Margaret Thatcher and Augusto Pinochet are vampires in the new film from the Chilean director Pablo Larraín. Literally so: El Conde (The Count) drapes them in black capes and has them fly over the city, biting the necks of their victims and tearing hearts out of chests. Pinochet, in particular, is voracious and insatiable. The monster likes all types of blood, Thatcher explains with all the cloying condescension of her race and her class. “But naturally English blood is his favourite.”
Larraín – a quick-witted, combative man in his mid-40s – has been fascinated by Pinochet for decades. As a child he watched him on TV and felt an instinctual aversion. As an adult he has made films about the dictator’s corrosive effect on Chilean culture (Tony Manero), the human cost of military rule (Post-Mortem), and the 1988 referendum that finally triggered its downfall (No). Whether he likes it or not, Larraín and the general are now joined at the hip, each defined by the other. Such is the way with all dark obsessions. The more you say about your subject, the more they say about you.
