Movies

Movies

Mexican cinema cut its teeth during the Mexican Revolution, when both Mexican and U.S. cameramen braved the battlefields to catch the generals in action. Legend has it that American cameramen helped Pancho Villa "choreograph" the Battle of Celaya for on-screen (and military) success. For an early Hollywood portrayal of the revolution, shot partially in Mexico, check out director Elia Kazan's Viva Zapata! (1952), written by John Steinbeck and starring Marlon Brando as Emiliano Zapata.

It wasn't long after Kazan's epic that directors of Hollywood westerns hit on Durango state as a cheap, accessible alternative to the usual "Old West" locales north of the border. The quintessential cinema cowboy, John Wayne, made eight movies in the area, including True Grit (1969), for which he won an Oscar.

John Huston directed one of the earliest American movies shot in Mexico, the unforgettable prospecting adventure The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), filmed in Michoacán state. In 1964, Huston set an adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play The Night of the Iguana in Puerto Vallarta. And in 1984, Huston made the beautiful, intense Under the Volcano, adapted from Malcolm Lowry's novel. The movie was shot in Morelos, near Cuernavaca, and shows the local Día de los Muertos celebrations.

Hollywood's presence in Mexico continued throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. After Titanic (1997) and parts of Pearl Harbor (2001) were filmed in Rosarito, some began referring to the area as "Baja Hollywood." Other recent blockbusters that were shot south of the border include: Frida (2002), with Salma Hayek as the Mexican artist, and gorgeous settings in Mexico City's Coyoacán neighborhood; Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2001), which trolls some of the tougher areas of Tijuana and other border towns; and Ted Demme's Blow (2001), with Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz, filmed in glitzy Acapulco. The Mask of Zorro (1998), starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins, gallops across several locations in central Mexico. Robert Rodriguez made his name with his tales of a mariachi musician dragged into a world of crime. The films El Mariachi (1992) and Desperado (1995) were capped by Once Upon a Time in Mexico, starring Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, and Salma Hayek, in 2003.

The predominance of Hollywood films in Mexico has not been without controversy. In 1998, Mexico passed a law requiring movie theaters to reserve 10% of their screen time for domestic films. The government also directed funds to support homegrown Mexican cinema, and the effort is already paying off, as recent films gain international attention. Director Carlos Carrera's El Crimen del Padre Amaro (The Crime of Father Amaro, 2002) courted scandal with its story of a priest's love affair, becoming Mexico's highest-grossing domestic film in the process. Y Tu Mamá También (And Your Mother Too, 2001) swept film festivals across Europe and Latin America. The funny, very sexual coming-of-age tale of two teenage boys was shot in Mexico City and the Oaxaca coast. Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch, 2000) is a Mexico City thriller about a car accident and the intertwining stories of loss and regret among the principal characters. For a delicious romance set in early-20th-century Mexico, see Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate, 1992), based on the novel by Laura Esquivel.

Less-mainstream films that have won critical acclaim in recent years include the 2002 films Amarte Duele (Love Hurts), a modern love story with a rock-and-roll sound track, and Asesino en Serio (A Serious Killer), a sexy murder mystery laced with references to Aztec ritual. Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Mexico's first openly gay director, made the campy black comedy El Misterio de los Almendros (Mystery of the Almonds, 2003).