El fracaso de la voluntad (en torno a un plano de "El verdugo")

Abstract

Nancy Berthier analyzes the final shot of Luis G. Berlanga's El verdugo as a synthesis of the tragicomic esence of the central character, in his contradictory assumption of a double position as Victim and as Guilty. In the interaction of images, camera movements and sound, it is clear the construction of an individual whose relation with society is in "Black& White" (since he is a symbol of the problem of colective guilt and innocence). The gap that exists between the individual will and the responsibility of the "executioner's acts" underlines the failure of the former. This failure is showed as a paradigm of human condition in XXth Century, in a world the mechanisms of which are not under their control. This position goes beyond the narrative dimension of the film and allows to discover, at the same time, a poetic and metaphorical ones.