Fernando de Fuentes distinguished himself with a lucid and unsentimental trilogy of films on the Mexican Revolution, two of which we present tonight. El Compadre Mendoza presents a complex analysis of the corrupted ideals of the Revolution, and in particular of the self-interested ambivalence of the middle class, in a satirical portrait of an opportunistic landowner. Mendoza survives the civil war by alternately hanging the flags of the government and revolutionary forces, depending on the colors worn by the approaching troops. He names a dashing young zapatista leader (who is in love with his wife) godfather to his son, but easily betrays his kinsman when political push comes to economic shove. The film was rediscovered by French critics in the 1960s, cited for its modern qualities as well as for the "humor, lively sense of observation, and memories of the Mexican Revolution (then still very recent)." (Sadoul)