INTRUSO
(Intruder)
Dir. Vicente Aranda, 1993
Spain. 85 min.
In Spain with English subtitles

WEDNESDAY JULY 5 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY JULY 22 – 5:00PM
SUNDAY JULY 30 - 5:00PM

Luisa (Victoria Abril) spots her ex-husband, Angel (Arias), wandering about the city in complete destitution. She takes him into her house, where she lives with her present husband, Ramiro (Antonio Valero), a doctor, and two small children. Once ensconced in the house, the terminally ill Angel decides to wreak vengeance on Ramiro by reclaiming his ex-wife. -Variety

An underseen follow up to Amantes, Aranda returns to similar thematic and narrative territory with Intruso, a story of a woman torn between two husbands, in the gray and rainy setting of contemporary Santander. The cold winter light penetrates the family’s domestic enclave, and Director of Photography José Luis Alcaine renders the most intimate and intense interior scenes with steely brilliance and deep shadows. Abril is captivating again. Less a master manipulator and ace seductress than in Amantes, here she is the one possessed and obsessed, swept up in a past love re-emerged, in buried feelings reanimated, her performance brims over with desire, escaping her in tears and whispers.

"The twisted plotline highlights a sicko possessive love that makes one squirm, but not from anything that’s edifying. It’s just a squirmy pic." - Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movies Reviews

"If this movie had been directed by Lars Von Trier, it would now be one of the jewels in the crown of his early filmography, but no, it is directed by an absolutely captivating, uncomfortable, risk-taking and sinister Vicente Aranda." -Alex Caballero, Letterboxd