In a totalitarian future, in a nightmare metropolis, inhabited only by criminals and police, Erik Lonnrot, a gifted detective, investigates a series of strange murders and disappearances that seem to implicate a insane crime lord. (Re-released in 1996 as a feature film, 86 minutes.)
Peter Boyle Miguel Sandoval Christopher Eccleston Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez Pedro Armendáriz Jr. Alonso Echánove Eduardo López Rojas Alex Cox Karl Braun Gabriela Gurrola Ariane Pellicer Mario Iván Martínez René Pereyra Roberto Sosa Bruno Bichir María Fernanda García Abel Woolrich Martin LaSalle Luis de Icaza
Cuentos de Borges: «La muerte y la brújula», Death & the Compass
UK
Spain
Spain
UK
1st Alex Cox
Borges is one of my favourite authors of all time; his Fictions collection is exceptional writing, so short and yet so packed with allusions and ideas that the text feels incredibly and deliciously dense. Death and the Compass isn't my favourite Borges story (that's An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain), but this is a close second. Like The Pledge, which I mentioned in my review of It Happened in Broad Daylight, Death... subverts the detective story but in a more jocular and ironic manner, parodying the detective's obsession with making connections out of nowhere, linking it to wider conspiracies about Cabalistic practice in the process.
Cox's adaptation of the story follows the basic structure of…
"It's possible, but not interesting. You will reply that reality hasn't the slightest need to be of interest. And I'll answer you that reality may avoid the obligation to be interesting, but that hypotheses may not."
My preferred type of noir-esoterica, full of obscure clues and dark corners. Cox & Borges are both masters, and this meeting of the minds leaves me hungry for more.
A triangle that isn’t a triangle. A perfect high wire act, with all the shaggy irreverence one would expect of Cox while simultaneously getting all the things there are to “get” about Borges completely right. Underseen, underdiscussed, underrated. Seek it out!
Cox + Borges + Noir. What movie is everyone else watching? It's not perfect, but it doesn't need to be to be the best damn thing in the world. Gloriously stylized and surreal. Better than Repo Man.
A while back, I was browsing the small movie section at a local record store. I see a DVD called Death And The Compass. Direction and screenplay by Alex Cox (Repo Man, Sid & Nancy). Starring Peter Boyle and Christopher Eccleston. Based on a story by Jorge Luis Borges. One of my favorite directors. Two of my favorite actors. One of my favorite writers. Hot damn! Yoink!
I've never really thought of Borges as being filmable. It never even occurred to me. But I gotta tell ya', after I watched the very enjoyable flick, I unearthed my New Directions paperbook Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings by Borges and gave "Death And The Compass" a long overdue re-read. Cox nailed it.
At…
Cox enters the blacklist years and decides to swing for the fences with a Borges adaptation. The combination of Cox and Borges is one of those rare perfect alignments between film maker and literature. Both men thrive on weirdo ideas over plot and walk a fine line between high art and pulp trash. When they're at their best both Borges and Cox make it hard for me to expect the next step and to give into the ride. That's a rare and valuable trait.
This is far from perfect. The budget limitations are clear and there are hints of the disappointments that would come later during Cox's crowdfunded period but there's still something special here. Where else are you going…
What began life as a TV movie was then expanded a few years later thanks to a few hundred grand and some Japanese producers. Death and the Compass is for sure one of those weirdo, raw, under produced yet possibly cooler because of it type sci-fi movies. And I do love Borges so that helps. Definitely see some Alphaville inspiration in there, but far more entertaining and much less annoying crunchy voice. Although surprisingly there is some. Does this have a blu ray? Without a doubt deserving of a nice update and maybe even some words from Cox himself. We can't be letting the man's knowledge go to waste folks, I mean for real.
Also
Happy 4/20 party people 💨 😶🌫️
Alex Cox is like if Godard and Welles had a cyberpunk baby.
Cox creates so many movie textures for every sequence you feel almost spoiled—but you’re not because you always want to see where he goes next.
DEATH AND THE COMPASS shows how little Cuaron’s CHILDREN OF MEN offers—aesthetically and intellectually. The camerawork is immersive and impressive. Not like the fake video game cut scenes Cauron made popular. Cox provides criticisms and prophecies that are historically and morally sound.
To be so obsessed with justice that one misses the obvious crimes of the day to instead pursue the accumulation of patterns in the construction of a fantastic plot. These unhealthy obsessions can only lead to ruin. When a compass goes bad for a person, it’s a tragedy. When it goes bad for a culture, it’s annihilation.
That music by Pray For Rain is 🔥!
Could use some work in the mic department but Cox updating Borges's story to apply to like Dick Tracy type pulp heroes as opposed to Sherlock Holmes or Auguste Dupin is a stroke of genius. My type of movie.
"It’s possible but it isn’t interesting."
"What’s interesting got to do with anything? We’re police officers, we deal with absolute reality."
"Reality may avoid the obligation to be interesting but a hypothesis may not."
Based on acclaimed Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges' short story of the same name, Alex Cox's Death and the Compass is a lurid, cleverly campy, and lavishly labyrinthine noir.
Set in a strange anachronistic totalitarian monarchy with only cops and robbers in sight, the film is presented in flashback as Miguel Sandoval's Treviranus recounts the tale of Peter Boyle's enigmatic yet brilliant detective, Erik Lonnrot. Widely acclaimed for his idiosyncratic method, Lonnrot is prodigiously perspicacious. While surveying a murder scene, this penetrating perceptiveness picks up a…
