The Ruination of Men

Black and white, 35 mm
Mexico, Spain, 2000, 98 min
Section: Tribute to Arturo Ripstein

Synopsis

The film plot is based on a Mexican saying – “damned women are the ruination of men”. The story unfolds in three separate parts where we discover what preceded the death of the main character. His downfall was brought about by two women who also squabble over his dead body, and by his passion for baseball. Arturo Ripstein and screenwriter Paz Alicia Garcíadiego continue in the style of video films enclosed in the microworld of the henpecked little Mexican. Here this world is generously portrayed – in the typical Mexican Spanish, the nopal fields, the morbid details and in the slightly surreal atmosphere. The hand-held camera allows for extremely long shots or, conversely, short, nervous lens movements. According to the screenwriter, baseball was chosen as a symbol of the kind of tedious sport that could never lead to such tragic events. Moreover, it provided a good pretext for glimpsing the innermost depths of the Mexican soul, since the game symbolises American culture. The narrative style, method of acting and the dialogues clearly point to the tawdry domestic production of the late Eighties and early Nineties, the difference being that, here, the form is used to lay bare the ailments of contemporary society. Not even this time does the director spare his native country, which emerges as a dumping ground for the most wretched cliches about Latin America and the Third World. In comparison with some of Ripstein’s previous films, The Ruination of Men is merely a detour to visual simplicity (black-and-white film, absence of symbols, return to early film language).