Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo on AllMovie

Documentary filmmaker Yulene Olaizola introduces audiences to her grandmother, who has a fascinating story to tell, in this offbeat feature. Rosa Elena Carvajal has owned a large house in Mexico City for years and has often taken in boarders; in the mid-Eighties she began renting a room to a curious man in his early Twenties who she at first took to be a lay preacher. Rosa's tenant was tidy and personable, but also tended to have extremely strong opinions and created strange writings, music and drawings that led her to question his sanity. Despite his many eccentricities (including building a tiny shack on the roof) and his habit of cruising for male lovers in drag, Rosa and her longtime servant Florencia Vega Moctezuma regarded the man as a harmless weirdo, but in time they learned that he was far from benign -- Rosa's boarder was actually Jorge Rios, a brutal serial killer who raped and murdered a number of women during the nearly ten years he lived with her. In Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo (aka Intimacies of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo), Rosa and Florencia share their memories of life with Rios and how they came to the belated realization that he was a violent lunatic. Incidentally, the title comes from the location of Rosa's home, which is at the corner of two streets named for famed writers.