrinth is a 2006 dark fantasy film written, directed and co-produced by Guillermo del Toro. The film stars Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, and Ariadna Gil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lourdes Portillo</span> Mexican film director (1943–2024)

Lourdes Portillo was a Mexican film director, producer, and writer. The political perspectives of Portillo's films have been described as "nuanced" and versed with a point of view balanced by her experience as a lesbian and Chicana woman. Portillo films have been widely studied and analyzed, particularly by scholars in the field of Chicano studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Walker (director)</span> English film director

Lucy Walker is an English film director. She has directed the feature documentaries Devil's Playground (2002), Blindsight (2006), Waste Land (2010), Countdown to Zero (2010), The Crash Reel (2013), Buena Vista Social Club: Adios (2017), Bring Your Own Brigade (2021), and Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (2023). She has also directed the short films The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011) and The Lion's Mouth Opens (2014). Waste Land was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diablo Cody</span> American writer and producer

Brook Maurio, known professionally by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Cody received critical acclaim for her screenwriting debut film, Juno (2007), winning both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

<i>Rachel Getting Married</i> 2008 American film by Jonathan Demme

Rachel Getting Married is a 2008 American drama film directed by Jonathan Demme, and starring Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, and Debra Winger. The film premiered at the 65th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2008, opened in Canada's Toronto International Film Festival on September 6 and released in the U.S. to select theaters on October 3. Hathaway received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her performance in the film.

Cynthia Wade is an American television, commercial and film director, producer and cinematographer based in New York City. She has directed documentaries on social issues including Shelter Dogs in 2003 about animal welfare and Freeheld in 2007 about LGBT rights as well as television commercials and web campaigns. She has won over 40 film festival awards, won an Oscar in 2008, and was nominated for her second Oscar in 2013.

Duerme Negrito is a popular Latin American folkloric lullaby, originally from an area near the Colombian and Venezuelan border. The song was compiled by Atahualpa Yupanqui when visiting this region and popularized by him and other musicians, such as Victor Jara, Mercedes Sosa, Jayme Amatnecks, Alfredo Zitarrosa, Daniel Viglietti, and Natalia Lafourcade when touring around the world.

<i>The Fear of 13</i> 2015 British documentary

The Fear of 13 is a 2015 British documentary film by David Sington. It tells the story of the American, Nick Yarris, who was convicted and sentenced to capital punishment for a 1981 kidnapping, rape and murder, and spent 22 years on death row in Pennsylvania. Yarris was released in 2004 when DNA evidence established his innocence. A stage play based on the documentary, written by Lindsey Ferrentino and starring Adrien Brody as Yarris, debuts October 4, 2024, at the Donmar Warehouse in London.

<i>Minding the Gap</i> 2018 documentary film directed by Bing Liu

Minding the Gap is a 2018 documentary film directed by Bing Liu and produced by Liu and Diane Moy Quon through Kartemquin Films. It chronicles the lives and friendships of three young men growing up in Rockford, Illinois, united by their love of skateboarding. The film received critical acclaim, won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

Rintu Thomas is an Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker and director-producer from India.

References

  1. ↑ Brody, Richard (12 June 2019). ""The Devil Never Sleeps," Reviewed: A Mexican-American Documentarian's Rare Classic". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  2. ↑ Levy, Emanuel (10 October 1994). "The Devil Never Sleeps". Variety. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  3. ↑ "The Devil Never Sleeps". iTVS. 7 December 2024. Retrieved 7 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. 1 2 Brody, Richard (12 June 2019). ""The Devil Never Sleeps," Reviewed: A Mexican-American Documentarian's Rare Classic". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  5. ↑ Ryan, Desmond (5 May 1995). "Solving murder of beloved uncle". The Philadelphia Inquirer . p. 206. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "The Devil Never Sleeps El Diablo Nunca Duerme El Diablo Nunca Duerme". www.wmm.com. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  7. 1 2 Reynaud, Bérénice (Spring 1995). "Anatomy of a Murder". Filmmaker . Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  8. ↑ "The Devil Never Sleeps El Diablo Nunca Duerme El Diablo Nunca Duerme". www.wmm.com. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  9. 1 2 Gilbert, Andrew (19 January 2021). "Rare Doc 'The Devil Never Sleeps' Gets Its Due with Library of Congress Induction". KQED Inc. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  10. 1 2 Levy, Emmanuel (10 October 1994). "The Devil Never Sleeps". Variety . Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  11. 1 2 Brody, Richard (12 June 2019). ""The Devil Never Sleeps," Reviewed: A Mexican-American Documentarian's Rare Classic". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 7 December 2024.
  12. ↑ Matsumoto, Jon (21 September 1997). "PBS; On the Front Line of Diversity". Los Angeles Times . p. 13 – via ProQuest.
  13. ↑ Ryan, Desmond (5 May 1995). "Solving murder of beloved uncle". The Philadelphia Inquirer . p. 206. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ Levy, Emmanuel (10 October 1994). "The Devil Never Sleeps". Variety . Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  15. ↑ Dumpert, Hazel-Dawn (2 November 1995). "In and Out of the Cold 1945/1994: Documenting 50 Years of Change". LA Weekly . p. 60. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ Holden, Stephen (20 March 1995). "FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; A Niece Rummages in a Rich and Enigmatic Uncle's Closet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  17. ↑ Zoretich, Frank (1 April 1995). "Five Out of Six Isn't Bad". Albuquerque Journal . p. D1 – via ProQuest.
  18. ↑ Brody, Richard (14 October 2020). "Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking". The New Yorker . Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  19. ↑ Alter, Rebecca (14 December 2020). "Shrek Has Been Inducted Into the National Film Registry". Vulture. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  20. ↑ Duckett, Richard (26 March 1998). "Portillo's "Devil' explores family, corruption, mystery". Telegram & Gazette . p. C1 – via ProQuest.
  21. ↑ IDA Editorial Staff (November 1995). "IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards, 1985–1994". Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  22. ↑ "Awards". iTVS. 7 December 2024. Retrieved 7 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. 1 2 3 4 "The Devil Never Sleeps". iTVS. 7 December 2024. Retrieved 7 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ↑ "The Devil Never Sleeps | San Francisco Film Festival". history.sffs.org. Retrieved 7 December 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.