Emilio Fernandez - criterionforum.org (2024)

Most of us only know Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez through this:

and this:

(I actually named my son after him based on these two performances.)

Anyway, I finally saw my first Emilio Fernandez-directed film, Las Islas Marias, and it was a spectacular discovery. He's a bit like a Mexican Michael Powell (at least in this film), using every stylistic device there is to explore folkloric mysticism within a hardcore melodrama. Pedro Infante plays an alcoholic womanizing cantador from a wealthy family sent to an island prison for 20 years for a murder he didn't commit. He finds grace through a hot little island urchin who looks like she's about 15 and has somehow learned to dance like Martha Graham. It's as outrageous as it sounds. There's also a lot of Eisensteinian shots of soldiers, prison guards, and salving prisoners. It has the feel of an epic in only 82 minutes. Infante's never been so subtle and controlled.

I've hunted and can't find any other Fernandez films on dvd, which is kind of surprising as he was considered Mexico's greatest director until Bunuel showed up and shook things up. Anybody know of any others available?

That reminds me: I bought that one about a year ago and still haven't gotten around to watching it yet!
(thats not a record, by the way!)

Your description makes me want to move it farther up the 'to watch' chain!

I recall seeing what must have been UN DORADO de PANCHO VILLA in a tiny theatre in Concepcion del 'Oro Mexico in August of '68. I'm a little fuzzy on the details (I was 13 at the time) and we missed probably the first half hour but it was a very vivid, colorful and violent western style historical film. I'm now unsure whether the powerful climax depicted the death of the Fernandez character or that of Pancho Villa but it ended with a bloody 360 ambush in front of the fountain in the village square. According to IMDB it was produced and directed (and of course starred) Fernandez and edited by Carlos Savage. I also remember that a coming attractions poster promised EL CRANIUM INFERNO!

I think it's nothing short of incredible that THE PEARL isn't available, if not in a decent budget DVD then at least a half dozen cheap-ass PD editions. This was a staple in our state school system interlibrary film division and I saw it at least three times between 6th and 10th grade. Based on the Steinbeck novella I believe it won an Academy Award for something (best foreign film?) and was shot by Gabriel Figueroa. I recall the photography as being very "artistic" although I'm certain it really looked no better than the usual dupey, beat-to-shit 16mm school prints. I'd be very interested to see both of them again.

GringoTex wrote:He's a bit like a Mexican Michael Powell (at least in this film), using every stylistic device there is to explore folkloric mysticism within a hardcore melodrama.

I think an even closer comparison is to John Ford.

I've hunted and can't find any other Fernandez films on dvd, which is kind of surprising as he was considered Mexico's greatest director until Bunuel showed up and shook things up. Anybody know of any others available?

There are unsubbed DVDs of most of his films, but you probably already know that. As for releases with English subtitles, there is series of R1/R4 releases from Alter Films that include some of his absolute best films such as María Candelaria, Enamorada, and Flor Silvestre. You can recognize them at Amazon, eBay etc. for their uniform cover design (colored band across the top), for example, here.
These are not cheap and sport hazy transfers and yellow subs, but the quality of the films makes up for it, I think. This is all par for the course with Latin American cinema on DVD, for those titles that can even be purchased at all.
Vanguard also released an English-subbed disc of La Malquerida. This is another one shot by Gabriel Figueroa and starring Dolores del Río -- can't go wrong.

Gregory wrote:You can recognize them at Amazon, eBay etc. for their uniform cover design (colored band across the top), for example, here.

I just realized I was searching for "Emilio Fernandez" at amazon.co.uk

Thanks for the tips.

You know, having just recently re-read Godard on Godard (I was 13 when I last read it and it sort of whizzed over my head), I was a bit startled to find his praise (rather offhandedly, granted) of Emilio Fernández' Rio Escondido near the end of his famous Towards Political Cinema essay.

And I quote:
"The last shot of Rio Escondido: the face of Maria Felix, the face of a dead woman whom the voice of the President of the Mexican Republic covers with glory. In dealing constantly with birth and death, political cinema acknowledges the flesh, and metamorphoses the holy word without difficulty."

Anhedionisiac wrote:You know, having just recently re-read Godard on Godard (I was 13 when I last read it and it sort of whizzed over my head), I was a bit startled to find his praise (rather offhandedly, granted) of Emilio Fernández' Rio Escondido near the end of his famous Towards Political Cinema essay.

And I quote:
"The last shot of Rio Escondido: the face of Maria Felix, the face of a dead woman whom the voice of the President of the Mexican Republic covers with glory. In dealing constantly with birth and death, political cinema acknowledges the flesh, and metamorphoses the holy word without difficulty."

Oh nice, thanks for quoting it. I actually have Godard on Godard sitting on my shelf but have yet to read it and I should get to it soon.

A few years back, Somos magazine released an amazing issue all dedicated to the life of Emilio Fernandez. It was filled with so many beautiful photographs (both personal and professional) and discussed his various films including how Sergei Eisenstein became a major influence on his work and his oeuvre. Unfortunately, my Tia has since lost this issue.

In 2005, TCM aired some of his films and it's still such a shame that the cinematography of La Perla or the editing of María Candelaria are not discussed in more in Cinematic circles. I remember not being too impressed with Enamorada when I saw it many years ago, but I know most people consider it to be one of the greatest films to ever come out of Mexico and a masterpiece. La Perla has this simple universal beauty to it mixed in with an attack on society that would be the best place to start with the work of El Indio. Check out some of these beautiful shots of his films:

I believe each of these was shot by the unsung Gabriel Figueroa. Here's a synop of Enamorada from a program for a UCLA screening last year:

Critics have suggested Fernández's project in this film was nothing short of a mythic reformulation of national gender archetypes, a vision of a new Mexico where virile women will fight for justice alongside heroically sensitive men. Figueroa espoused the principle of "curvilinear perspective," championed by the painter Dr. Atl as an indigenous Mexican alternative to European linearity. Almost every frame in ENAMORADA is a work of astonishing intricacy, where the swirling lines of sombreros and adobe vaults are broken and complicated by rhythmic vertical shadows and the daunting "X" of Reyes' ammunition belt. In the deliriously romantic serenade scene, Figueroa renders an extreme close up of Maria Félix's famously arched brow and moonlit eyes into a landscape of Mexicanidad as fiercely symbolic as his celebrated cactus-strewn deserts and chiaroscuro skies.

Some images from Figueroa:

And I highly recommend this picture book for some lovely images and examples of this "curvilinear perspective."

Props55 wrote:Just did a search for Bunuel at DVD Pricesearch to find the best deals on the new Criterions and, to my utter amazement, found a Lionsgate single disc double-bill of his Subida al Cielo and Fernandez' Flor Silvestre available at Deep Discount for the rock-bottom price of $6.75! Anyone here know anything about this?

It doesn't have English subtitles. If that's an issue for you, you can pick up Subida al Cielo with English subtitles for $6.99 here.

And as it's on my current Top 10 Films of All Time! list, I heartily recommend picking it up.

Victimas del pecado

Good gawd almighty. American melodrama simmers- this Mexicans boils his until there's nothing left but grounds. Pimps, whores, murder, prison, abandoned babies- but that's not preventing el Indio from stopping down every five minutes for a hot Cuban musical number. Gregory compared Fernandez to Ford, but Ford had a very exact, consistent style. I'm sticking with my Powell comparison- but Fernandez makes even The Archers look tame in comparison to the way he throws the kitchen sink, the phone book, the Bible, and the Virgen de Guadalupe into any scene to make it that much more powerful. The shot sequence of the heroine wandering through the train tracks is Borzage meets Shirley Clarke.