Mexican movies based on literary works
In the next writing are some movies which are based on books by Mexican writers, we hope this motivates you to watch one and enjoy the beauty of the mexican art.
"Como agua para chocolate" (like water for chocolate)
The author of this novel is Laura Esquivel Valdés a
Mexican writer who was born in Mexico city on September 30th 1950; she wrote
like water for chocolate in the year 1989 which was one of her biggest success,
the book has been translated in more than 30 languages and included in
"the best Hispanic novels of the XX century" by the Spain newspaper
"The world", it was turned into a film for who was his husband in
those days Alfonso Arau in 1992; both had lots of success being awarded with 10
Ariel´s awards from the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences;
she also received in 1994 the ABBY award (American Booksellers Book of the
Year) being the first foreign writer to win it.
The movie has the same name as the book "Como agua para
chocolate" in Spanish and "like water for chocolate" in English,
the director as we said before was his husband Alfonso Arau who directed the
movie in 1992.
The main actors of the movie are Regina Torne (as Maria Elena de la Garza), Lumi Cavazos (as Tita de la Garza) and Marco Leonardi (as Pedro Muzquiz); Tita is the youngest sister of her family, her destiny is take the responsibility of the kitchen and his mother until her dead, she can't leave her house or have a boyfriend however she's a person with a bad temper who is always arguing with her mother; on other side Pedro is Tita's real love, he got married with Tita but is a jealous man who thinks Tita is his property being that the reason why constantly they have problems because of Tita's family.
The soundtrack
of this film was directed by Leo Brouwer a Cuban guitarist, another interesting
fact is that in the movie are some Mexican songs like "estrellita
marinera", "Jesusita en Chihuahua", "Paso del Norte"
and more played by Trio Los Morales.
Arau who
is a Mexican director, musician, singer, actor and screenwriter has directed
other movies like "a walk on clouds" and "Zapata, the hero's
dream". He has been awarded with the Ariel's award in 1972 as best
actor for his job in "the barefoot eagle" and one of his most
recently awards was in 2015 with the Salvador Toscano Medal for Cinematographic
Merit.
"la sombra del caudillo" was written by
the Mexican writer Martin Luis Guzmán in 1929, he was born in Chihuahua which
was one of the most important states during the Mexican revolution; one
interesting fact about this book is that Luis Guzmán wrote it when he was
exiled in Spain.
This book was originally released in Spain because it was prohibited in Mexico being the reason why it didn't get any award; the drama of this novel says the life in Mexico after the revolution, the deaths of Madero, Villa, Zapata and Carranza and the bad government of Alvaro Obregon.
The movie has the same name as the book "la
sombra del caudillo" because of his name in Spanish, this story was turned
into a film in 1960 by the Mexican director Julio Bracho who was born in
Durango in 1909 and died in Mexico City in 1978, on the opposite side of
the book the movie was awarded in 1960 by the Karlovy Vary's Film Festival in
Czechoslovakia where he got an award as the director too.
Julio Bracho was the father of the famous actress Diana Bracho and his family which was full of people dedicated to arts became his motivation to be a director and even if he made his dream come true Bracho never saw his best movie be released because of the penalty it had in Mexico for 30 years.
The main characters of this story are Alvaro
Obregon and Plutarco Elias Calles, who were presidents of Mexico after the
revolution. Obregon was a military and Mexican politician who former part in
the revolution and had place as the president of Mexico, he supported Alfredo
I. Madero in the fight against Porfirio Diaz, Obregon used to be an ambitious
person no matter how hard the situation was and didn´t feel afraid to
take others lives as own.
On other hand Plutarco Elian Calles was an
politician and Mexican military called as "the top leader of the
revolution", Elias was the favourite of Obregon being that the reason why
he chooses Elias Calles as the next president, he created the Mexican Bank and
had lots of initiative to make Mexico a better place even if it didn't work it
at the end.
The process to make the movie was supported by the
president Adolfo Lopez Mateos and they even gave the opportunity to film in the
Camara de Diputados and the Chapultepec's castle even some scenes were filmed
in Toluca and Mexico City.
Pedro Paramo is a novel written by Juan Rulfo who
started writing it in 1940 and finished in 1995 presented by the Fondo of
Culture Economic, this has become a classic book of Mexican literature, has
been recognized by the newspaper "The World" calling it as one of the
best 100 Hispanic novels of XX century and translated into more than 30 languages.
On other side Juan Preciado the son of Pedro Paramo
and Dolores Preciado went to Comala to find his father but on his ride he see
an illusion of his father, he tries to find the place where he belongs but then
he realized his father is death and Comala now is an ghost town, the character
of Juan Preciado in the story represents the human tragedy.
The film had high expectations because of the story which it was based, the production even had help from the government but later the directors, audience, actors and the productor himself said being disappointed with the final result; Carlos Velo said his mistake was accept advices from everyone to his film.
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