Dance with the Devil (1997)

Álex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango (1997) is an outrageously wild and violent road movie that has greater premise than the actual film. The film is based on the Barry Gifford book as was David Lynch's film Wild at Heart (1990), too, and the character Perdita is the lead character in Iglesia's film whereas she had only a small part in Lynch's much more noteworthy film.

Perdita Durango (Rosie Perez) is an attractive and exotic Mexican girl with violent past and future, as we soon learn. She meets mysterious Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem) who practises some strange and bloody voodoo/Satanism rituals and also needs human victims for his acts he performs for and with some cult. They team up, and start their violent journey near the border of Mexico and the USA in order to steal a huge truck carrying loads of human fetuses for some sleazy pedophiliac mafia boss. Yes it sounds very outrageous and once all the characters are introduced the level of wildness reaches its most breathtaking level.

The film is pretty empty in content for sure, unlike David Lynch's film, for example. It has one quite funny bit of commentary about stupid mediocre TV audience that gets its meaning for life through various TV shows and commercialism related to it, and that is exactly the kind of humor that can be found in Iglesia's another outrageous (gore) comedy Acción Mutante (1993). But mostly Perdita Durango seems to concentrate on sudden and rather shocking bursts of violence and steamy sex that will definitely annoy censors throughout the world. There is a silent moment at the end which tells something about what is happening inside the character's head and what she has learnt but still it could have been a whole serious theme for the film. Also the way how the kidnapped couple change in their dangerous situation is quite repulsive as in that world it seems like the more selfish and mean you are the more you will succeed and survive. The young couple is not used as it should have been if Iglesia would have liked to include some serious and dramatic elements to the film and characters and thus make a more noteworthy piece of powerful film.

The other characters are also very nasty and perverse, completely unable to control their violent and sexual instincts, but they are also quite blackly humorous (the mafia boss, the two FBI agents etc.) and so the tone of the film is not too serious at all. Most of the characters are just animals in the burning heat of the border trying to exploit and survive from each other. Romeo's character is definitely as wicked as they come but still he is far from the effect of Willem Dafoe in Lynch's film, where the character was the other side of human nature, whereas Igleasia never seems to be interested in depicting things so deep in this film. His characters are just bad, violent, miserable and selfish scumbags and there are not too many, or any, normal and safe feeling individuals in the film. The FBI caricature played by a film maker Alex Cox (Repo Man) is quite funny and makes fun on all the serious agent characters of the cinematic history.

The film is far from the greatness of Iglesia's wonderful El Dia de la Bestia aka The Day of the Beast (1995) with its philosophic elements and incredible atmosphere with great visuality. Perdita hasn't got any genuinely interesting and inventive camerawork or cinematic magic and even the rites Romeo commits are not as chilling as in, for example, Wes Craven's Serpent and the Rainbow (1987). The soundtr

Fmovies: Being a huge Barry Gifford fan, having enjoyed De La Iglesia's Day of the Beast, and of the opinion that Wild at Heart was one of the best novel to film adaptations in the history of cinema, needless to say, my expectations for this movie were very high. I couldnt have imagined it being so satisfying.

De La Iglesia's adaptation of Perdita Durango takes its liberties but (like Wild At Heart) finds its inspiration in the original source material without destroying the spirit.

Romeo and Perdita carve their way through the world with violence, magic, and sex. They are sadistic, perverse, and perfect for each other. From their first fateful meeting, to their kidnapping of two suburban white kids, to driving a truck full of fetus destined to be black market makeup, it is a dark destiny, a collision of two black souls. If the movie has any message, it is that even the most wicked person has a diabolic soulmate. Love does not discriminate.

The performances are great. Javier Bardem as Romeo was totally unrecognizable as the same guy who played the stud in Jamon, Jamon. He plays Romeo as charming, self preserving, and almost noble killer because of his beliefs in darkness, sacrifice, revenge, and amoral spirituality. My fears of Rosie Perez, an actress I am not fond of in any way, were unfounded as she embodied Perdita perfectly with sadism and sizzle. James Gandolfini, as the Wile E Coyote like DEA agent Dumas, was also very good, perpetually abused and doggedly determined.

De La Iglesia handles with the film with great skill. The pacing is fast and furious. Every scene is alive with energy, and his composition is masterful. He has vastly improved from the flawed, yet entertaining, Day of the Beast, and demonstrates that his is a talent that continues to grow. Given the proper material and time, I can see him providing a enjoyable body of manic, surreal, and outrageous work.

"Wild at Heart" was originally a novel by Barry Gifford. Although "Perdita Durango is not directed by David Lynch and has Rosie Perez instead of Isabella Rosselini as Perdita; it's still one awesome road trip. The screenplay was written by Gifford and the film is directed by Alex de le Inglesia, the guy who gave you "Accion Mutante". Rosie Perez gives the performance of her career as ruthless bad girl "Perdita Durango". Her boyfriend Romeo (Javier Bardem) is a criminal and bank robber who's into black magic. He has to deliver a truck of baby fetus' to Las Vegas for his mob boss Santos. Both Perdita and Romeo are so deranged that they make Mickey and Mallory Knox of "Natural Born Killers" look like something out of a Disney movie. Perdita and Romeo kidnap a white virgin couple for his ritualistic sacrifice; the annoying but lovable couple Duane and Estelle. The film is very disturbing with its dark tone. You'll either be laughing one minute or cringing the next. Also look for James Gandalfini as Willie Dumas, a down on his luck sheriff. Perdita Durango is one crazy chaotic road trip of sex and violence. The US version is called "Dance with the Devil" and is trimmed by a couple minutes. Do yourself a favor and track down a copy of the uncut international version.

Dance with the Devil fmovies. Well done technically, well made, well acted, but an awful, awful, awful story. The scummiest, skankiest, nastiest, cruelest, vilest characters with not a sliver of redeeming likable quality are the heroes of this film. The violence and rape is graphic and I got the impression was being rubbed in the audience's face. These are people you wait for someone like Clint Eastwood, or El Mariachi to come and blow up, but no such person appears here, because these people are supposed to be the heroes - the ones we are supposed to cheer on. I felt more compassion for Hitler than these people. I liked Dr. Hannibal more than these people. Someone must have sat down and tried to think of all the worst characteristics you could create in human beings, with the worst possible circumstances in which they could be expressed. Ewwww.

I picked up DANCE WITH THE DEVIL at the local video store, basically because Rosie Perez was on the cover holding a double-barrel shotgun. Need I say more? Okay I will. Originally titled "Perdita Durango" after Rosie's character, this is one twisted, shocking, and absolutely fantastic film. Although a little on the low budget-side, it definitely makes up for it with a killer script and terrific performances from the entire cast. It was based on the novel by Barry Gifford who also co-wrote the screenplay. You might remember him from writing David Lynch's films WILD AT HEART and LOST HIGHWAY. Although Perdita is the main character of the film, there is little known about who she really is and what she is all about. Javier Bardem basically steals the show through his intense performance as Romeo, the devil with the rattlesnake boots. Of course we cannot forget James "Tony Soprano" Gandolfini who delivers a great role as a narcotics detective. Like some kind of twisted cross between NATURAL BORN KILLERS and DESPERADO, this film never lets up from start to finish. It's definitely a contemporary cult classic chock full of violence, sex, drugs, dark humor, voodoo, and......Hey I don't want to give it all away, just see it!!!

Alex de la Iglesias seems to tap so well into Barry Gifford's material that he almost gives David Lynch, who's worked with the man twice (including on the script for near-masterpiece Lost Highway, also released in 1997), a run for his surrealistic-road-movie money. Perdita Durango, aka Dance with the Devil, is a firecracker of a thriller, loaded with so much (controlled) insanity, skillful and even artistically driven film-making, and a dynamite cast, that it threatens to burn off the screen and rape all of our children while it does Santeria in our living rooms. On the surface it's just a, well, crazy exploitation movie premise: two bad-asses, one a big dude with a Mexican mullet and a history of mystical ties to ritual dancing and sacrifices (Romeo), another a long-haired, curvy lover-cum-killer with a tough front and a jealous heart ( Perdita Durango) are on their way to bring a truck full of frozen embryos across the border, with a kidnapped "gringo" couple in tow.

But within that surface there's a lot going on. Not that the film goes into the art-house sect like Wild at Heart, but it digs into the meat of its premise and the danger at every turn for all of the characters. The hand of fate slips in probably just as much, if not more-so, than the other infamous Bardem picture No Country for Old Men. At the drop of a hat a character can get run over by a car (sometimes, in the case of Gandolfini's hilariously hammy-pig DEA agent Woody Dumas, more than once), or a score that was scorned can come back to haunt another characters, or dancing out of some old tribal instinct in the middle of a club. It's an absurdist view of material that is on the one hand deranged and funny because of the random outrageousness of the violence, but on the other hand much more well-done because Iglesias doesn't stoop to poor craftsmanship. This is B-movie-making for people who like good, strong, lean direction that can take some detours that don't leave the audience too much in the dust.

On second thought, that last point could be contested. I could imagine somebody watching Perdita Durango and not liking it at all, being just completely put off by the violence and (usually) sadistic host of characters, and how it doesn't seem to connect most times with a real sense of reality (as my friend pointed out watching it, early on the film seems to resemble a kind of film vomit, loaded with colors and scenes and bits thrown together). But it's a fair assessment. For those who know what they're getting, they need look no further than the cover, which has Perez &/or Bardem looking like they're right out of a pulp fiction book, with her holding a gun and him with his crazed eyes. If you do give it a chance, however, it does provide more than the expectations for your usual road movie. And the cast is a huge part of this. Aside from Bardem's presence, there's also Perez, who is in one of her very best turns as the title character, as rough as an outlaw but vulnerable. And then there's Gandolfini, great supporting moments from Cox, Hawkins (yes, Screaming Jay), and even the kids playing the kidnapped gringos, making the most of an at-best two-dimensional playing field.

The violence is savage, the theatrics go between over the top and startlingly convincing, and the sex is hot and dangerous as possible. Perdita Durango is so good you can smell the sweat pouring off the characters's heads.