This Strange Passion [Él] (1953) by Luis Buñu-Él [Buñu-Him (sic)]: The Past and Future of the Totemic Father in the Main Character of Don Franscisco Galván de Montemayor

Abstract

The film This Strange Passion [Él] (1953) by Luis Buñuel is one of his most intriguing. The film is about the life of a extremely jealous middle-aged and well-to-do man. For the main character, there is always a “Him” of uncertain location that triggers intense pangs of jealousy, fear or —quite contradictorily— admiration. Guided by different theoretical frameworks, we strive to illuminate certain aspects of: a) homosocial desire; b) the particular national etnology of the moment, and, lastly, c) the complex relationship between the artist —Buñu-Él [a play in Spanish on: Buñu-Him]— and his work. All of which goes to demonstrate that the psychoanalytic concept of the “totemic father” is still clarifying about certain aspects of the masculine relationship with a “Him” [Él] —whether physical or phantasmatic, memorial or prophetic—, who, depending on the social and mental health of the case, obstructs-channelizes the masculine psychology —or his jouissance economy.