The Devil Never Sleeps
Theatrical release poster
SpanishEl diablo nunca duerme
Directed byLourdes Portillo
Written byLourdes Portillo
Produced by
  • Lourdes Portillo
  • Michelle Valladares
Narrated byLourdes Portillo
CinematographyKyle Kibbe
Edited byVivien Hillgrove
Music by
Release date
  • 1994 (1994)
Running time
84 minutes
CountriesMexico, United States
LanguagesEnglish, Spanish

The Devil Never Sleeps (Spanish: El diablo nunca duerme) is a 1994 Mexican-American documentary film directed by Lourdes Portillo and produced by Portillo and Michelle Valladares.

In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

Film maker Lourdes Portillo gets a call that her uncle Oscar had died. Initial cause of death was claimed to have been a heart attack but police later ruled his death as a suicide. Portillo goes to her hometown of Chihuahua, Mexico to find out how her uncle died. Interviewing family members and friends of Oscar, Portillo finds out details of her uncle she never heard before.

Production

Development

The film was funded by ITVS (Independent Television Service).[1] Inspiration for the film came from Errol Morris' 1988 film The Thin Blue Line.[2]

Filming

Release

The Devil Never Sleeps premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.[1] The film was shown on PBS on October 30, 1997.[3]

The film has been released on DVD, for sale on Women Make Movies and on Portillo's website.[2]

Reception

Desmond Ryan for The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked that Portillo used an imaginative range of techniques and allusions to illuminate the investigation of her uncle's death.[4] Emmanuel Levy writing for Variety, while noting the film to have "a healthy dose of humor and some introspective commentary", felt its scope was limited and was crudely executed. Despite criticizing it for lacking depth and calling its visuals "shapeless", Levy considered The Devil Never Sleeps to be mildly entertaining.[5] The use of presenting the mystery of uncle Oscar's death by intercutting it with soap operas and projecting interviews through sunglasses was described by LA Weekly's Hazel-Dawn Dumpert to be "breathtaking".[6]

Reviewing for The New York Times, Stephen Holden, considered its concept to have promise, but overall thought the films conclusions were too vague and scattered to make a compelling drama.[7] Frank Zoretich for the Albuquerque Journal was negative towards the film, calling it "pretentious and probably slanderous piece of baloney". Zoretich criticized its use of gimmicks throughout and believed that Portillo failed to prove her point.[8]

In 2020, Broady included the film as part of his "Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking" list.[9] The same year, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[10]

Reactions from Portillo's family varied, with one of her aunts refusing to see the film.[11]

Awards

References

  1. ^ a b Reynaud, Bérénice (Spring 1995). "Anatomy of a Murder". Filmmaker. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  2. ^ a b Gilbert, Andrew (19 January 2021). "Rare Doc 'The Devil Never Sleeps' Gets Its Due with Library of Congress Induction". KQED Inc. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  3. ^ Matsumoto, Jon (21 September 1997). "PBS; On the Front Line of Diversity". Los Angeles Times. p. 13 – via ProQuest.
  4. ^ Ryan, Desmond (5 May 1995). "Solving murder of beloved uncle". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 206. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ Levy, Emmanuel (10 October 1994). "The Devil Never Sleeps". Variety. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  6. ^ Dumpert, Hazel-Dawn (2 November 1995). "In and Out of the Cold 1945/1994: Documenting 50 Years of Change". LA Weekly. p. 60. Archived from the original on 14 November 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Holden, Stephen (20 March 1995). "FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; A Niece Rummages in a Rich and Enigmatic Uncle's Closet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  8. ^ Zoretich, Frank (1 April 1995). "Five Out of Six Isn't Bad". Albuquerque Journal. p. D1 – via ProQuest.
  9. ^ Brody, Richard (14 October 2020). "Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  10. ^ Alter, Rebecca (14 December 2020). "Shrek Has Been Inducted Into the National Film Registry". Vulture. Archived from the original on 14 December 2020. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  11. ^ Duckett, Richard (26 March 1998). "Portillo's "Devil' explores family, corruption, mystery". Telegram & Gazette. p. C1 – via ProQuest.
  12. ^ IDA Editorial Staff (November 1995). "IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards, 1985-1994". Archived from the original on 13 November 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2022.

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