Exploring Mexico Cinema’s Golden Age has been on my bucket list for over a decade so I’m very proud to make it my entry point by covering the SPECTACLE EVERY DAY: MEXICAN POPULAR CINEMA retrospective on this blog and podcast. I connected with FLC programmer Tyler Wilson back in January about the Retro, so I began my journey into this era in Mexico’s film history back in February when I noticed by coincidence that MoMA was screening their LUIS BUÑUEL IN MEXICO film series. Here’s what I’ve seen this year, so far:
SUSANA on 35mm (MoMA)
EL BRUTO (MoMA)
NAZARÍN (MoMA)
EL CORAZÓN Y LA ESPADA in 3-D (FLC)
LA MUJER MURCIÉLAGO (FLC)
LOS TRES GARCÍA (FLC)
EL GRAN CAMPÉON (FLC)
I’m always trying to jump at the chance to watch Latin American rep cinema when something comes around. Earlier this year Film Forum did a series on LEON ICHASO: POET OF LATIN NEW YORK, and last year Nitehawk Cinema had a series called REALISMO MÁGICO, while MoMA did a robust Retro for Guillermo del Toro called TALES OF MOURNING AND IMAGINATION. I also mentioned on the podcast before that I’ve noticed Spectacle screens a variety of films from Mexico, too.
SPECTACLE EVERY DAY is sponsored by Mubi and is a retrospective that traveled to NYC from the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland in 2023. “Traveling Retrospectives” is so dope because a new city with new programmers put their spin on it which really fits with the title of this podcast — Marquee Mixtape. If you haven’t already done so then I encourage you to check out my interview with the programmers behind SPECTACLE EVERY DAY: MEXICAN POPULAR CINEMA — Cecilia Barrionuevo and Tyler Wilson.
In this episode, my good friend Andrew Abreu joins me in sharing our reactions to the Mexican retrospective at Lincoln Center with an emphasis on the film we saw together — El gran campéon — and we even discuss the new 4K restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s MOVING which happened to open at FLC this month. Andrew saw it and we felt compelled to talk about that a bit while we discussed what his relationship with NYC rep cinema has been like since he started joining me at some screenings over a year ago.
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Credits: Produced by Alec Rodriguez, original artwork by Cristina Montes, original music by Jeremy Bullen.
NEXT: In September things get WEIRD at Alamo Drafthouse BK…and watch out for more Kaiju incoming at Spectacle!
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