Film at Lincoln Center & Locarno Film Festival Announce SPECTACLE EVERY DAY: MEXICAN POPULAR CINEMA
Running July 26th to August 8th
The sweeping, 22-film retrospective spans the 1940s through the 1960s-three decades of exceptional creativity that ushered in a monumentally prolific era of major filmmakers and screen stars who enthralled generations of moviegoers
[New York, NY -July 1, 2024 ]— Film at Lincoln Center and the Locarno Film Festival announce “Spectacle Every Day: Mexican Popular Cinema,” a sweeping retrospective of Mexican cinema from the 1940s through the 1960s, to be presented at FLC from July 26 through August 8. With new restorations of many works rarely screened or some never before seen theatrically in the United States, and standout performances from the biggest screen stars of their day, this series offers New York audiences the rare opportunity to experience the breadth of this unique period of Mexican film history on the big screen.
The 1940s through the 1960s was a period of exceptional creativity in Mexico that ushered in a monumentally prolific era of major filmmakers (among them, Roberto Gavaldón, Emilio Fernández, Julio Bracho, Alejandro Galindo, and Chano Urueta) and screen titans (María Félix, Fernando Soler, Cantinflas, Tin Tan, Ninón Sevilla, El Santo, Pedro Infante, Rebeca Iturbide, David Silva, and more). This series goes well below the surface of the era’s most well-known works to show its vast wealth of innovative filmmaking, and spotlights the rich, at times undersung, but always fascinating period and the exceptionally diverse body of films that enthralled generations of moviegoers and artists alike. From pitch-black noir, delightful comedy, and lurid melodrama-sometimes all in one film-to a 3-D swashbuckler, luchador-vampire horror, and a superhero film, these exquisite tales interpreted and radically influenced popular culture through sweeping productions that take us to grandiose wrestling rings, frenetic cabarets and nightclubs, exquisite haciendas, restless cities, and everywhere in between.
Highlights include seminal works from the era’s most esteemed directors such as Julio Bracho’s Take Me in Your Arms (1954), newly restored in 4K, and Emilio Fernández’s magisterial Pueblerina (1949)-both exquisitely lensed by Gabriel Figueroa-as well as multiple features by Alejandro Galindo ( Corner Stop! [1948], Wetbacks [1955], The Mind and the Crime [1961]) and Roberto Gavaldón ( The Night Falls [1952], Autumn Days [1963]); the sex work melodrama Streetwalker (1951) from Matilde Landeta, one of the country’s first female directors; and the first 3-D film produced in Mexico, The Sword of Granada (1953).
The series also spotlights the many genres and unforgettable screen stars popular across these three decades: beloved comedies starring cultural icons Cantinflas and Tin Tan ( The Unknown Policeman [1941]), The King of the Neighborhood [1949]) as well as the comedia ranchera The Three Garcías (1947), the first major work from director Ismael Rodríguez and star Pedro Infante; espionage melodrama ( May God Forgive Me [1948], starring Maria Félix) and musical-inflected noir ( El Suavecito [1951]); the bloody pueblo-western The River and Death (1954) from Luis Buñuel; atmospheric gothic horror ( The Witch’s Mirror [1962]) and macabre comedies ( The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales [1960]), luche libre superhero films ( Santo vs. the Vampire Women [1962] and The Batwoman [1968], screening in a new 4K restoration), and so much more.
For more information, visit the Film at Lincoln Center website.
Originally published at http://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on July 1, 2024.
