The Devil Never Sleeps
((EL DIABLO NUNCA DUERME) (U.S.-MEXICAN -- DOCU -- 16 mm))
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All Portillo knows when she begins her investigation is the "official story," which is that her uncle Oscar committed suicide. His widow (and second wife), whom the family never liked or accepted and suspected of gold-digging, claims that he took his life because he was ridden with cancer.
But everyone suspects there's more to the case, which prompts the filmmaker to examine police reports and press coverage of his death. Thus is constructed a portrait of a successful, affluent entrepreneur and politician, with hints that a lot of people owed him money and that he had family problems.
Docu's most intriguing dimension is its Pirandellian illustration of the notion that human reality is subjectively perceived and constructed. Indeed, despite her use of various methods to solve the puzzle -- personal interviews, police reports, background surveys, family gossip -- Lourdes is only slightly more informed at the end of her inquiry than she had been at the start. Lacking depth, docu suffers from the director's exercise of restraint and detachment.
It doesn't help that visually the film is shapeless, consisting of a series of talking heads, and that tech credits are on the raw side.
Still, "The Devil Never Sleeps" is mildly entertaining, particularly in the sections that try to make sense of the radically contradictory accounts of the same events or issues given by different members of Oscar's family.
DUTCH FEST
Camera (color, 16mm), Kyle Kibbe; editor, Vivian Hillgrove Gilliam; music, Mark Adler, Lola Beltran; sound, Jose Araujo. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 16, 1994. Running time: 87 MIN.
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