Manuel Barbachano Ponce Movies
- 1992
This feature-length production is billed as "a cinematographer's sketchbook" focused on images of modern Mexico. The director in question previously made a highly regarded short film entitled Formula Secreta. Without significant amounts of verbiage, the film links images in a surprisingly meaningful and involving manner, resulting in visual puns, little slices of life, expositions of ideas and political statements and a host of other accomplishments. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugo Stiglitz, Yirah Aparicio, (more)
In this sly Mexican sex comedy, a manipulative mama deftly manages the life of her homosexual son so that he can have his cake and eat it too. A woman of means, she does this by allowing her son, a doctor, to tryst in her home with his lover. Putting her son's happiness above all else, she then arranges a marriage of convenience to a woman. When the marriage is consummated, the young male lover gets terribly jealous and this creates problems until the irrepressible Doña Herlinda again gets involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marco Antonio Trevino, Guadalupe Del Toro, (more)
- 1985
Teen angst in Mexico City is made all the worse by a young provincial woman's infatuation for a ghost, in this effective drama about disturbed youth. Aida (Lucy Reyna) arrives in Mexico City and is immediately introduced into the world of drugs and sex by the friends she meets. Before long, she is having visions of the ghostly "El Humo" ("Smoke," played by Gerardo de la Pena) and after she meets him at a party, they both are struck by Cupid's arrow. After some back-and-forth stepping around the nature of their relationship, El Humo disappears for five days, and Aida is distraught -- she locks herself up in her dark room, smokes some weed, takes a few hallucinogenic mushrooms, and then has a vision that clears up the mystery surrounding El Humo.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Highly symbolic and allegorical, this drama takes the search of a son for his father in the chaotic times of the Mexican Revolution and the early 1900s as its basis. Stereotypical (or archetypal) figures from early Mexican cinema appear from time to time, and the violence of the revolutionary period is not glossed over. As the son searches for the father, scenes of the father and his earthy way of living are screened. Given that it relies so heavily on knowledge of Mexican history and Mexican cinema in addition to being something of an art-film, non-Mexican viewers will need to be both erudite and patient. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ignacio Tarso
- 1959
A Marquis (Francisco Rabal) has a comfortable, predictable life until the women in his life inspire him to greater deeds. He first loves the wife of a Spanish nobleman, then the mistress of a Mexican dictator. He is convinced by his experiences to join the forces of the Mexican revolution. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Felix, Francisco Rabal, (more)
- 1958
Acclaimed director Luis Buñuel displays several of his trademark interests in this drama about a priest who leaves his order. The director's disdain for organized religion and the establishment, as well as his tendency to shock through visual imagery, are both apparent. Nazarin (Francisco Rabal) is the priest who leaves his order and decides to go on a pilgrimage. As he goes along subsisting on alms, he shelters a prostitute wanted by the police for murder. He is released from suspicion and she eventually catches up with him when she escapes imprisonment. Another woman joins the duo and soon the ex-priest is learning more about the human heart and suffering than when he wore robes. As for the shocking scenes, suffice to say the ravages of a plague are also shown. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francisco Rabal, Marga Lopez, (more)
- 1956
In Torero, real-life matador Luis Procuna plays the leading role, an aspiring bullfighter who must overcome his fear of bulls -- and of crowds -- to achieve success. Also given ample screen time are such enduring bullring favorites as Arruza and Manolette. Much of the picture is comprised of newsreel footage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
