Cinema of Mexico
The cinema of Mexico dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a multitude of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ideal image of it. With the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Mexican and foreign makers of silent films seized the opportunity to document its leaders and events. From 1915 onward, Mexican cinema focused on narrative film.
During the Golden Age of Mexican cinema from 1936 to 1956, Mexico all but dominated the Latin American film industry.
In 2019, Roma became the first Mexican film and fourth Latin American film to win the Oscar for best foreign language film. Roma also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards.
Emilio "El Indio" Fernández was rumored to be the model for the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. According to the legend, in 1928 MGM's art director Cedric Gibbons, one of the original Motion Picture Academy members, was tasked with creating the Academy Award trophy. In need of a model for his statuette, Gibbons was introduced by his future wife, actress Dolores del Río, to Fernández. Reportedly, Fernández had to be persuaded to pose nude for what is today known as the "Oscar".
History
1896–1911: Silent films; the Porfiriato
Shortly after the first moving picture was viewed in 1895 using Thomas Edison's kinetoscope and the invention of the cinematographe projector by Auguste Lumière, Mexicans began queuing in cinemas in the capital to see international one-minute films such as The Card Players, Arrival of a Train, and The Magic Hat. The cinematograph arrived to Mexico seven months after its first projection in France, brought in by Claude Ferdinand Bon Bernard and Gabriel Veyre. Mexico entered production in the silent film industry with several movies, but many of the films up to the 1920s have been lost and were not well documented.Film in México continued to expand quickly after its arrival in Mexico. On 6 August 1896, President Porfirio Díaz invited Bon Bernard and Veyre to his residence at Chapultepec Castle, and eight days later, the first projection for the press was made in what is now Madero Street. This projection included films by the Lumière brothers such as L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat, and on 15 August, a projection was made for the general public.
President Díaz recognized the importance of cinema and appeared in many films placing him at the center of action with his cabinet ministers; in a parade; and in the zócalo. In 1906, he is seen in La entrevista de los presidentes Díaz-Taft, the first-ever meeting of a U.S. president with Mexico's, one of the first filmed reportages produced in Mexico. It was filmed by the Alva brothers. The first fiction film to be created in Mexico was based on a recreation of the duel between two deputies, called Duelo a pistola en el bosque de Chapultepec.
Mexican cinema continued to become more available across the country, thanks in part to businessmen such as Guillermo Becerril, Carlos Mongrand and Salvador Toscano. The origin of early Mexican film-making is generally associated with Salvador Toscano Barragán, who introduced the filmed reportage. In 1898 Toscano made the country's first film with a plot, titled Don Juan Tenorio. During the Mexican Revolution, Toscano recorded several clips of the battles, which would become a full-length documentary in 1950 under the title Memories of a Mexican, assembled by his daughter. Other short films were either created or influenced from French film-makers.
By 1906, 16 movie theaters had opened their doors to accommodate the popularity of cinema in Mexico City. Carpas, or tent shows, were popular beginning in 1911 where lower-class citizens would perform picaresque humor and theatrical plays, a place for training for aspiring actors. Politically affiliated films appeared in 1908; these would be deemed propagandistic by today's standards. Significant battles were filmed and broadcast during the Revolution, which fueled Mexicans' excitement in cinema. In addition, the first intents to formalize the Mexican cinematic industry were made between 1905 and 1906, with the creation of the first Mexican distributing companies. Some of the most important companies were Empresa Cinematográfica Mexicana, American Amusement Company, Compañía Explotadora de Cinematógrafos and Unión Cinematográfica.
1911–1917: The Mexican Revolution
The popularity that cinema had experienced in the early 20th century continued to grow, and by 1911 fourteen new movie houses were built. During this period documentary techniques were mastered, as is evident in the Alva brothers' production entitled Revolución orozquista. The film was shot in the camps of the rebel and federal forces during the battle between General Victoriano Huerta and the rebel leader Pascual Orozco.The rise of cinema plateaued due to the lack of distributors and the difficulty to make new material. This in addition to the dangers that the inflammability of film resulted in the closing of many of the Carpas. The cinematic industry was reduced to small companies, with Carlos Mongrand standing out because of films such as Desfiles de tropas en San Luis Potosí, Carnaval de Mérida and Aventuras del sexteto Uranga.
Despite the relative advancement of cinema during this period, the moralistic and paternalist ideology of President Madero led to his campaign to save the lower classes from immorality through censorship. In late September and early October 1911, city council members appointed additional movie house inspectors, whose wages would be paid by the exhibitioners. Furthermore, the head of the Entertainment Commission, proposed the implementation of censorship; however, Victoriano Huerta's coup d'état in the Ten Tragic Days of February 1913 prevented the move to legislate censorship.
File:La_Soñadora.jpg|thumb|right|Mimí Derba with Eduardo Arozamena, in La soñadora.
Although Huerta's rule was brief, from February 1913 to July 1914, Mexican cinema experienced significant changes within this period such as the further establishment of censorship and a shift away from documentary films to entertainment films. The Alva brothers' production of Aniversario del fallecimineto de la suegra de Enhart is indicative of the change in the aim of Mexican cinematographers. The Alva brothers produced films such as La entrada de Madero a la capital with the use of Indalecio Noriega Colombres's inventions, which allowed for a phonograph to be synchronized with the images projected.
In regards to censorship, the Huerta government imposed a moral and political decree of censorship in approximately June 1913. This decree was imposed a few days after convencionista soldiers shot at the screen during a viewing of El aguila y la serpiente. The decree stated that films that showed the following were prohibited: "views representing crimes, if they do not include punishment of the guilty parties, views which directly or indirectly insult an authority or person, morality or good manners, provoke a crime or offence, or in any way disturb the public order."
As a result of the limitations placed on film content as well as the radicalization of the parties involved in the armed conflicts, cameramen and producers began to display their opinion through the films they produced. For instance, favoritism towards the Zapatistas was illustrated in the film Sangre Hermana. Due to the sensational content of this film, it is evident that the producers had no interest in displaying the events in such a way that the audience could come to their own conclusions.
1917–1936: Post-revolutionary film making and first sound film
The cinematic productions of this period were reflective of the Italians style film d'art, which were fiction-based melodramas. The film La Luz was the first film that attempted to adopt this style, even though it was viewed as a plagiarism of Piero Fosco's Il Fuoco. Paranaguá attributes the influence that the Italian had on the Mexican cinema with the similarities between the situations of both countries. Both countries were in a state of chaos and disorder – there was a war in Italy and a revolution in Mexico. Once again censorship was re-established on October 1, 1919. Films which illustrated acts of immortality or induced sympathy for the criminal were prohibited.In 1917, the former vaudeville star Mimí Derba, founded the Azteca Studios, which produced notable films between 1917 and 1923. The most successful of these was En defensa Propia.
The government budget had to be trimmed as a result of the rebellion and cinematographic departments of the Ministry of Education and Agriculture were cut. By 1924, narrative films were at an all-time low since 1917.
During the 1920s very few movies were produced, given the political climate that was still very unsettled and the resurgence of the American film industry after World War I. Notable Mexican movie stars moved to the United States. Stars such as Ramón Novarro, Dolores del Río and Lupe Vélez, became principal stars of notable Hollywood films in the 1920s and 30s. Other Mexican stars appeared in numerous movies which were merely Spanish-language versions of Hollywood movies.
File:Conaculta Santa.jpg|thumb|250px|Lupita Tovar, in the film Santa. Mexico's first talkie movie.
In 1994, the Mexican magazine Somos published a list of "The 100 best movies of the cinema of Mexico" in its 100th edition. The oldest film selected was El automóvil gris. To make the selection, the magazine invited 25 specialists in Mexican cinematography, among which critics stand out Jorge Ayala Blanco, Nelson Carro and Tomás Pérez Turrent, the historians Eduardo de la Vega Alfaro and Gustavo García Gutiérrez. The top twelve films in order chosen from the best and on are Let's Go with Pancho Villa, Los Olvidados, Godfather Mendoza, Aventurera, A Family Like Many Others, Nazarín, El, The Woman of the Port, The Place Without Limits, Here's the Point, Champion Without a Crown, and Enamorada.
File:Lupe Vélez NM230.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Lupe Vélez, Mexican silent film actress. La Zanduga was the first Spanish-speaking movie Lupe Velez started in.
In the 1930s, once peace and a degree of political stability were achieved, the film industry took off in Mexico and several movies still experimenting with the new medium were made. Hollywood's attempt at creating Spanish language films for Latin America failed mainly due to the combination of Hispanic actors from different ethnicities exhibiting various accents unfamiliar to the Mexican people. Early Mexican cinematographers were influenced and encouraged by Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein's visit to the country in 1930.
In 1931 the first Mexican "talkie" movie, an adaptation of Federico Gamboa's novel Santa, directed by Antonio Moreno and starring the Mexican-Hollywood star Lupita Tovar, was realized. Until Sergei Eisenstein's ¡Que viva México!, Mexican audiences were exposed to popular melodramas, crude comedies, as well as Spanish-language versions of Hollywood movies.
Eisenstein's visit to Mexico inspired directors like Emilio Fernández and cameraman Gabriel Figueroa, and the number of Mexican-made films increased and improved. During the 1930s the Mexican film industry achieved considerable success with movies like La Mujer del Puerto, Fred Zinnemann's Redes, Janitzio, and Dos Monjes.