Mexico: Mexican Cinema (1900-1950) | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The cinematograph was well received by Mexican society from the arrival of the Lumière brothers’ emissaries to Mexico in 1896. The first Mexican cameramen and filmmakers appeared soon after. With the beginning of the armed movement in 1910 against the 30-year dictatorship of Mexican president Porfirio Díaz, a new chapter in film history was written. The first revolution recorded in the 20th century drove Mexican and foreign filmmakers to document its main protagonists, such as Francisco I. Madero, Emiliano Zapata, Venustiano Carranza, and the legendary Francisco Villa.

From the very beginning, narrative films took as their subjects some of the most emblematic episodes in Mexican history. Mexican cinema also used literature and music as an instrument to show all the facets of Mexican society. Additionally, the visual arts had a clear influence on “the ways of seeing men and things,” as Gabriel Figueroa—one of the most important Mexican cinematographers in the twentieth century—once said. There are many striking examples of exchanges between fine arts and cinema, especially during Mexico’s “Golden Age” of film production, which would become a reference point for visual aesthetics in contemporary filmmaking.

Romanticism’s arrival in Mexico in the 19th century helped cement a perception of women’s intellectual capacities as being based on intuition and imagination over reason. Almost out of habit, Mexican cinema attributed these behavioral patterns to its female characters, often determined by the character’s setting. On one end of the spectrum stands the neat, home-loving woman, generally a self-sacrificing mother and wife in a small or rural town, and on the other the sinful woman, typical of Mexico’s city nightlife or seafaring ports. Between these we find the soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution portrayed by the movies of the 1940s and 50s (known as the “Golden Age” of Mexican Cinema) alongside battered women, femmes fatales, and contemporary women demanding these patterns be broken.

Adapted from

México 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant Garde, Gallery text [Mexican Cinema; Strong Women in Cinema], 2017.

NOTES

México 1900-1950: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, and the Avant Garde.
Note: author may be either Erin Piñon or Sue Canterbury, or both.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS

AUDIO ASSETS

280540272: UMO

VIDEO ASSETS

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

Khan Academy~Learn more about Latin American art.
Khan Academy~Read more about the Mexican Revolution and Independence.
Khan Academy~Read more about Mexican muralism and David Alfaro Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and José Clemente Orozco.
Khan Academy~Learn more about movies, radio, and sports in the 1920s.
Khan Academy~Learn more about romanticism, neoclassicism and monumentality in 18th and 19th century Mexican art.
Khan Academy~Read about romanticism and 19th century stylistic developments.
Khan Academy~Learn more about romanticism in France.
Khan Academy~Read about modernism from 1850 to 1960.
Khan Academy~Watch a video about the influence of abstraction.

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

SET operator AS OR

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1844

apply to constituents where id equals 1844

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 3019

apply to constituents where id equals 3019

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1097

apply to constituents where id equals 1097

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 547

apply to constituents where id equals 547

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 434

apply to constituents where id equals 434

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2166

apply to constituents where id equals 2166

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108658

apply to constituents where id equals 108658

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 3033

apply to constituents where id equals 3033

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108661

apply to constituents where id equals 108661

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108663

apply to constituents where id equals 108663

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108664

apply to constituents where id equals 108664

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108665

apply to constituents where id equals 108665

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108666

apply to constituents where id equals 108666

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108672

apply to constituents where id equals 108672

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108671

apply to constituents where id equals 108671

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108670

apply to constituents where id equals 108670

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108669

apply to constituents where id equals 108669

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108668

apply to constituents where id equals 108668

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108673

apply to constituents where id equals 108673

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108674

apply to constituents where id equals 108674

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108675

apply to constituents where id equals 108675

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108671

apply to constituents where id equals 108671

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108748

apply to constituents where id equals 108748

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 682

apply to constituents where id equals 682

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108749

apply to constituents where id equals 108749

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2624

apply to constituents where id equals 2624

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108707

apply to constituents where id equals 108707

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108678

apply to constituents where id equals 108678

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108681

apply to constituents where id equals 108681

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2024

apply to constituents where id equals 2024

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108686

apply to constituents where id equals 108686

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108688

apply to constituents where id equals 108688

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108692

apply to constituents where id equals 108692

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108694

apply to constituents where id equals 108694

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 672

apply to constituents where id equals 672

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 547

apply to constituents where id equals 547

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 1013

apply to constituents where id equals 1013

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2397

apply to constituents where id equals 2397

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 940

apply to constituents where id equals 940

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108709

apply to constituents where id equals 108709

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108713

apply to constituents where id equals 108713

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108715

apply to constituents where id equals 108715

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108717

apply to constituents where id equals 108717

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108723

apply to constituents where id equals 108723

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 665

apply to constituents where id equals 665

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108663

apply to constituents where id equals 108663

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108773

apply to constituents where id equals 108773

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108745

apply to constituents where id equals 108745

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 74325

apply to constituents where id equals 74325

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108729

apply to constituents where id equals 108729

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108730

apply to constituents where id equals 108730

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108731

apply to constituents where id equals 108731

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 104686

apply to constituents where id equals 104686

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108732

apply to constituents where id equals 108732

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108734

apply to constituents where id equals 108734

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108703

apply to constituents where id equals 108703

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108735

apply to constituents where id equals 108735

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108746

apply to constituents where id equals 108746

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 3682

apply to constituents where id equals 3682

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108747

apply to constituents where id equals 108747

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108738

apply to constituents where id equals 108738

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108668

apply to constituents where id equals 108668

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108753

apply to constituents where id equals 108753

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108761

apply to constituents where id equals 108761

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2074

apply to constituents where id equals 2074

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 2846

apply to constituents where id equals 2846

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 841

apply to constituents where id equals 841

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 108719

apply to constituents where id equals 108719

apply to objects where constituent_id equals 3401

apply to constituents where id equals 3401