Reveling in the insecurities, fears, and peculiarities that draw desperate people together, Arturo Ripstein’s Deep Crimson is a perverse delight. Maybe delight isn’t quite the right word for a story fundamentally rooted in the nastier shades of humanity. Deep Crimson is upsetting through and through content-wise, but there is an underlying humanity running through the story that keeps it from being an exercise in audience punishment. Ripstein and his wife and key collaborator Paz Alicia Garciadiego, who serves as the screenwriter, have created a work that is as repellent as it is inclusive, creating a push-pull sensation in viewers that is highly effective.
Before getting into the movie proper, I feel like I should throw out a caveat. I went into Deep Crimson knowing absolutely nothing beyond what the cover art of Criterion’s new 4K/Blu-ray looked like. That image, of a man and woman embracing, the woman with one hand on the back of the man’s neck and the other holding a knife while the man leans into her is provocative enough to catch anyone’s eye. It certainly caught mine. So, knowing nothing else, I let Deep Crimson take me on a ride and what a ride it is.I highly, highly recommend doing the same if you’re in the same boat as me. The experience of going through Citerion’s Deep Crimson release is as entertaining as it is informative.
Loosely based on the Lonely Hearts Killers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck, Deep Crimson begins with Coral (Regina Orozco), a lovelorn nurse who leads an unfurling life. The film introduces Coral as she’s giving an elderly patient a peak at her ample bosom while botching an injection, then follows it up by showing her struggle to connect with her children. Coral is pathetic but not unsympathetic. She’s a bigger woman, constantly commenting on her size is a self-deprecating way that comes across as a defense mechanism. She’s getting ahead of her own insecurities so they can’t be used against her. It speaks to a woman whose life hasn’t turned out the way she wanted. It’s so relatable that there were times where I felt bad for her before anything even happened within a scene. That’s a testament to Orozco’s performance. She commands the screen and creates a dissonance where the performer is doing confident work with a character who is anything but. She is really great. All of her insecurities get funneled into her romantic loneliness.
Her loneliness leads to her falling, too quickly, in love with Nicolas (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a con man with his own insecurities to reckon with. Together they make for a combustible, impulsive pairing. She abandons her kids to go on the run with Nicolas, serving as his accomplice as he seduces women across Mexico so he can rob them. Secudtion and robbery lead to murder, but Nicolas and Coral leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. The more crimes they commit, the more Coral and Nicolas are drawn together. This is where the depth of Orozco and Cacho’s performances becomes apparent. Nicolas frequently finds ways to soothe Coral’s self-loathing, giving her the encouragement she so desperately needs. Crucially, Coral is the only person Nicolas trusts with his biggest secret, which is that he’s balding and wears a toupee. Because he accepts her for who she is, she returns that kindness and it binds them tighter, even closer together than their shared criminality.
Deep Crimson is often harrowing, but the pockets of empathy Ripstein and Garciadiego find are genuinely moving. They explore the lurid and universal with equal respect and the collision of the two carries the film to some incredibly dark and potent moments. This is the most rewarding kind of viewing experience for me. Not only did it introduce me to a filmmaker I was unfamiliar with and has spurred me to watch more of his work. Criterion’s release has plenty of information to get me, and anyone else, started down that road. The supplements feature conversations with Ripstein and Garciadiego, as well as an introduction to the film by Ari Aster. For anyone looking to go down a darker cinematic rabbit hole, Deep Crimson is highly recommended.
