I haven't found an addition to my canon in quite a while.
This makes it in spades.
You just know nothing good goes on in these nightclubs.
Let's see: suicide, rape, slavery, drugs, murder, blackmail, revenge, deception, adultery, sex, assault, prostitution, extortion, seduction, an attempted heist and (somehow entwined within this all) singing and dancing. It seems all so Bollywood and yet this is part of the cabaretera (cabaret movies) genre from Mexico during the late '40s and early '50s.
Busby Berkeley would surely wince at the aerial photography but I really admire the big production numbers that burst the proscenium arch of the nightclub stages wide open. The ballads, mambos, rumbas and sambas that feature many top Mexican musicians [including Carmen Miranda's nightclub band] had me humming the tunes for days after watching this.
All this and noir-ish elements too - femme fatale, expressionist lighting, fog enshrouded streets, nihilist attitude, dark and dreary subject matter. Yet it never quite slides over into camp. Its all so lovingly embellished that I can suspend my disbelief and for the whole wild plot-wringing ride I'm right along with them.
Aventurera (1950)
directed by Alberto Gout
cinematography by Alex Phillips
production design by Manuel Fontanals
8 comments:
Great post, fascinating. I need to see this one.
In one set of comments you've described just about every Mexican movie ever made.
JB
This looks so great I just ran to Amazon and ordered a copy. (I found my way here via Self-Styled Siren, by the way. Love your focus on production design and cinematography.)
Lolita:
EVERYBODY needs to see this movie! Let us know what you think when you do.
JB:
Oh wait - there's more....
Randy:
It IS that great. That's the best compliment I could hope for. Welcome and thanks for the kind words.
Shahn, have you ever seen the movie The Cat People? I think there are three makes of it. Very dark. Wonderfully mysterious. One version is more mexican oriented. The others take place in darkness of New Orleans. These pics remind me of the genre. Betty.
Betty:
I posted some pictures from Cat People already [use the SEARCH BLOG to find it] but I haven't seen the Mexican-ish version. I'm intrigued.
And I think you are now the most frequent commenter on this blog! Thank you! It will take a while to answer them all, but I'll get there....
After seeing these stills I promptly put it in my Netflix queue, and this morning fell in love with it! Many thanks for bringing it to my attention...
-jesse
Jesse:
Yippee! I'm so happy I could turn someone else onto this film! It's so splendid, I may need to own my own copy.
I love your site, by the way. I'll definitely keep dropping by.
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