07 · 20 · 21

Mex noir: the disturbing Mexican film noir

Rafael Aviña

A mediados de los treinta, durante el gobierno de Lázaro Cárdenas, la Comisión de Seguridad del Distrito Federal sería conocida como Servicio Secreto Mexicano: organismo policiaco que resolvió varios casos con certera eficacia, como el del "Criminal de Tacuba", Goyo Cárdenas, en 1942. Una década después surgiría una suerte de policía secreta alternativa presidencial: la Dirección Federal de Seguridad formalizada a instancias de Miguel Alemán Valdés, en 1946, que coincidía con el advenimiento de varias de las obras más representativas del cine negro mexicano en su etapa dorada.

Este era un cuerpo especializado y violento dedicado a vigilar a los enemigos del gobierno, que reportaba directamente al Presidente Alemán y cuyas oficinas se localizaban en Plaza de la República no. 6, justo frente al Monumento de la Revolución; mudo testigo, no sólo de su labor eficaz y brutal, sino de otros relatos del imaginario fílmico que sucedían a unos pasos de su imponente edificación, como serían las imágenes de: Víctimas del pecado (1950), de Emilio Fernández, o La noche avanza (1951), de Roberto Gavaldón, ambas arropadas por distintas influencias policiales.

Expressionist lighting: the search for capricious angles, aggressive or dim lights that marked faces or illuminated stages and streets sinisterly; highlighting not only the portrayal of a violent, dark, clandestine, and aggressive universe, but also providing a faithful reflection of decomposed personalities, twisted or tortured minds, sick pathologies, unresolved sexual and family traumas, excessive ambition, and passions that turned ordinary beings into beasts or toys of destiny. Men and women obsessed with an idyllic or stormy past (A la sombra del puente and En la palma de tu mano).

Audiences were terrified of the crime showing up every day on the daily red note. They were afraid of violent robberies and crime. They knew it existed, it was real and impossible to hide from, just like prostitution or crimes of passion. Mexican viewers from the 1930s to the 1960s wanted to see these stories of extreme passions, adultery, crime, blood, and revenge. However, the morals and censorship of the time chose to show a more family-friendly cinema, with moralistic and religious comedies and dramas.

In that sense, the appearance of a cinema that showed the city, crime, and Mexico at night, was a reflection of that time, particularly of Alemanismo. The birth of an atypical and almost clandestine cinema such as film noir, with some enormously complex stories such as: Distinto amanecer, Crepúsculo, Cuatro contra el mundo, Los Fernández de Peralvillo, La otra, La diosa arrodillada, En la palma de tu mano, or La noche avanza, among others. These stood out over some other valuable films that functioned as variants, reflections or copies, completely defying censorship, and the moral flatness of the times.

Unfortunately, noir began to fade away in the 1950s. In spite of this, audiences saw rarities such as: Él and Ensayo de un Crimen by Luis Buñuel, several works by Juan Bustillo Oro (Casa de vecindad, El hombre sin rostro, La huella de unos labios) and Miguel Morayta (Hipócrita, Vagabunda, Camino del infierno). The deep, enigmatic, poetic, classic and traditional Mexican film noir gradually disappeared to give way to a more hopeless and ironic style from the seventies onwards.