Mexican Film Recommendations?

[SiqMachine]

I have always been interested in Mexican film, but lately I have really been aggressively seeking stuff out. There is obviously a lot of stuff in the last few decades that has been successful in the states like Del Toro, Iñárritu, Cuarón and even more obscure stuff like Jodorowsky, but I have really been wanting to get familiar with the history of it. Unlike US, France or Italian cinema, the history of Mexican film hasn't been documented that extensively, so I have had to do a lot of research and even some absurdly difficult work to be able to watch certain things. For instance, I had to use a YouTube downloading agent to get an un-subbed copy of María Candelaria, then find a third site to DL the subs from and combine them in VLC. The only English subbed copy I could find on Amazon was upwards of $50. It was worth the trouble, because that film is amazing, but damn. I have always been a huge fan of all of Buñuel's work, but his Mexican films have a different atmosphere altogether. Even the movies he has disowned over time like A Woman Without Love, I find great to watch. I finally saw Los Olvidados recently and it blew me away.

Anyway, if you didn't want to real all of that, what are some Mexican films you recommend? I am looking for older stuff so I can get familiar with the history of Mexican film, but I will take any suggestions. It's a huge bonus if those things are available on BluRay, but I'm not holding my breath for that hahaha.

[BluBonnet]

Seen "Simon of the Desert" yet? It is out on Criterion DVD.

[SiqMachine]

Yeah, I've seen just about every Buñuel film Criterion has released except The Milky Way, The Phantom of Liberty and That Obscure Object of Desire. I definitely need to get my hands on those. Crossing my fingers for BD releases of them in the near future.

[tbizzle]

You mentioned Inarritu so I'm assuming you've seen Amores Perros, if not then definitely seek it out, it's excellent. I haven't seen too many Mexican films, but I thought Sin Nombre was very good as well as El Norte, which isn't necessarily Mexican cinema but gives a great look at an immigrants journey through Guatemala, Mexico and starting a life in LA

[bam777]

Casa De Mi Padre.

[csdot]

[Show spoiler]

[OrlandoEastwood]

I would recommend this on Blu-ray if you can get for about $5 used off Half.com like I did. A pretty good science fiction film. The film is pretty low budget, but it was enjoyable.

[SiqMachine]

Yeah, Amores Perros was great. My girlfriend watched Sleep Dealer in one of her classes and recommended it. I'll have to check it out.

[Blu-Velvet]

These aren't on Blu-ray, unfortunately, but about five years ago Warner Brothers released something like 23 DVDs featuring Mexican superstar Pedro Infante, who died young at age 39 in 1957, but who remained popular through Mexican television showings for decades afterwards. I amazingly found a few in a very short-lived "Latin Videos" section our local Best Buy had for a a few months and discontinued. Luckily, the three they had happened to form a trilogy of Infante's first starring role and two sequels, all directed by Ismael Rodriguez in Mexico City.

NOSOTROS LOS POBRES (1948) and USTEDES LOS RICOS (1949) are interesting, entertaining, and often touching. PEPE EL TORO (1951) is not quite as good, but still worth seeing. All three are sort of like an odd mixture of Frank Capra and Vittorio De Sica, with comedy, melodrama, gritty neorealism, family soap opera, and musical numbers. They're not quite the same standards as Hollywood films of that era, but all are nicely shot and edited, cleverly written, and nicely acted. The first one even features a young Katy Jurado.

DVD transfers are fairly mediocre but certainly watchable, probably made from old TV masters. There are English subtitles available on the features but not on the bonuses. Virtually unknown in the United States, these really deserve decent restorations and HD masters with good Blu-ray releases.

[RSuarez]

Originally Posted by Blu-Velvet

Virtually unknown in the United States, these really deserve decent restorations and HD masters with good Blu-ray releases.

I agree on this one, unfortunately there does not seem to be any interest on remastering these, like you said, the masters used for the DVDs seem to be from the TV tapes rather than the original film. My wife is a huge Pedro Infante fan and has collected most of his films in DVD. All of them are of poor audio and video quality though, we have got used to it and well, I guess that is better than nothing... that also makes them very cheap to get (normally $3-$4 USD)

If you liked the ones you mention I then highly recommend 'Un rincon cerca del cielo', an incredible film in my opinion, it literally brings me to tears every time I watch it...

[SiqMachine]

I found a couple of films from the same Pedro Infante collection at Big Lots for ~$2 a piece a while back and was elated. Like you said, the quality isn't the best, but hoping that ANY classic Mexican stuff will be remastered is just a farfetched dream of mine. That's something I will take care of when I win the lottery and start a boutique video label hahaha. Kino Lorber just released Bird of Paradise on BD and, although it's not a Mexican film, seeing Dolores Del Rio in HD is just about as much of a dream come true as I can fathom, so I definitely need to pick that up. I downloaded Emilio Fernández's La Perla and the resolution is like 320x244, so I know what I'm getting myself into by digging deeper into this stuff haha. Another classic I have yet to watch is Roberto Gavaldón's Macario, which my Mother's friend has told me is like a Mexican Seventh Seal. That's a pretty great review haha. I think I will watch that this afternoon, actually.

[SiqMachine]

Thanks for the recommendation, Suarez. I will watch anything with Silvia Pinal in it.

[Galactus]

Beverly Hills Chihuahua

[SiqMachine]

My Mom loved Beverly Hills Chihuahua hahaha.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by SiqMachine

My Mom loved Beverly Hills Chihuahua hahaha.

I actually enjoyed it I first thought it was gonna suck.

[Dark Hueso]

we are what we are
el buffalo de la noche

these two are pretty good films

join this group, I'd like to know of more as well

https://forum.blu-ray.com/group.php?groupid=162

[Livelong420]

I recommend Rudo y Cursi.

[SiqMachine]

Rudo y Cursi is great. The commentary track on that release is pretty funny haha. And thanks, Hueso. I used to see We Are What We Are get rented a lot at the video store I used to work at but never got a chance to watch it. I'll have to check it out. I joined the group, as well!

[Dark Hueso]

Alright cool, the film is not great but better than some others i've seen, interesting and different