Our friends over at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive have programmed a noir series celebrating Julio Bracho, one of the most commercially successful—and stylistically recognizable—craftsmen of Mexican cinema’s midcentury golden age June 7 through July 18.
Here’s the schedule. Get tickets. You won’t want to miss this cinematically stunning retrospective on the big screen.
Those Were the Days, Señor Don Simón! Julio Bracho
Mexico, 1941 Friday, June 7 7 PM
A not very grief-stricken young widow flutters her hand fan between a dashing young soldier and an elderly politician in Bracho’s lively debut, a brash musical comedy romance set in Mexico’s belle époque. View Details Buy Tickets
Story of a Great Love Julio Bracho
Mexico, 1942 Friday, June 14 7 PM
Bracho’s decades-spanning tale of two star-crossed lovers turns doomed romance into the highest of operatic entertainments, and showcases the charisma of legendary singer/actor Jorge Negrete, a.k.a. “El Charro Cantor.” View Details Buy Tickets
Another Dawn Julio Bracho
Mexico, 1943 Saturday, June 22 8 PM
Labor activists, cabaret singers, and corrupt politicians stalk Mexico City in Bracho’s stylized, politicized film noir. With cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa and starring Pedro Armendáriz, it’s “an antifascist noir comparable to and in some ways superior to Casablanca” (J. Hoberman). View Details Buy Tickets
Twilight Julio Bracho
Mexico, 1945 Saturday, June 29 8:15 PM
Arturo de Córdova and Gloria Marín star in this eroticized, nocturnal noir of shadows and desire, one of Mexican cinema’s great flores del mal. A progressive doctor fights an illicit, destructive passion for his best friend’s wife—and fails gloriously. View Details Buy Tickets
Rosenda Julio Bracho
Mexico, 1948 Saturday, July 13 8:15 PM
Bracho fuses populist romance and melodrama with formal experimentation in this over-the-top tale of a peasant woman torn between her revolutionary fiancé and a kindly store owner. Rita Macedo and Fernando Soler star in a classic of Mexican cinema’s Golden Age. View Details Buy Tickets
The Shadow of the Tyrant Julio Bracho
Mexico, 1960 BAMPFA Student Committee Pick Thursday, July 18 7 PM
Bracho’s 1960 passion project takes on the power struggles within Mexican politics after the Revolution, and was banned for over thirty years as a result. “Suffused with anguish and barely concealed outrage” (Village Voice). View Details
