cabaretera noir

Victimas del pecado (1951)
directed by Emilio Fernandez
cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa

Gabriel Figueroa was a master of light and shadows.

There's a lot more besides the noir beauty. This is still technically a cabaretera. But can you imagine soviet-style editing on a musical number with the shots out of sequence, taking care to not cut on the beat?
Marvelous.

The subject matter of the plot is very dark and so frankly sexual and violent, it make me wonder if this is what Hollywood missed out on after the adoption of the code. It's seemingly with boundaries and still so compelling with stunning cinematography.
This is cinema for grown-ups.
Bravo, Emilio Fernandez.

you can keep your ol' westerns

I've found a better alternative - the comedia ranchera. Specifically, this classic of the genre.

Alla En El Rancho Grande (1936)
directed by Fernando de Fuentes
cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa

There's still nice landscape scenery, wide open spaces and big skies.
Plenty of horses but who can resist a kid riding a burro?






In fact, a kid on a burro makes a big difference. A major improvement on the American Western is the diverse range of characters. Men and women, seniors and children, owners and workers. The relationships are more complex with this crowd and more time is taken to deal with how they all interact. Of course, there's much more love and romance and a massively happy ending.

And singing -lots of singing.







There's still intrigue, deception and male posturing like in Hollywood Westerns, again with a difference. Instead of a gunfight, there's a grand arena cock fight. Masculinity is challenged but this time there's a crowd watching.
And not just roosters - the grand finale is held back to present a battle of the guitar bands.




Isn't that composition so much more sophisticated than the lone gunslinger, arms spread like Christ as he succumbs to a bullet?




I think a long and happy union has just been forged.
*sigh*

oh my

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 those nightclubs.

Let's see: suicide, rape, white slavery, drugs, murder, blackmail, revenge, deception, adultery, sex, assault, prostitution, extortion, seduction, an attempted heist and, somehow entwined within this all, singing and dancing. Its all so Bollywood and yet this is part of the cabaretera (cabaret movies) genre from Mexico in 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 nightspots wide open. The ballads, mambos, rumbas and sambas that feature many top Mexican musicians [including Carmen Miranda's nightclub band] have 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 belief 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

how to deal

I have such a soft spot for all these "girl power" movies.
There weren't very many films featuring girls when I was growing up. Sure, there was always Disney but I tired early on of princesses. I wasn't looking for fantasy and escape, I wanted to know how others experienced life. I wanted to know how to deal. "Girl power" films never quite deliver on these promises but I refuse to give up. I watch these films now as though I was still a young girl- full of hope, forgiving of their shortcomings.

At least this one has some great cinematography.

How To Deal (2003)
directed by Clare Kilner
cinematography by Eric Alan Edwards

the blurry underground

Underground (1941)
directed by Vincent Sherman
cinematography by Sidney Hickox



Its such a shame that the DVD transfer is so poor.
I'd live to be able to share more images-
I'm sure there is a lot more beauty I couldn't notice over
the blurry transfer,
more black and white contrast that was washed out into greys.
For some reels, the sound and image
tracks had lost their common stride.

But the story is so compelling and the performances
absolutely riveting
that I'm sharing these just so I can mention that I've seen it.
Not to mention that the plot involves the underground
resistance in Germany.
Unusual enough and especially for a Hollywood film in 1941.

when cartoons make cartoons

Porky's Preview (1941)
directed by Tex Avery



I am always on the lookout for more Jack Bunny,
yet I keep getting distracted by brilliance such as this.
Can anyone help me narrow my search?

sleek

Lots of gorgeous Art Deco sets as well as many shots of this fantastically sleek car:

Bugsy (1991)
directed by Barry Levinson
cinematography by Allen Daviau