Mexican Film Noir

May 7–June 11, 2016

See how Mexican directors took the icy cool of the Hollywood noir and turned up the heat in this sampling of films from the 1940s and 1950s in new restorations.

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  • The Kneeling Goddess

  • Twilight

  • La Otra

  • May God Forgive Me

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

Past Films

  • Another Dawn

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1943

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Saturday, May 7 6:30 PM

    An unhappily married cabaret singer voyages through a world of corrupt cops, labor union organizers, and political unrest in this Langian noir, starring the legendary Pedro Armendáriz.

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  • The Kneeling Goddess

    Roberto Gavaldón
    Mexico, 1947

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Saturday, May 14 6:30 PM

    Hammett meets Baudelaire in this steamy noir of love, madness, and death involving an affair between a married aristocrat (Arturo de Córdova) and a female model (María Felix). 

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  • Twilight

    Julio Bracho
    Mexico, 1945
    Saturday, May 14 8:40 PM

    A progressive, forward-thinking doctor falls for a temptress in this spectacularly shot noir that inhabits a world of darkness and shadows, where rational thought rails against irrational desire—and fails.

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  • In the Palm of Your Hand

    Roberto Gavaldón
    Mexico, 1951
    Saturday, May 21 8:30 PM

    A con artist with dreams of grandeur finds himself overmatched by a murderous widow in this Arturo de Córdova–starring noir, which finds our hero abandoning everything for passion, and death. 

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  • May God Forgive Me

    Tito Davison
    Mexico, 1948
    Sunday, May 22 6 PM

    Mexico’s glamour queen María Felix channels Bergman, Bacall, and Hayworth as a refugee hiding—or scheming—in Mexico City during World War II. 

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  • Night Falls

    Roberto Gavaldón
    Mexico, 1952
    Saturday, May 28 6:30 PM

    Introduced by Steve Seid
    A Nietzschean jai alai star obliviously struts his way through a succession of broken-hearted lovers and conniving gangsters in this atmospheric noir starring Mexican matinee idol Pedro Armendáriz.

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  • The Devil's Money

    Alejandro Galindo
    Mexico, 1953
    Thursday, June 9 7 PM

    Stolen money, lustful romance, labor unrest, and the rumba flavor this expressionistic noir by Alejandro Galindo. 

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  • La otra

    Roberto Gavaldón
    Mexico, 1946

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Saturday, June 11 8:30 PM

    Mexican superstar Dolores del Rio stars (twice) in a double role as both a preening, wealthy housewife and her downtrodden, bespectacled sister in this gritty noir, filmed on locale in Mexico City.

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