Subscribe today using voucher code SUMMER22 for an extended free trial

This film is part of Rentals

This film is certified

sexualised nudity, strong language

I confirm I am over 15

Title of error

See Help

Title of error

See Help

Neruda

Pablo Larraín's bold, inventive detective thriller offers an electrifying contemplation of the Chilean poet's life on the run in the late 1940s.

Biopic 2016 110 mins

Director: Pablo Larraín

Watch trailer Rent for £3.50

Overview

For his sixth feature, Pablo Larraín turns to his compatriot, the Nobel Prize-winning poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda. Only this isn’t so much a biopic as a boldly inventive and visually thrilling contemplation of identity and branding. It details how Neruda’s public persona – as a romantic poet with a political conscience – was cemented in the late 1940s. Despite his vanity and snobbishness, Neruda (brilliantly played by Luis Gnecco) is a figure who inspires and animates, galvanising the ideals enshrined in his poetry. In 1948 as President González Videla (Larraín regular Alfredo Castro) begins to clamp down on communism in Chile, Neruda goes on the run with his wife Delia (Mercedes Morán). He is obsessively pursued by a detective, the wonderfully named Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal), who is doggedly determined not to be a supporting player in the escalating drama. So begins a chase that comes to acquire epic proportions as the lauded poet, aided by ordinary Communist party members, attempts to stay one step ahead of the authorities.

Described by Larraín as an ‘anti bio’, Neruda is a dizzying cinematic adventure filmed with playful virtuosity. History, legend and fiction fuse to powerful effect, offering a beautifully performed, shadowy cat-and-mouse thriller, where the celebrated poet, a gloriously contradictory feature, forever eludes those trying to pin him down.

Director

Pablo Larraín

Featuring

Luis Gnecco and Gael García Bernal

Genres

Biopic

Certificate

sexualised nudity, strong language

Country

Chile

Language

Spanish with English subtitles

Rent for £3.50

Jackie Jackie

Biopic 2017 100 mins Director: Pablo Larraín

Natalie Portman is exceptional as the iconic First Lady who has to quickly adjust to the world-shaking trauma of her husband’s assassination.

Rent for £3.50

I, Tonya I, Tonya

Biopic 2017 120 mins Director: Craig Gillespie

Athlete. Champion. Villain. Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) played them all…

Rent for £4.50

Dark Waters Dark Waters

Biopic 2019 126 mins Director: Todd Haynes

Mark Ruffalo plays an attorney trying to uncover the corporate scandal of a chemical company poisoning a local community, in this searching ecological drama from Todd Haynes (Safe, Carol).

Rent for £3.50

Tracks Tracks

Biopic 2014 113 mins Director: John Curran

Mia Wasikowska stars in this inspirational true story about one woman’s extraordinary odyssey through the Australian Outback.

Rent for £3.50

Mr. Turner Mr. Turner

Biopic 2014 150 mins Director: Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh’s Cannes-winning account of the later years of J. M. W. Turner, brilliantly played by Timothy Spall.

Rent for £4.50

Vice Vice

Biopic 2018 133 mins Director: Adam McKay

Christian Bale is the infamous Dick Cheney, in Adam ‘The Big Short’ McKay’s exuberant and acrid satire.

Subscribe to watch

Tom of Finland Tom of Finland

Biopic 2017 116 mins Director: Dome Karukoski

The story of a gay icon is brought to life in Dome Karukoski’s handsome biopic of Touko Laaksonen, the artist whose homoerotic drawings gave visual expression to a growing gay culture.

Rent for £3.50

Lovelace Lovelace

Biopic 2013 93 mins Director: Jeffrey Friedman and Robert Epstein

Porn star Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) finds herself abused by the industry and her maniacal husband– so she sets off to embrace feminism and, vitally, herself.

Rent for £3.50

Control Control

Biopic 2007 122 mins Director: Anton Corbijn

The life story of Ian Curtis, the tortured singer of Joy Division who suffered epilepsy and crippling self-doubt, filmed in stunning monochrome.

Rent for £3.50

England Is Mine England Is Mine

Biopic 2017 94 mins Director: Mark Gill

A deeply insecure young Morrissey dreams of escaping drudgery but seeks the confidence to bloom, in this captivating account of The Smiths' genesis.

Rent for £3.50

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool

Biopic 2017 106 mins Director: Paul McGuigan

Annette Bening and Jamie Bell bring to life the true story of the love affair between Gloria Grahame and young, Liverpudlian actor Peter Turner.

Rent for £3.50

Redoubtable Redoubtable

Biopic 2017 108 mins Director: Michel Hazanavicius

From the Oscar-winning director of The Artist, a brilliantly realised portrait of France’s maestro director Jean-Luc Godard spiralling into philosophical and romantic crisis.

Rent for £3.50

A Fantastic Woman A Fantastic Woman

Drama 2017 104 mins Director: Sebastián Lelio

This invigorating and inspiring Chilean drama from Sebastián Lelio (Gloria) follows a trans woman’s quest for a little respect. Winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film 2018.

Rent for £3.50

The Kindergarten Teacher The Kindergarten Teacher

Drama 2018 97 mins Director: Sara Colangelo

Maggie Gyllenhaal gives a career-best performance as a kindergarten teacher who finds herself in an ethical quagmire after discovering the poetic talents of a precocious student.

Rent for £3.50

Jackie Jackie

Biopic 2017 100 mins Director: Pablo Larraín

Natalie Portman is exceptional as the iconic First Lady who has to quickly adjust to the world-shaking trauma of her husband’s assassination.

Rent for £3.50

Spencer Spencer

Drama 2021 117 mins Director: Pablo Larraín

Pablo Larraín's sublime ‘fable from a true story’ imagines a Christmas weekend at Sandringham in the early 1990s, as an unhappy Princess Diana contemplates saying ‘no’.