For over two decades, Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto has established himself as one of his trade's most accomplished artists. After breaking out on the international stage with Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams," Prieto has gone on to work with directors like Ang Lee for "Brokeback Mountain," Ben Affleck for "Argo," Martin Scorsese for "Killers of the Flower Moon," and Greta Gerwig for "Barbie," in addition to many more music videos and glossy commercials. It's no surprise that the cinematographer's directorial feature debut is an alluring ghost story full of visual intrigue and surrealist imagery, giving him the space to showcase his strengths while working out some of the storytelling mechanics.
Based on Juan Rulfo's book by the same title, "Pedro Páramo" follows Juan Preciado, a man grieving the death of his mother as he carries out her wish to track down his long-estranged father where they once lived in the faraway town of Comala. Instead of the once-bustling village his mother described, Juan finds a ghost town full of nightmarish stories about his father, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo), who laid waste to the area as a rich ranch owner with unchecked power over the women and local resources. As Juan hears each new story of woe from its ghostly residents, the tragedies pile up over the years, creating a complicated portrait of the man he would never have the chance to meet.
As a feature debut, "Pedro Páramo" is an impressive work of cinematography. Prieto, who both directs and serves as the film's director of photography alongside fellow cinematographer Nico Aguilar, begins this story by showing the vast sparseness surrounding the town as if to highlight its isolation from the rest of the world before entering Comala with a sense of foreboding. He plays with surrealistic moments of imagining a vision of lost souls floating above the desolate village and black-and-white sexual fantasies on a beach as a solitary retreat for one of the characters. But even outside the realm of the imagined, his camerawork is just as impressive capturing the mundanity of these violent times, like when lens floats over a stream of water and follows it as it pools around a dead body, float through a busy party to eavesdrop on several characters in various locations on the ranch, or when it sweeps over a long table like a dolly shot right into the face of one of our main characters as he's surrounded by potential enemies.
Prieto's cinematography can be so exciting that it redeems some of the crowded parts of the film's uneven script. Mateo Gil's screenplay of Rulfo's "Pedro Páramo" feels painfully condensed, moving through the film's mysteries as if speedwalking through the narrative, like an aunt mentioning one unknown relative after another because she assumes you already know all about them. The experience felt like watching a season of a TV show in one afternoon and every episode featured new characters and plotlines that crisscrossed at various times. Ghostly characters apparate in and out of the frame with alarming regularity, and it took a moment to learn to be on the lookout for the next character swap and a new story. Others, like our hero Juan, become narrators to the past, leading the camera briskly to its new storyline.
Huerta appears almost too briefly among many spirited visions. Still, he is our surrogate who–while regretful in following his mother's request–leads us into the past to see Pedro and the many lives he's affected. There's Juan's unfortunate mother, Dolores (Ishbel Bautista), who is unceremoniously sent away after she's served her purpose, and her close confidant Eduviges (Dolores Heredia), who's the first to welcome Juan into the once-thriving village. There's the long-suffering maid Damiana (Mayra Batalla) and the troubled Dorotea (Giovanna Zacarías), whose full story is one of many layered tragedies. Then there's the priest worn down by Pedro's sins, Padre Renteria (Roberto Sosa), Pedro's loyal foreman Fulgor (Hector Kotsifakis), and Susana (Ilse Salas), the real love of Pedro's life whose story – like the others – is an unhappy one.
Although the large cast and time-traveling narrative that unravels at a dizzying speed sometimes gets away from Prieto, the world of "Pedro Páramo" is a fantastical one to watch. Each story of heartbreak and mystery is cloaked with painstaking period details by the production design teams headed by Eugenio Caballero and Carlos Y. Jacques, as well as costume designer Anna Terrazas, who carefully crafts each character by giving them a distinct look, while their surroundings give away a timely feel for the bygone period. While shaky out of the gate, perhaps there is more to Prieto's vision than meets the eye, and if "Pedro Páramo" is any indication, there may be more creative challenges to take on in his future.
