Mexican filmmaker wins Cannes award

Producer-director Michel Franco wins award for best screenplay

Mexican film director and producer Michel Franco was awarded at the Cannes Film Festival on the weekend with best screenplay for his film Chronic.

It was the second Cannes award for Franco, 35, who received the Un Certain Award in 2012 for his film, After Lucía.

During the presentation of the award on Sunday, the filmmaker said Chronic was born in Cannes three years ago when he received the Un Certain Award from actor Tim Roth. When Franco said he was working on a script about a female nurse working in palliative care, Roth told Franco that if he changed the nurse to a man he would like to do the film.

Mexico-News-Daily -- Mexican filmmaker wins Cannes award

Cine Mexico Film Festival shares culture

Cine Mexico Film Festival shares culture
By Chelsey Wade | Published 03/27/14 11:15pm

When she arrived in Tucson years ago, Vicky Westover wondered what type of film festival would work best for the new region she would be living in. As director of the UA Hanson Film Institute, Westover organized the first Mexican film festival of contemporary directors in Tucson in 2005. The Institute, in collaboration with UA Film and Television, will show seven films this weekend for the Ninth Annual Tucson Cine Mexico Film Festival.

Westover said the festival aims to show the best in contemporary Mexican cinema while keeping a balance of subjects, directors and genres. The films will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.

“The last 12 years [have] seen this amazing film talent come out of Mexico,” Westover said. “The festival began right at the time where people were starting to pay attention to Mexican cinema in a new golden age for Mexico.”

“La Jaula de Oro / The Golden Dream” — Friday at 7 p.m.

This drama that won the Audience Award at the 2013 Morelia International Film Festival is about three teenagers traveling to begin a different life. Director Diego Quemada-Díez tells a story of misadventures and encounters across the 1,200 mile journey from the slums of Guatemala, through Mexico and into the U.S.

Cine Mexico Film Festival shares culture

El Infierno

El Infierno (English: Hell) is a 2010 Mexican action drama comedy western film produced by Bandidos Films, directed by Luis Estrada and following the line of La ley de Herodes; it's a political satire about the drug trafficking in Mexico. 

The film has been a critical and commercial success in Mexico. The film has been nominated for the 25th Goya Awards for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film. 

 Benjamín "Benny" García is deported from the United States to his hometown in Mexico (a fictional place named San Miguel Arcángel). Back home is a bleak picture, he can't find an honest job and most of the town is held with the business of drug trafficking. Benny gets involved in the narco business, a "spectacular" job where he gets a lot of money, women and fun. But soon he finds out that the violent criminal life is not easy and much less fun.

Innocent Voices

Voces Inocentes (English title: Innocent Voices) is a 2004 Mexican film directed by Luis Mandoki. The plot is set during the Salvadoran Civil War in 1980, and is based on writer Óscar Torres's childhood. The film serves as a general commentary on the military use of children. The movie also shows injustice against innocent people who are forced to fight in the war. It follows the story of the narrator, a boy named Chava.

Official Trailer

Sin Nombre - 2009

Making its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Sin Nombre is an epic dramatic thriller from award-winning director Cary Fukunaga.

Seeking the promise of America, a beautiful young Honduran woman, Sayra (Paulina Gaytan), joins her father and uncle on an odyssey to cross the gauntlet of the Latin American countryside en route to the United States. Along the way she crosses paths with a teenaged Mexican gang member, El Casper (Edgar M. Flores), who is maneuvering to outrun his violent past and elude his unforgiving former associates. Together they must rely on faith, trust and street smarts if they are to survive their increasingly perilous journey towards the hope of new lives.

IMDb review of Sin Nombre

Canoa - 1976

Based on a true story, this movie shows the great differences within Mexico rural and urban areas. Modernity could not be accepted in the rural areas, basically because the ignorant peasants were dominated by certain groups, including, like in this movie, the Catholic Church. Let's remember that the student massacres that had happened in 1968 and 1972 were still fresh in the minds of many Mexicans. Those students had been accused by the Government, of being Comunists. In this particular movie 5 young students of the Capital's State University decide to climb a volcano. Because of bad weather they have to stay overnight in a little village beside the Volcano. The local Priest assumes that they are Communists coming to agitate in his territory and accuses them with the people of trying to close the Church. The mob tries to lynch them. The beauty of this film resides in the fact that fanaticism is shown at its maximum level so as to make us think where this can lead us in our lives. This is true of the corrupt authorities, the Priest that uses Religion to maintain his privileges, the village people that mix Religion and fanaticism, etc. It is a great sociological study of the consequences of these extreme attitudes.

  Canoa Completa

The Beast of Hollow Mountain - 1956

Plot: An American cowboy living in Mexico discovers his cattle is being eaten by a giant prehistoric dinosaur

Review: When it came to dinosaur special effects in the 1950s, absolutely no one came close to Ray Harryhausen, and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms still reigns as the classic of that time. Others who dared try and compete were lucky to come in a distant second, but that didn't mean there wasn't a fun quality to their films. The Beast From Hollow Mountain is one of those minor league yet highly enjoyable attempts to combine the two favorite elements of 12 to 15 year old boys when we went to the movies back in the mid-fifties: cowboys and dinosaurs. We knew Guy Madison well from his long run Wild Bill Hickock TV series, which had precious little to do with the real life of that historic character but was plenty of fun all the same. Here, he's a range rider who discovers that his cattle are disappearing. Could it be outlaws? No, the title creature, who attacks Madison, a cute little Mexican kid, the gorgeous Patricia Medina, and a whole host of vaqueros. There is (as was the case back then) precious little dinosaur footage, for the way they kept costs down back then was to 'tease' you with distant growls, but avoid showing you the real thing for as long as possible. After about an hour of this, you got maybe fifteen minutes of actual footage with the creature (who has the weirdest, wildest tongue of any dinosaur in movie history) chasing after Guy and friends with the swiftness of a professional track star. And it's a good thing they keep him offscreen, because he's at best semi-convincing when you do see him. That doesn't make this brightly colored film and less fun to watch. And the way in which Madison gets the thing at the end is a real lulu.

The Appaloosa - 1966

Plot Outline: Matt Fletcher, a Mexican-American buffalo hunter is constantly harassed and humiliated by bandit general Chuy Medina. When the bandit steals his horse - the appaloosa of the title - he sets out to even scores; at the climax, single-handedly, he takes on the whole gang.

User Comments: "The Appaloosa" is a superior low-key western with a great performance by Marlon Brando and very good ones by John Saxon and Anjanette Comer. Brando plays a white man raised by Mexicans who returns from the Civil War tired of killing and ready to build a ranch around one Appaloosa stallion. Brando has the misfortune of becoming a tool for Comer to escape the clutches of Saxon. Saxon retaliates by stealing Brando's stallion, and Brando follows Saxon into Mexico to reclaim it. Director Sidney J. Furie ("The Ipcress File," "Iron Eagle") extensively uses extreme close-ups of faces, in the same manner as Sergio Leone, but not for the same purpose. Furie uses these close-ups to establish intimacy between the characters and the audience. This works beautifully in "The Appaloosa," particularly so since the story is so unremarkable and low-key and Brando's character is by no means a superman. Most of the violence is of the "G" rated variety, with the notable exception of a hand-wrestling contest played with the addition of scorpions.

IMDb review

Raíces - 1955

Plot Summary: Mexican and Latin-American classic. Four independent stories based on writer Francisco Rojas Gonzáles's work, depicting the reality of Mexican indian people: Las Vacas, Nuestra Señora, El Tuerto and La Potranca. In El Tuerto, crosseyed boy is made fun of by his mates. His religious mother asks God to make the boy's eyes equal. The outcome is tragic.

User Comments: Clash between 2 Cultures

Long before the Europeans set foot on America, several Indian cultures flourished, specially in the center of Mexico and down to South America. These groups had astounding knowledges that up till today it is still a mystery as to how they acquired them. This very interesting and very well produced film that used no professional actors, is a very good portrait of what happens when we try to view things prejudiced by our own point of view. This is typically a clash of 2 cultures, the European modernity trying to judge what The "Chamula" Indians in the Southeast part of Mexico had been doing for centuries. It is a clash between pagan and religious beliefs, between desire and pride, between poverty and riches, between faith and reality, between tradition and modernity. It is very interesting to follow the plot of the 4 different stories being narrated. This is a movie that should not be missed by Latin Americans or any one else that wants to understand how the natives lived on this part of the world long before we were "discovered" by the Europeans.

Raices - directed by Benito Alazraki

El Imperio de la Fortuna - 1986

El Imperio de la Fortuna (1986) - Directed by Arturo Ripstein

Plot Summary: A very poor and handicapped man, lives in a small town in Mexico with his mother. He works announcing things along the town ("The priest lost his cow, if someone sees it ..."). He is very interested in the cock fighting. One day a man gives him a looser cock, thinking to give him something to eat, but instead he takes care of the animal and it becomes a winner cock. He begins to win some money. La Caponera, a very good looking singer, earlier avoided him but now she uses her coquetry to gain some drinks. He thinks she is his talisman so she marries her when he becomes rich, taking her apart from the show-bizz, so she begins to feel very unhappy.

Based on a short story by Juan Rolfo, EL IMPERIO DE LA FORTUNA tells the story of Dionosio Pinzon, a Mexican peasant living with his mother. Born with a deformed hand, and living a very meager life, Dionosio's luck turns around when he is given a losing gamecock which he nurses back to health. He trains the bird for fighting, begins to make money, and begins a relationship with a gold-digging singer. As he makes money, though, he begins to become more and more corrupt--and it becomes apparent that his winning streak will not last. This story was also filmed by Roberto Gavaldon in 1965 as EL GALLO DE ORO (GOLDEN ROOSTER).

Emilio Fernández

Emilio "El Indio" Fernández Romo, who was born on March 26, 1904 in the state of Coahuila, Mexico, is the most famous person in the history of Mexican movies. For an era, he symbolized Mexico due to his violent machismo, rooted in the Revolution of 1910-17, and because of his staunch commitment to Mexican cultural nationalism. Sired by an ethnic Caucuasian father and born to an Indian mother, Emilio was himself a "mestizaje" (mestizo) that his films would later glorify.

The teenaged Fernández abandoned his studies to serve as an officer in the Huertista rebellion, which broke out on December 4, 1923. On July 20th of that year, Francisco "Pancho" Villa had been ambushed and killed, one theory being that he was assassinated by agents of Mexican President Álvaro Obregón Salido. Obregón, when he served as a general during the revolution, had defeated Villa in four successive battles collectively known as the Battle of Celaya. The Battle of Celaya was the largest military confrontation in Latin American history before the 1982 Falklands War.

IMDb Biography of Emilio Fernández

La Perla - 1947

La Perla (1947)

Plot Summary: Quino is a Mexican diver that discovers a pearl at the bottom of the sea. He and his wife Juana, and their son have just taken possession of a pearl that is worth thousands. Everyday people try to get in on the cash, even Pearl Dealers try to rip them off. When Quino is attacked one day, he kills his attackers in self defence. His brother suggests their only hope is to leave the village. But on their journey to give their son an education they never had, someone may just do anything to prevent it.

User Comments: A visual feast!!!

I am a Brit happily married to a Mexicana for many years and lived in Mexico for a number of years.

La Perla is a photographic masterpiece of significant beauty and well worth seeing for the magnificence of the incredible use of natural light to highlight the scenery.

In addition to the two main stars the cast contains a number of actors whose work I have enjoyed immensely and the scenes depicting the singing and dancing at the local fiesta bring back to me countless memories of pleasure during my life in that beautiful country.

This film really does reflect the Golden Years of the Mexican Film Industry.

Mexican Cinema - Emilio Fernández

Macario - 1960

Macario (1960)
Plot Summary: Poor, hungry peasant Macario longs for just one good meal on the Day of the Dead. After his wife cooks a turkey for him, he meets three apparitions, the Devil, God, and Death. Each asks him to share his turkey, but he refuses all except Death. In return, Death gives him a bottle of water which will heal any illness. Soon, Macario is more wealthy than the village doctor, which draws the attention of the feared Inquisition

User Comments: Memorable, funny, wise and very entertaining.

Beautifully realized fable that quickly made history as the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It is based on a story by B. Traven, the man behind the source material for the classic film Treasure of a Sierra Madre (1948). Like most fables, symbolism is plentiful, and the social message is unmistakably strong. The film opts for a combination of naturalism and surrealism, and the result is a visually dense, and dramatically interesting movie. The film's structure is reminiscent of both Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957), and William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), so if you like any of those films, you will probably enjoy this movie. Dazzling camera work by the great Grabiel Figueroa is key to the film's success, but one cannot overlook Roberto Gavaldón's excellent direction, and a truly superb script by Emilio Carballido and Galvadon. Ignacio Lopez Tarso is perfectly cast as the peasant that makes a deal with "Mr. Death", and I loved the work of actress Pina Pillecer, who is a clone of actress Marisa Pavan.

Mexican Cinema - Roberto Gavaldón

Macario video on YouTube