I took another chance on a film screening on The Cinephobe TV website. La Caza (1966) aka The Hunt was directed by Carlos Saura, a major Spanish director whose work I was generally not familiar with except for seeing one of his late-1980s flamenco movies (El Amor Brujo), which are gorgeously visual with bold colours. Here, La Caza, is a black and white drama that focuses on four men – three middle-aged friends and one younger relative – setting off in a jeep to a village in the desert to hunt rabbits. Over the course of a hot day, resentments between the three friends start to emerge – Luis (Jose Maria Prada) is an alcoholic loser who reads sci-fi novels, Paco (Alfredo Mayo) is a successful businessman with a sadistic streak, and Jose (Ismael Merlo) is in financial trouble after leaving his marriage for a younger woman. The hunt is Jose’s idea to ask Paco for a loan, and Paco’s cousin Enrique (Emilio Gutierrez Caba) observes the increasing masculine friction, petty squabbles and capitalistic, sexual drives, all of which are sharply conveyed in the framing and editing, conversational close ups of the men and whispered voice over of their inner thoughts. While there are cultural references to the Spanish Civil War and WW2 that I didn’t immediately catch or understand, La Caza was still an absorbing slow burn drama that reminded me a bit of Deliverance or Wages Of Fear in the mounting tension and the violent climax that it’s been building towards. Recommended. Warning: this was filmed on a legal hunting reserve, so there is real footage of rabbits being hunted included.
VHS Tracking 