March 26, 2019 (XXXVIII:8) : TIME TO DIE (1966, 90 min.)

DIRECTOR Arturo Ripstein WRITING Gabriel García Márquez and wrote dialogue for their adaptation of Márquez’s story PRODUCERS Alfredo Ripstein and César Santos Galindo MUSIC Carlos Jiménez Mabarak CINEMATOGRAPHY Alex Phillips EDITING Carlos Savage

CAST Marga López...Mariana Sampedro Jorge Martínez de Hoyos...Juan Sayago Enrique Rocha...Pedro Trueba Alfredo Leal...Julián Trueba Blanca Sánchez...Sonia The Far Side of Paradise (1976), The Black Widow (1977), Hell Tito Junco...Comisario Without Limits (1978), Life Sentence (1979), La tía Alejandra Quintín Bulnes...Diego Martín Ibáñez (1979), Seduction (1981), Rastro de muerte (1981), Sweet Miguel Macía...Druggist Challenge (1988 TV Series), Woman of the Port (1991), Carlos Jordán...Casildo Triángulo (1992 TV Series), La sonrisa del diablo (1992 TV Arturo Martínez...Cantinero Series), Principio y fin (1993), La reina de la noche (1994), Deep Hortensia Santoveña...Rosita Crimson (1996), No One Writes to the Colonel (1999), Such Is Carolina Barret...Mamá de Sonia Life (2000), The Ruination of Men (2000), The Virgin of Lust Manuel Dondé...Barber (2002), The Reasons of the Heart (2011), (2015), Claudio Isaac...Claudio Sampedro and Maestros Olvidados, oficios que sobreviven (2016-2018 TV Leonardo Castro Series documentary). Cecilia Leger...Housekeeper Luz María Velázquez...Nana GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ (b. March 6, 1927 in Adolfo Lara Aracataca, Magdalena, Colombia—d. April 17, 2014 (age 87) in Alfredo Chavira Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist. He is ARTURO RIPSTEIN Y ROSEN (b. December 13, 1943 in most famous for his novels One Hundred Years of Solitude Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico) is a Mexican director (59 (1967) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). He won the credits), writer (21 credits), and occasional actor (19 credits) who Nobel Prize in Literature winner in 1982 "for his novels and began his film career as an uncredited assistant director to Luis short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined Buñuel on the 1962 film . He has been in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a nominated for the Palm d’Or at Cannes three times for El santo continent's life and conflicts." oficio (1974), La reina de la noche (1994), and El coronel no tiene quien le escriba (1999), and he was nominated for the Un CARLOS FUENTES (b. November 11, 1928 in Panama City, Certain Regard Award at Cannes for El evangelio de las Panama—d. May 15, 2012 (age 83) in Mexico City, Distrito maravillas (1998). Since 1986’s El imperio de la fortuna, his Federal, Mexico) was a Mexican novelist and essayist. Among wife has written for all of his narrative his works are The Death of Artemio Cruz (1962), The Old Gringo films. These are some of the films he has directed: Time to Die (1985) and Christopher Unborn (1987). In his obituary, The New (1966), Memories of the Future (1969), The Children's Hour York Times described Fuentes as "one of the most admired (1969), (1973), The Holy Inquisition (1974), writers in the Spanish-speaking world" and an important Ripstein: TIME TO DIE—2 influence on the Latin American Boom, the "explosion of Latin These are some of her other film and television appearances: American literature in the 1960s and '70s.” His many literary Mamá Inés (1946), Las colegialas (1946), Con la música por honors include the Miguel de Cervantes Prize as well as dentro (1947), Salón México (1949), Midnight (1949), Love for Mexico's highest award, the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Love (1950), Negro es mi color (1951), Tres hombres en mi vida Honor. He was often named as a likely candidate for the Nobel (1952), Eugenia Grandet (1953), After the Storm (1955), El Prize in Literature, though he diario de mi madre (1958), never won. Beneath the Sky of Mexico (1958), My Wife Understands Me (1959), ALEX PHILLIPS (b. Mi madre es culpable (1960), January 11, 1901 in Renfrew, Behind the Clouds (1962), Diablos Ontario, Canada—d. June 14, en el cielo (1965), Sinful (1965), 1977 (age 76) in Mexico, Youth Without Law (1966), Time to D.F., Mexico) was a Die (1966), Mothers' Day (1969), Canadian-born Mexican The Book of Stone (1969), The cinematographer (216 Professor (1971), Rosario (1971), credits) whose career Doña Macabra (1972), La carcel spanned the 1920s to the de Laredo (1985), Reclusorio 1970s. He worked on many (1997), Mujer, casos de la vida of Luis Buñuel’s Mexican real (1997 TV Series), El films. These are some of the privilegio de amar (1998-1999 TV films he worked on: See My Series), The Beach House (2000 Lawyer (1921), Hold Your TV Series), Carita de ángel (2000 Breath (1924), Seven Days TV Series), The Spring (2001 TV (1925), Up in Mabel's Room (1926), The Carnation Kid (1929), Series), Adventures in Time (2001 TV Series), and Bajo la misma Divorce Made Easy (1929), Shadow of Pancho Villa (1933), piel (2003 TV Series). Juarez and Maximillian (1934), Heart of a Bandit (1934), Soulless Women (1934), Cruz Diablo (1934), The Treasure of JORGE MARTÍNEZ DE HOYOS (b. September 25, 1920 in Pancho Villa (1935), The Dressel Family (1935), Luponini de Mexico City, Mexico—d. May 6, 1997 (age 76) in Mexico City, Chicago (1935), Life Begins Today (1935), Marihuana (1936), Mexico) was a Mexican actor (103 credits) who debuted in the Judas (1936), Supreme Law (1937), Wandering Bird (1937), La American film Adventures of in 1947 and in the paloma (1937), Nobody's Wife (1937), The Swallow (1938), Mexican cinema in Esquina baja in 1948. He made his debut on María (1938), In Rough Style (1938), The Mad Empress (1939), I television in the early 1960s and would go on to appear in the Shall Live Again (1940), Imperial Cavalry (1942), The Eternal famous series Lonesome Dove (1989). These are some of his Secret (1942), Toast of Love (1943), St. Francis of Assisi (1944), appearances in film and television: Una familia de tantas (1949), Miguel Strogoff (1944), Naná (1944), Gran Hotel (1944), María Hay lugar para... dos (1949), Confidencias de un ruletero Magdalena, pecadora de Magdala (1946), The Other One (1949), Cuatro contra el mundo (1950), Pobre corazón (1950), (1946), Fantasía ranchera (1947), Bel Ami (1947), The Kneeling Pata de palo (1950), Entre tu amor y el cielo (1950), El grito de Goddess (1947), Reina de reinas: La Virgen María (1948), La la carne (1951), Vivillo desde chiquillo (1951), Dicen que soy sin ventura (1948), May God Forgive Me (1948), Revancha comunista (1951), (1952), Montana Territory (1948), The Devil Is a Woman (1950), Pancho Villa Returns (1952), Ahora soy rico (1952), La mujer que tu quieres (1952), (1950), In the Palm of Your Hand (1951), Mexican Bus Ride El misterio del carro express (1953), Los dineros del diablo (1952), The Absentee (1952), Women Who Work (1953), The (1953), Sueños de gloria (1953), Untouched (1954), El túnel 6 Proud and the Beautiful (1953), Robinson Crusoe (1954), We (1955), The Treasure of Pancho Villa (1955), La doncella de Two (1955), Chilam Balam (1955), Adam and Eve (1956), Sierra piedra (1956), Comanche (1956), Donde el círculo termina Baron (1958), The Last of the Fast Guns (1958), Ten Days to (1956), The Hidden One (1956), (1956), Tulara (1958), Villa!! (1958), For the Love of Mike (1960), Los amantes (1956), Canasta de cuentos mexicanos (1956), Dios Geronimo (1962), Little Village (1962), The Rape of the Sabines no lo quiera (1957), La mafia del crimen (1958), Una golfa (1962), The Rage (1962), Of Love and Desire (1963), Black (1958), Housewife to Your Neighbor (1958), The Smile of the Wind (1965), Time to Die (1966), Juan Colorado (1966), The Virgin (1958), Café Colón (1959), Sábado negro (1959), The Female Soldier (1966), Estrategia matrimonio (1966), Traitors Magnificent Seven (1960), Las recién casadas (1962), One Day of San Angel (1967), La guerrillera de Villa (1967), Memories of in December (1962), Cinco asesinos esperan (1964), 100 Cries the Future (1969), Andante (1969), Dead Aim (1971), The of Terror (1965), Black Wind (1965), Smoky (1966), Time to Die Fearmaker (1971), The Night of a Thousand Cats (1972), and (1966), The Professionals (1966), Day of the Evil Gun (1968), The Castle of Purity (1973). Guns for San Sebastian (1968), Valentín de la Sierra (1968), The Apple of Discord (1968), The Adventurers (1970), The Bridge in MARGA LÓPEZ (b. June 21, 1924 in San Miguel de Tucuman, the Jungle (1970), McCloud (1975 TV Series), La India (1976), Argentina—d. July 4, 2005 (age 81) in Mexico City, Mexico) La casta divina (1977), Los amantes frios (1978), Damian was an Argentine-born Mexican actress (106 credits). Her film (1985), Cronos (1993), A Trickle of Blood (1995), and Oedipo debut was in Humberto Gómez Landero 1945 film El hijo alcalde (1996). desobediente. In 1959, she appeared in Luis Buñuel’s Nazarín. Ripstein: TIME TO DIE—3

ENRIQUE ROCHA (b. TV Series), Mujeres asesinas January 5, 1940 in (2009 TV Series), Los Guanajuato, Mexico) is a simuladores (2009 TV Series), Mexican film and television and It's Not You, It's Me (2010). actor (82 credits), known for films such as Satanico Rebecca Flint Marx: “Arturo Pandemonium (1975), El Ripstein” (Rovi): privilegio de amar (1998) Widely considered Mexico's and Por un beso (2000). most celebrated and respected These are some other films contemporary filmmaker, as well and television series he has as perhaps the only director to appeared in: Confesión de have truly inherited Luis Stavroguin (1963 Short), Los Buñuel's mantle, Arturo Ripstein sheriffs de la frontera is a legend in his own right. His (1965), La mentira (1965 TV films have earned both fame and Series), El proceso de Cristo infamy for taking melodrama to (1965), Time to Die (1965), its macabre extremes, and they Marcelo y María (1965), Cristina Guzmán (1966 TV Series), A reflect the director's fascination -- one shared by Buñuel -- Woman Possessed (1965), El caudillo (1965), The Bed (1965), with l'amour fou and claustrophobia. Although his films have Los amigos (1965), Santa (1965), Prohibido (1965), El club de been enthusiastically received outside of Mexico in France and los suicidas (1965), El monasterio de los buitres (1965), Satanás Spain, Ripstein is largely unknown to American audiences, an de todos los horrores (1965), Satanico Pandemonium (1965), oversight that is unfortunate at the very least. Hora Marcada (1988 TV Series), The Other Crime (1965), Born in Mexico City on December 13, 1945, Ripstein Pasión y poder (1988 TV Series), Violencia a sangre fría (1989 was the son of producer Alfredo Ripstein, Jr. Growing up on the TV Movie), Kino (1965), Two Women, One Road (1993 TV sets of his father's films, he became infatuated with the idea of Series), Mujeres infieles (1965), Las Vías del Amor (2002 TV becoming a filmmaker at a very young age. He began his Series), Rubí (2004 TV Series), Rebelde (2004-2006 TV Series), professional career at the age of 19 as the (unbilled) assistant Lola: Érase una vez (2007 TV Series), Wild Heart (2009-2010 director to Buñuel on El Ángel Exterminador (1962). This TV Series), and Silvia Pinal... frente a tí (2019 TV Mini-Series). working relationship gave rise to a close personal friendship that continued until Buñuel's death, and although Ripstein has ALFREDO LEAL (b. May 18, 1930 in Mexico, Distrito claimed that he learned very little from working with the master Federal, Mexico—d. October 2, 2003 (age 73) in Ciudad de director (because, he once stated in an interview, Buñuel was México, Mexico) was an actor (30 credits), known for Las "perfect"), the latter's influences on his films are unmistakable. travesuras del diablo (1991), which he wrote and directed, and Ripstein made his directorial and screenwriting debut in films such as Río Hondo (1965), Time to Die (1966), La muerte 1965 with Tiempo De Morir (Time to Die). A story of murder es puntual (1967), Carne de horca (1973), Hermanos de sangre and revenge, it explored many of the themes that the director (1974), Acapulco 12-22 (1975), La vida difícil de una mujer fácil would make the trademarks of his brand of "macabre (1979), Cuando tejen las arañas (1979), Lobo salvaje (1983), melodrama" in the years to come. The film's script was written Maten al fugitivo (1986), Conexión criminal (1987), Traficantes by Carlos Fuentes and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García de cocaina (1987), La chamarra de la muerte (1989), Los Márquez; Ripstein would subsequently collaborate with a fugitivos (1990), and Cuentas claras (1999). number of important Latin American writers, including Joss Emilio Pancheco (El Castillo De La Pureza (The Castle of BLANCA SÁNCHEZ (b. March 2, 1946 in Mexico City, Purity), 1974, and El Santo Oficio (Holy Office), 1974); José Distrito Federal, Mexico—d. 7, 2010 (age 63) in Mexico City, Donoso (El Lugar Sin Limites (Hell Has No Limits), 1977); Mexico) was a Mexican character actress (109 credits) who Vincente Leñero (La Tía Alejandra (Aunt Alexandra), 1978); and appeared in films such as Tiempo de morir (1966), Cuando los Luis Spota (Cadena Perpetua (In For Life), 1978). hijos se van (1969), Los amores de Chucho el Roto (1970), and During the '70s, Ripstein garnered increasing Mamá Dolores (1973). She appeared in several telenovelas such recognition for his films, particularly El Santo Oficio, which was as Quinceañera and Luz y sombra. These are some of her other shown in competition at the 1974 Cannes Festival. An account of film and television appearances: Yo, el mujeriego (1963), La the sufferings of a Jewish family forced to flee to Mexico during sombra de los hijos (1964), Canta mi corazón (1965), Joselito the Spanish Inquisition, it drew on Ripstein's own Jewish vagabundo (1966), El cachorro (1966), To Kill Is Easy (1966), heritage and provided a stark exploration of the claustrophobia of Los mediocres (1966), Los jinetes de la bruja (En el viejo oppressive secrets and assumed identity. Guanajuato) (1966), Vértigo (1966 TV Series), Los tres Due to a lack of funding for his films, Ripstein mosqueteros de Dios (1967), Canción de Navidad (1974 TV occasionally made commissioned movies, such as La Ilegal (The Movie), Los bandidos del río frío (1976 TV Series), Pepi, Luci, Illegal Woman, 1979). Produced by Televicine, the filial Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980), The Oil Conspiracy company of the Mexican media conglomerate Televisa, it starred (1981), Las delicias del matrimonio (1994), First Love (2000 TV one of Mexico's biggest starlets at the time, Lucia Méndez as an Series), Green Stones (2001), Fuego en la sangre (2008 TV illegal Mexican immigrant in the United States. Series), Enemigos íntimos (2008), La rosa de Guadalupe (2008 Such commissioned films were thankfully the exception Ripstein: TIME TO DIE—4 to the norm rather than the norm itself, and Ripstein continued to sentence for murder, the camera shoots him from behind as he do his best work on an independent level. After directing Imperio moves forward onto the open land. The shot echoes the final De La Fortuna (, 1987), which was based scene of Ford’s film, where John Wayne’s racist, defeated war on a text by Juan Rolfo, he began working with his wife Paz veteran slumbers away from his family’s ranch and toward the Alicia Garciadiego, a collaboration that produced some of horizon. However, Ripstein’s allusion comes to distinguish his Ripstein's most celebrated films. Of his work with screenwriter vision of the western genre from Ford’s, as Juan’s subsequent Garciadiego, the director once quipped that she, as a Catholic, arrival in a small Mexican town brings forth the vengefully- introduces sin to their scripts, minded sons of the man he killed; whereas he, as a Jew, they see Juan’s death as the only provides the guilt. possible, justifiable resolution to a One of Ripstein's childhood spent mourning, and more acclaimed efforts with stewing in, their father’s absence. Garciadiego was Principio y The film understands that conflict Fin (The Beginning and the often stems from deluded End, 1994). Based upon the perceptions of the past; Juan’s novel by Nobel Prize-winning violent entanglements by the Egyptian author Naguib film’s conclusion seem Mahfouz, the film traced the predetermined in ways that his disintegration of a family attempts at reason cannot following the sudden death of overcome. the father. It won the San The screenplay by Carlos Sebastian Film Festival's Fuentes and Gabriel García Gold Shell award; that same Márquez turns Juan’s aims to year, Ripstein's La Reina De exonerate his previous act of La Noche (The Queen of the violence, which was seemingly in Night, 1994) was shown in competition at Cannes. A self-defense, into a series of fruitless gestures, as Julian (Alfredo fictionalized biography of legendary Mexican singer Lucha Leal), the eldest son of Juan’s victim, refuses to even consider Reyes, it was melodrama at its most effective, combining beauty the possibility that the image he’s built in his mind of Juan as a and tragedy with the authority of real-life occurrences. cold, ruthless killer is perhaps entirely false. Ripstein stages Profundo Carmesí (, 1996), was Juan’s initial encounters with peripheral members of the town in Ripstein's most celebrated work to date. Based upon the real-life steady, symmetrical shots, suggesting a false sense of security "Lonely Hearts Murders" that took place in Mexico during the that Julian’s presence will soon disrupt. Luis Buñuel took a late 1940s, it was perhaps Ripstein's most full-bodied and similar approach to scene construction in 1953’s , successful exploration of l'amour fou. Of this brand of crazy love playing a climactic murder with the same tone as any other that takes place between the film's main characters, a badly aging dialogue exchange in the film. The effect becomes disorienting gigolo and an excessively overweight nurse with halitosis, in Time to Die, as Juan’s refusal to engage Julian’s challenge to a Ripstein stated "There's nothing like mad love: it shatters, duel provides no solace from the eldest son’s persistent thirst for corrupts, transforms...Nothing like mad love to break, tear down, bloodshed. and undo the house of social order. Nothing is more flippant, The script juggles a wide range of character sacrilegious, or heretic. Nothing more human." The film won a motivations, including that of Julian’s younger brother, Pedro number of awards at the Venice Film Festival and earned a (Enrique Rocha), who comes to know Juan before realizing that Special Mention in Latin American Cinema at that year's he’s the man who killed his father. Pedro’s voice of reason Sundance Festival. counters Julian’s irrational fury; he recognizes Juan’s sincerity, In 1997, Ripstein was awarded the National Prize for believing his claims that he acted out of self-preservation rather the Arts in Mexico, becoming the only filmmaker aside from than malice. Still, it’s Julian’s temper that supersedes Pedro’s Buñuel to have received the honor. That same year, he began preference for conversation, which aligns with the subsequent working on a new film, El Evangelio De Las Maravillas themes of Ripstein’s work, namely 1978’s Hell Without Limits, (Divine), 1998). Based on actual events that took place in where violence proves to be the only refuge of angry, Mexico during the 1970s, it was a comedy-drama about a homophobic men. Ripstein sees in Pedro’s more levelheaded religious cult. The film was screened at Cannes. The following sensibilities a possible out from such a legacy of vengeance, yet year, Ripstein's El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba (No One it seems that the lacking structures of justice and psychotherapy Writes to the Colonel was also screened in competition at the cannot be successfully countered by the peaceful will of a festival. Based on García Márquez's novel, it was another study community held under the thumb of Julian’s wrath. of a character trapped in a fatal destiny, driven into a hopeless Thus, Time to Die is a revisionist western that void by his needy supplication to mere illusion. anticipates the genre’s turn toward a reckoning with the ghastly, resounding effects of historical violence. One can easily see in Clayton Dillard: “Time to Die” (Slant) Juan’s dilemma a comparable form of futile argumentation faced Arturo Ripstein’s Time to Diecommences with an by Gary Cooper’s town marshal in 1952’s High Noon, yet explicit reference to John Ford’s The Searchers. As Juan Sagayo Ripstein offers no form of protection for Juan, who finds himself (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) exits a prison after serving an 18-year with his hand grasping a pistol on his hip by the film’s end, faced Ripstein: TIME TO DIE—5 with killing off the second generation of a family against his will. wasteland that pointlessly protects the empty vastness, a stone In the closing shots, especially, theatrical compositions and wall that encloses nothing. The man approaches a solitary grave distorted image perspective demonstrate Ripstein’s interest in marked by a wooden cross and we finally see his face as he lights shifting tonal registers to reflect the horror in recognizing how a cigarette. From the beginning, we recognize in Juan Sáyago reason and empathy as strategies of communication are often (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) the specter of living death, a man so insufficient weapons to counter the will to power of violent men. haunted by his life that even in all his remaining vitality is a moribund reminder of his own inescapable fate, a fate he may not have deserved but that he must bear. The town to which he returns is a dusty no-man's land. The wind-blown farm his mother left behind is desiccated; the door to the yard falls off of its hinges from only the slightest exertion of force. This is unforgiving land in an unforgiving town. Sáyago was imprisoned for killing another horseman, Trueba. Trueba was bitter over the loss of a race and continually insulted Sáyago publicly, humiliated him, and terrorized him. But then Sáyago killed Trueba and went to jail. Trueba’s two sons (played by Enrique Rocha and Alfredo Leal) remain in the town—one with no memory of the event (he was simply too young) and the other oppressed by the bitter and distorted recollections of a child who lost his father at an age when it is nearly impossible not to worship your father. The remaining citizens of the town, many of whom openly admire Sáyago, would prefer to see him leave the village in peace, to live out his days far away from his home that can seemingly neither forget nor forgive him. But Sáyago refuses any suggestions of his departure. He was promised a horse and a job by his former employer (now deceased) upon his release. The employer’s son offers Sáyago Chadwick Jenkins: “The Western and Melancholy: On any horse of his choosing, provided Sáyago leave town. Sáyago Arturo Ripstein’s ‘Time to Die” (PopMatters): simply foregoes the horse. Meanwhile, the older son of Trueba If the vital force of existence requires that we connect to revisits the same torture upon Sáyago that the man had the world around us, then melancholia is the principle of death. experienced from the father. In this film, everything returns upon A man walks through the gates of a prison somewhere the wheel of fate. Sáyago lives within a closed circle of time; the in the nearly barren wasteland of a remote area in Mexico. The film documents the recapitulation of Sáyago’s initial fall from doors shut behind him but we see no one else, simply the man, grace—but now he is older, he lacks the urgency and already sweating, carrying only a small bag presumably cocksureness of youth. In his senescence, in his living experience containing his belongings. He enters the world again after 18 of a walking death, Sáyago becomes the figure of the years of incarceration and wends his way toward his hometown melancholic. where he is no longer wanted but all-too-well remembered. The The melancholic occupies a peculiar position in the guitar on the soundtrack accompanies a lugubrious horn, world. On the one hand, the melancholic is deeply concerned producing an effect of inevitability, the ineluctability of one’s with her earthbound, creaturely nature. Closed in on the self, the progress through life, our inexorable tendency toward our own melancholic seeks shelter within the space of a world from which ends. she feels alienated. The melancholic is acutely aware of her This is the opening of Time to Die (Tiempo de Morir; abiding awareness of a latent illness, a discomfiting sense of the 1966), Arturo Ripstein’s directorial debut based on a script proximity of others that can never be close enough, comforting written by the celebrated Latin American novelists Carlos enough, reassuring enough. On the other hand, the melancholic Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez. The film is rarely screened separates from other subjects (and objects) in the world to gain a in the United States (this is its first real US run, having only transcendent view of reality. She looks beyond the world of appeared sporadically prior to this) and will be shown in New experience and sees the world for what it is: a collection of dead York City at the Film Forum from 15-21 September. It's one of objects, bereft of deeper meaning that nevertheless present the finest examples of the so-called “Chili” or “Charro” Western themselves as cryptic symbols to be read and interpreted, (Mexican-made Westerns starting in the '30s that usually focus symbols that require our discernment but belie our on the lives of horsemen in rural towns) from the period that understanding. marks the waning of that genre’s influence. It also inaugurates Thus, the melancholic attempts to hold this seeming the prolific directorial career of Ripstein, an artist too often contradiction together in an impossible unity of thought: the overlooked by US cinephiles. world is our home and only possible comfort and yet it The man continues through the barren landscape, the continually recedes from our presence; it vibrates with the aggregation of sweat that appears on the back of his shirt deepens echoing lament of our unhoused condition. Our being is engulfed and spreads. Slowly signs of habitation begin to appear but the by an absence that sits at the very core of our existence. The land seems abandoned still—a barbed-wire fence within the melancholic’s characteristic affect of sadness is therefore not a Ripstein: TIME TO DIE—6 merely subjective response to regrettable conditions but rather a not simply because it signifies the end of the life he once enjoyed disposition that reveals the world to exist under the sign of an but rather, and more importantly, because it signifies the end of irresistible lachrymosity. This is a sadness that appears as an significance, the end of meaning, the beginning of a melancholic objective view of the state of things. It’s the enactment of a realization that death pervades his existence and that fate’s circle recognition of our deep desire to connect with things in the world inevitably draws to a close. and our utter inability to do so. If the vital force of existence requires that we connect to the world around us, then melancholia is the principle of death. The Western as a genre (and the “Chili” Western, in particular) accommodates the melancholic in a particularly fitting manner; this is the existential core of the lonely figure that resides at the center of so many Westerns: the man with no name, the stranger with a secret untold or, as in this film, the doomed man who longs for home but recognizes the intransigent nature of fate, the man who recognizes that he will never (not even in death) stop paying for his past transgressions (even transgressions made against his will), for no compensation will satisfy. The notion of “compensation” or “retribution” requires a faith in the underlying balance of the world; all accounts can be settled in the end with some sense of divine propriety. This is the promise held out by a “Western (genre) (Wikipedia faith in love and love’s connectivity. The world is meaningful Western is a genre of various arts which tell stories set because I connect to it; my belonging to the world makes it the primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American site of repletion, of inherent value. Old West, often centering on the life of a The melancholic sees that this is not so, that the nomadic cowboy or gunfighter armed with a revolver and accounts are eternally blasted. My longing for the world is a rifle who rides a horse. Cowboys and gunslingers typically predicated upon the impassable abyss that separates it from me. wear Stetson hats, neckerchief bandannas, vests, spurs, cowboy No balance can be achieved because my relation to the world is boots and buckskins (alternatively dusters). Recurring characters founded upon a radical asymmetry between the melancholic include the aforementioned cowboys, Native Americans, bandits, desire for meaning and the recalcitrant refusal of the world to lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, gamblers, soldiers (especially provide anything beyond empty symbols that promise meaning mounted cavalry, such as buffalo soldiers), and settlers (farmers, but turn to dust upon the merest inspection. Love does not ranchers, and townsfolk). The ambience is usually punctuated dissipate for the melancholic, values do not crumble. But the with a Western music score, including American and Mexican melancholic recognizes that love and value are not inherent in the folk musicsuch as country, Native American music, New Mexico world. They are the result of an unfulfillable desire. There is love music, and rancheras. and there are values not because the world tends toward balance Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness but rather because it is hopelessly askew. Love and values are the and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of existential gambits of the melancholic attempt to reconcile deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an oneself with the irreconcilable indifference of the world. important role, presenting a "...mythic vision of the plains and So, Sáyago cannot reinsert himself in his hometown but neither deserts of the American West". Specific settings include ranches, can he depart from it. He must haunt its spaces in that small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts melancholic paradox of alienated belonging. Sáyago’s desire to of the Wild West. return home, to forge meaning within his life by connecting to Common plots include: his past (seeking out his former home, his former friends, his • The construction of a railroad or a telegraph line on the former love) must fail. Fate, in this sense, is not what’s deserved, wild frontier. it’s what must be endured, what must be accepted. The detached • Ranchers protecting their family ranch from rustlers or insight Sáyago seems to have attained is held in one thought with large landowners or who build a ranch empire. his longing for reconciliation, his need to return to the repletion • Revenge stories, which hinge on the chase and pursuit of belonging. But this thought, this mode of being, is impossible by someone who has been wronged. to maintain; what was once meaningful is now robbed of its • Stories about cavalry fighting Native Americans. significance. The feelings are still there, the symbols of the • Outlaw gang plots. fullness of his past life remain, but they are emptied out of the • Stories about a lawman or bounty hunter tracking down connection between Sáyago and his world. his quarry. Where connection is severed and meaning dissipates, Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, life is lost and death pervades. The title of the film, Time to then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge Die then, becomes not so much about the moment of death (“this and retribution, which is often dispensed through is the time you die”) but rather the persistence of a living death a shootout or quick-draw duel. of melancholia (“this is the time of abiding death, a living The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre entombment”). Sáyago thus returns to that cross at the end of the from the early 20th century to the 1960s. Western films first film, doubtless the cross that commemorates the grave of the became well-attended in the 1930s. John Ford's landmark man he killed (although this is never explicitly stated in the film) Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in Ripstein: TIME TO DIE—7

1939 and it made John Wayne a mainstream screen star. The the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a popularity of Westerns continued in the 1940s, with the release gunfighter.[1] A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or of classics such as Red more gunfighters is a River (1948). Westerns were very stereotypical scene in the popular throughout the 1950s and popular conception of 1960s. Many of the most Westerns. acclaimed Westerns were released In some ways, such during this time, including High protagonists may be Noon (1952), Shane (1953), The considered the literary Searchers (1956), Cat descendants of the knight Ballou (1965), The Wild errant which stood at the Bunch (1969) and Butch Cassidy center of earlier extensive and the Sundance Kid (1969). genres such as the Arthurian Classic Westerns such as these Romances.[1] Like the have been the inspiration for cowboy or gunfighter of the various films about Western-type Western, the knight errant of characters in contemporary the earlier European tales and settings, such as Junior poetry was wandering from Bonner (1972), set in the 1970s, place to place on his horse, and The Three Burials of fighting villains of various Melquiades Estrada (2005), set in the 21st century. kinds and bound to no fixed social structures but only to their own innate code of honor. And like knights errant, the heroes of Themes Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress. Similarly, the The Lone Ranger; a famous heroic lawman who was wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with a cavalry of six Texas Rangers, until they were all killed but with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. him. He preferred to remain anonymous, so he resigned and built The Western typically takes these elements and uses a sixth grave that supposedly held his body. He fights on as a them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable lawman, wearing a mask, for, "Outlaws live in a world of fear. examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or Clint Fear of the mysterious." Eastwood's Unforgiven, about an old hired killer) are more The Western genre sometimes portrays the conquest of morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress the harshness and the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier.[1] The settings such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or Wild West: it is the place to go for music (raucous piano retribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g., True playing), women (often prostitutes), gambling (draw poker or Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This five card stud), drinking (beer or whiskey), brawling and Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that town has a church, a general store, a bank and a school; in others, exist in cities, in which social order is maintained predominately where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms. "where life has no value". The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on

COMING UP IN THE SPRING 2019 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS (SERIES 38)

Apr 2 Michelangelo Antonioni Blow-Up 1966 Apr 9 Michael Cimino The Deer Hunter 1978 Apr 16 Terry Jones Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 Apr 23 Stanley Kubrick Eyes Wide Shut 1999 Apr 30 Frederick Wiseman Monrovia, Indiana 2018 May 7 Alfonso Cuarón Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004

CONTACTS:...email Diane Christian: [email protected]…email Bruce Jackson [email protected] the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto [email protected] cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/ The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Dipson Amherst Theatre, with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News.