Matinée (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, 1977)
Nov
4
National Easy Bake Oven Day
Friends Aarón (Rodolfo Chávez Martínez) and Jorge (Armando Martín) having a grownup discussion about the situation. DP: Jorge Stahl Jr..
Two boys skip class to catch a movie – Alexander Mackendrick's thematically similar A High Wind in Jamaica (1965) – and end up as members of a violent gang instead. While Matinée has elements of a typical 70s #ComingOfAge movie, the more fascinating element is the role reversal of the two children and the robbers. As the kids are forced to grow up, fast, the criminals live out their childhood fantasy of never having to listen to anyone ever again. And bicker over comics.
Robert Rodriguez stated that the fearsome criminals in his El Mariachi (1992) never outgrew their childhood nicknames. I start to suspect that once upon a time, a little boy named Robertiño skipped class and went to the matinee.
JoaquínGutiérrezHeras
Matinée (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, 1977)
Aug
19
free candy
Best friends Aarón (Rodolfo Chávez Martínez) and Jorge (Armando Martín) helping out in Aarón's parents' convenience store while helping themselves to a snack or two. DP: Jorge Stahl Jr..
El lugar sin límites [The Place Without Limits] (Arturo Ripstein, 1978)
Aug
13
Gay Uncles Day
Pancho (Gonzalo Vega) watches La Manuela (Roberto Cobo) dance flamenco for him. DP: Miguel Garzón.
Cabaretera, a sub-genre from the Epoca de Oro (the golden epoch of Mexican filmmaking, 1930s—1950s), combines film noir with melodrama and musical numbers. Often set in cabarets (brothels), these films talk about the plight of the prostitute who – not without their pride and dignity – are forced to being the breadwinner in a poverty-stricken community.
El lugar sin límites harks back to those days. We follow the plight of La Manuela, a transvestite* who together with daughter La Japonesita works as a fichera (a dancehall performer) in the brothel run by Madame La Japonesa, La Japonesita's mother.
The return of Pancho, a hyper-macho trucker, disrupts the family regime. The trucker's attraction to the #flamenco dancing fichera is at odds with his machismo. Him being outed as a maricón (a Mexican slur for homosexual) would be the end of his world.
El lugar remains a groundbreaking film, not only in how it handles taboos like #gender roles and trans- and homosexuality, but also because it highlights how (self) destructive #machismo is in Mexican society.
Sergio de la Mora's excellently researched EL LUGAR SIN LÍMITES: Ripstein in Review delves much deeper than this little writeup here. Do read it (spoilers ahead).
*Roberto Cobo's La Manuela is transsexual. The term “transvestite” is what's used in the film and typical for its time.