Invasion of retro Mexican sci-fi movies!

 

La Aztec momia contra el robot humano

A mad doctor builds a humanoid robot to fight an Aztec mummy. Female aliens conspire to remove the lungs of a group of humans and use them to invade earth. An alien collector of monsters lands on earth to gather human specimens … And learns about love? 

These are just three of the four plot lines from Mexican sci-fi movies released in the 1950s and 1960s that are being shown beginning today through Sunday in New York as part of “The Future South of the Border” film series sponsored by Cinema Tropical.

The movies are “The Aztec Mummy vs. The Human Robot” (1957), “The Monsters’ Ship” (1959), “Planet of the Female Invaders” (1965), and “El Santo vs. The Martian Invasion” (1966). 

The authors of the one — and from what I understand only — study of Mexican science fiction cinema from this era will present their book “El Futuro Más Acá” on Nov. 1. In an article published in La Jornada when the book was released, the authors said of the “cinematic value” of the movies: 

Es un nacionalismo que estaba hecho en una época en la que había que construir identidad. En este cine los mexicanos somos únicos. Luego de conocer planetas maravillosos, los extraterrestres llegan a México y dicen: “es el paraíso”.

Without further ado, then, a spectacular scene from “The Monsters’ Ship”: 

Trailer Watch: Rudo y Cursi (Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal)

The first trailer for Rudo y Cursi, which reunites actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal on screen for the first time since Y Tu Mamá También: 

(Via CineCineCine)

Latin American Literature Into Film

 

Arráncame la Vida

I recently began reading Bookforum and one of the most interesting features is a column by Bilge Ebiri called The Moviegoer. In each issue, Ebiri reports on how a novel has been adapted for the screen. That got me thinking — what with the recent release of Arráncame la Vida in Mexico last month to a blizzard of ticket sales — about which novels have undergone cinematic translations in Latin America. Which have been the most successful, the most accurate or the most interesting? Rafael Ocasio wrote in Críticas last year that: 

The powerful impact of literature on Latin American films is evident in the earliest silent cinema of Mexico and Argentina, which were among the first Latin American countries with important cinematic production.

He writes that Argentina produced a movie based on José Marmól’s novel Amalia in 1914. Ocasio lists a handful of films, including Cecilia (Cuba, 1981), based on an anti-slavery novel, but most of them are either Spanish productions or based on original screenplays by authors, not actual adaptations. 

So what are some recommended screen adaptations of Latin American novels? You get points off for mentioning The House of the Spirits.

Muerto: Mexican director Servando González, filmed Tlatelolco massacre

Stele at Tlatelolco with names of the known dead (courtesy Nuno Tavares)

Servando González was the Mexican government’s official documentary filmmaker during the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre of student demonstrators by the country’s military. He was also an award-winning filmmaker and directed one of the most expensive films produced in Mexico during the 1980s, “El último túnel.” He died Saturday at age 85. 

González said in a 2007 interview that he was approached by a “military type” who asked him to make a movie about what was then planned as a student protest of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City’s Plaza of Three Cultures.

He agreed, for a fee, and went about his business. The military type later came to see him while he was in the midst of developing the negatives and carried the footage away. He told the interviewer in La Jornada of Mexico that he never saw the footage again — and that he doesn’t know what happened to it. 

Of what he witnessed, he said:  ”La historia lo va a juzgar un día. Lo van a poner como un héroe, al presidente Díaz Ordaz.” (“History will judge it one day. It will show that President Díaz Ordaz was a hero.”) 

To read the rest of what he said in Spanish, in which he describes what he filmed and how, go here.

The National Security Archive also recently released a report on the Tlateloco massacre, published on the 40th anniversary of the killings. The report states in its introduction: “The events of that terrible day remain shrouded in the kind of secrecy that characterizes repressive dictatorships rather than the modern, developed and democratic nation that Mexico is today.” 

Needless to say, González footage, if it yet exists, could shed critical light on what happened that day.

Soderbergh’s Che films debut in NYC

Steven Soderbergh’s two-part film about Che Guevara debuts in New York City today at the New York Film Festival. It appears to be sold-out, but don’t worry: The two movies starring Benicio Del Toro have been picked up for U.S. distribution by IFC Films.

The movies are slated to be shown for one week in Los Angeles and New York in December, then released to theaters more widely in January. In the meantime, the official blog of the NYFF has posted a Q&A with Soderbergh: