Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers (review)

Mexico's Cinema: A Century of Film and Filmmakers. Edited by JOANNE HERSHFIELD and DAVID R. MACIEL. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources, 1999. Photographs, Illustrations. Indexes. xiv, 313 pp. Cloth, $55.00. Paper, $21.95.

Developed by an array of state-financed producers, directors, cinematographers, writers, and actors as well as a supporting cast of thousands, Mexican cinema from the mid 1930s gave rise to a dynamic industry and artistic golden age, which became the preeminent source for movie entertainment in the Spanish-speaking world. Understanding film as a powerful tool in forging citizen, gender and class identities over the past century, editors Joanne Hershfield and David Maciel have assembled a set of highly informative and, at times, provocative writings.

The opening essay by Gustavo A. García tells the history of Mexico's first encounters with film, beginning with a 1896 public exhibition of the Lumiere brothers' cinematographe in Mexico City. Not surprisingly, the fledgling medium sparked immediate enthusiasm and soon a number of single-room movie houses dotted the urban landscape. Considering the advent of sound films during the 1930s, Federico Dávalos Orozco discusses the work of several early Mexican directors. Particularly notable during this period was the emergence of a "nationalist" aesthetic as seen in various ranchera musical comedies as well as an assortment of folk dramas that romanticized views of indigenous life. Patricia Torres de San Martín's essay on pioneer directors Adela Sequeyro and Matilde Landeta examines how both of these women overcame various obstacles to produce films developed from a uniquely feminist perspective. Carlos Monsiváis considers the rise of comedians Mario Moreno (Cantinflas) and Germán Valdés (Tin Tan) as well as their significance to greater Mexican society. Discussing the relationship between film and society, Rafael Hernández Rodríguez offers a fascinating commentary on golden-age cinema and the way films such as Los olvidados, Un campeón sin corona, and Nosotros los pobres portrayed the experiences of ordinary women and men.

Looking at the relationship with Hollywood during the war years, Seth Fein argues that Mexican "nationalist" films were ironically the product of an alliance with the United States. Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro details how Mexican film went into decline after the war as North American investors withdrew support. Despite this, various urban-themed melodramas set in brothels or cabarets in addition to an assortment of other films, including so-called B-movies featuring wrestlers, detectives, vampires, cowboys, and various figures marketed towards a growing youth audience helped revitalize production during the late 1940s and 1950s.

Since the 1960s, film has seen the rise of auteur cinema as representations of gender, sexuality, and politics have become a central component of Mexican cinematic discourse. As an important "player" in the world of Mexican cinema from the start, the complex and ever-changing role of the state is examined by David Maciel. Of particular interest is his discussion regarding the negotiation between government censors and the producers of Rojo amanecer, a politically charged film dealing with the 1968 movement.

Surveying an important dimension of the industry, Norma Iglesias's piece suggests the need for more serious study of films dealing with the various social and cultural permutations along the U.S.-Mexico border. Acknowledging the accelerated pace of North-South exchanges and the production of hybrid social and cultural identities, Ann Marie Stock brilliantly calls for a new, non-essentializing understanding of Mexican film in the new millennium. Discussing newer, genre-defying releases such as Guillermo del Toro's Cronos, Stock quotes the director when he says "people are going to say that [the film] is a Mexican, Catholic, vampire movie with mariachis . . . but it is not. I think of it more as a sick but really tender love story" (p. 276). Taking careful note of the changing nature of social relationships not only in Mexico and the United...