This “seed-funded” drama from Gus Van den Bergh is the final part of his religious triptych following Little Baby Jesus of Flandr and Bluebird and is also the first film to adopt the new, circular Tondoscope format: a device created specifically for this production in which a catadioptric mirror places the image within a sphere on the screen. Van den Bergh employs this to imply that celestial glory exists within an infinite realm, as perceived from an afterlife or beyond the stars. This method also places the viewer in the position of observing the film through a spy-hole, possibly signifying a blinkered, insular view of religion in which other opinions do not exist. But aside from it’s innovative methods and rhetoric as a work of art and entertainment, Lucifer tests attention by slightly sauntering in the second act yet remains a fascinating exploration of an absorbing central concept.
Opening with a star-speckled sky seen through the infinite circle, Van den Bergh transports us to the dusty, day-lit Mexican village of Paricutin around the time when a mysterious ladder appears hanging from the heavens. Soon after, a well dressed, moon-faced stranger (Gambino Rodriguez) arrives and befriends the local family on which the story revolves. The family consists of an aging lady Lupita (Maria Acosta), her impressionable granddaughter Maria (Norma Pablo) and inebriated brother Emanuel (Jeronimo Soto Bravo). After rescuing the family lamb from a lake, the stranger miraculously cures Emanuel of his (supposedly) crippling ailment. Lupita announces the miracle to the village (via a loud speaker) declaring that “there is an angel in my house” before throwing a big party to celebrate his arrival.
Based on Joost van den Vondel 17th century play of the same name, depicting Satan’s brief time on earth before being cast into damnation, Director Van der Bergh also draws inspiration from Renaissance painters Hieronymus Bosch and Giovanni di Paolo, particularly his illuminations of Dante’s Paradiso which included “The Creation and the Expulsion from the Paradise”: a work depicting a mystical, angel-like figure descending on earth with a miraculous, shimmering wheel (circular artworks were common during this era).
Van der Bergh chose the village of Paricutin to film because it remained traditional in its values, formed on religion and set in the old ways while most of the surrounding towns had been modernised but his completed feature often feels remote without a fully developed narrative. This leaves Lucifer hanging on the screen like an inspiring footnote to the aforementioned masters that doesn’t entirely transcend into the medium but remains a moderately bold and noble endeavour.
