Julio Bracho and Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age

Julio Bracho and Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age

June 7–July 18, 2019

From raucous music-hall comedy to tough urban noir, this selection of digitally restored works showcases the range and artistry of a master craftsman of midcentury Mexican cinema.

Read full description
  • Black-and-white film still: elegantly dressed woman holds cigarette near a desk; another woman stands in background.

    Twilight

  • Another Dawn

  • The Shadow of the Tyrant

  • Those Were the Days, Señor Don Simón!

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Those Were the Days, Señor Don Simón!

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1941
    Friday, June 7 7 PM

    A not very grief-stricken young widow flutters her hand fan between a dashing young soldier and an elderly politician in Bracho’s lively debut, a brash musical comedy romance set in Mexico’s belle époque.

    View Details

  • Story of a Great Love

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1942
    Friday, June 14 7 PM

    Bracho’s decades-spanning tale of two star-crossed lovers turns doomed romance into the highest of operatic entertainments, and showcases the charisma of legendary singer/actor Jorge Negrete, a.k.a. “El Charro Cantor.”

    View Details

  • Another Dawn

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1943
    Saturday, June 22 8 PM

    Labor activists, cabaret singers, and corrupt politicians stalk Mexico City in Bracho’s stylized, politicized film noir. With cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa and starring Pedro Armendáriz, it’s “an antifascist noir comparable to and in some ways superior to Casablanca” (J. Hoberman).

    View Details

  • Twilight

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1945
    Saturday, June 29 8:15 PM

    Arturo de Córdova and Gloria Marín star in this eroticized, nocturnal noir of shadows and desire, one of Mexican cinema’s great flores del mal. A progressive doctor fights an illicit, destructive passion for his best friend’s wife—and fails gloriously.

    View Details

  • Rosenda

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1948
    Saturday, July 13 8:15 PM

    Bracho fuses populist romance and melodrama with formal experimentation in this over-the-top tale of a peasant woman torn between her revolutionary fiancé and a kindly store owner. Rita Macedo and Fernando Soler star in a classic of Mexican cinema’s Golden Age.

    View Details

  • The Shadow of the Tyrant

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1960

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick

    Thursday, July 18 7 PM
    Introduction by Diana Bracho

    Bracho’s 1960 passion project takes on the power struggles within Mexican politics after the Revolution, and was banned for over thirty years as a result. “Suffused with anguish and barely concealed outrage” (Village Voice).

    View Details