Sui generis: An Alternative History of Mexican Cinema
by perceval_jrr | created - 15 Dec 2018 | updated - 11 Jun 2019 | PublicGuillermo del Toro partnered with Toronto International Film Festival programmer Diana Sanchez to bring a robust Mexican film retrospective to TIFF Bell Lightbox.
- Instant Watch Options
- Genres
- Movies or TV
- IMDb Rating
- In Theaters
- Release Year
- Keywords
1. Ángel de fuego (1992)
95 min | Drama
In a miserable circus, a young trapeze artist seduces her father, gets pregnant and decides to have her baby, so she leaves the circus and joins a group of puppeteers who make shows from passages of the Bible.
Director: Dana Rotberg | Stars: Evangelina Sosa, Lilia Aragón, Roberto Sosa, Noé Montealegre
Votes: 211
2. La oveja negra (1949)
Not Rated | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
The Trevino family tries to overcome the irresponsible behavior of Don Cruz, an erratic father with numerous defects that contrast with his son Silvano, a young kid man that is incapable of passing judgment on his own father.
Director: Ismael Rodríguez | Stars: Fernando Soler, Pedro Infante, Andrés Soler, Dalia Íñiguez
Votes: 402
3. Cronos (1992)
R | 94 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path.
Director: Guillermo del Toro | Stars: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel
Votes: 33,132 | Gross: $0.62M
4. Danzón (1991)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama
Julia (Rojo) is a phone operator in Mexico City who divides her time between her job, her daughter and the danzon: a cuban dance very popular in Mexico and Central America. Every wednesday ... See full summary »
Director: María Novaro | Stars: María Rojo, Carmen Salinas, Tito Vasconcelos, Margarita Isabel
Votes: 687 | Gross: $0.36M
5. Godfather Mendoza (1934)
85 min | Drama, War
During Mexican Revolution, Rosalio Mendoza (Del Diestro) survives by making and winning favors from both factions, the governmental forces and Zapata's Army. His hacienda welcomes everybody... See full summary »
Directors: Juan Bustillo Oro, Fernando de Fuentes | Stars: Alfredo del Diestro, Carmen Guerrero, Antonio R. Frausto, Luis G. Barreiro
Votes: 608
6. El grito (1968)
120 min | Documentary
A documentary on the student movement in Mexico, 1968, made by film students
Director: Leobardo López Aretche | Stars: Rolando de Castro, Magda Vizcaíno
Votes: 162
7. El Suavecito (1951)
89 min | Action, Crime, Drama
Roberto "El Suavecito" is an irresponsible playboy who is wrongly accused of having committed a crime.
Director: Fernando Méndez | Stars: Víctor Parra, Aurora Segura, Dagoberto Rodríguez, Jacqueline Evans
Votes: 100
8. Nocaut (1984)
109 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Director: José Luis García Agraz | Stars: Gonzalo Vega, Blanca Guerra, Wolf Ruvinskis, Guillermo Orea
Votes: 71
9. The Outsiders (1967)
95 min | Comedy, Drama
A rich, aristocratic engaged couple (Julissa, Enrique Alvarez Felix) abandons a dinner party to enjoy a night on the town with an urban gang known as Los Caifanes.
Director: Juan Ibáñez | Stars: Julissa, Enrique Álvarez Félix, Óscar Chávez, Ernesto Gómez Cruz
Votes: 709
10. The Young and the Damned (1950)
Not Rated | 80 min | Crime, Drama
A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent and crime-filled life in the festering slums of Mexico City, as the morals of young Pedro are gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Alfonso Mejía, Roberto Cobo, Estela Inda, Miguel Inclán
Votes: 22,011
11. Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991)
Not Rated | 94 min | Comedy, Romance
A womanizer is falsely diagnosed with AIDS by a jealous lover and falls in love with a woman equally suicidal as he.
Director: Alfonso Cuarón | Stars: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Claudia Ramírez, Luis de Icaza, Astrid Hadad
Votes: 4,036 | Gross: $0.01M
12. My Son, the Hero (1961)
95 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Reynaldo and Martín Del Hierro are witnesses of the murder of their father by Pascual Velazco, as they grow up they're poisoned by the desire of vengeance by their mother, but once they get it it'll change their lifes forever.
Director: Ismael Rodríguez | Stars: Antonio Aguilar, Julio Alemán, Columba Domínguez, Patricia Conde
Votes: 347
13. Poison for the Fairies (1986)
90 min | Fantasy, Horror
A 10 year old girl convinces a lonely classmate that she is a witch, forcing the child to become her assistant. Though their games are initially rather naive, they gradually take a nasty and violent turn.
Director: Carlos Enrique Taboada | Stars: Ana Patricia Rojo, Elsa María Gutiérrez, Leonor Llausás, Carmen Stein
Votes: 2,563
14. Los albañiles (1976)
122 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A watchman is murdered at a building site. The film narrates several versions of the people involved. Based on the Vicente Lenero novel.
Director: Jorge Fons | Stars: Ignacio López Tarso, Jaime Fernández, José Alonso, Salvador Sánchez
Votes: 257
15. Muñecos infernales (1961)
Approved | 81 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Four men are cursed by a voodoo priest for stealing a sacred idol from his temple. Soon a band of murderous "doll men" are after the men and their families.
Director: Benito Alazraki | Stars: Elvira Quintana, Ramón Gay, Roberto G. Rivera, Quintín Bulnes
Votes: 363
16. The Exterminating Angel (1962)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Fantasy
The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave.
Director: Luis Buñuel | Stars: Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Enrique Rambal, José Baviera
Votes: 35,552
17. The Passion of Berenice (1976)
107 min | Drama
When a man appears in her life, a young woman of traditional manners who lives with her godmother suffers a deep and unusual transformation.
Director: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo | Stars: Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Martha Navarro, Emma Roldán, Blanca Torres
Votes: 327
18. The Realm of Fortune (1986)
130 min | Drama
Poor Dionisio finds himself as recipient of the good fortune, but soon he forgets that everything that goes up also has to go down, and that in the depressing nothingness of his town it is easy to die.
Director: Arturo Ripstein | Stars: Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Blanca Guerra, Alejandro Parodi, Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez
Votes: 512
19. Tiburoneros (1963)
100 min | Drama
Aurelio is a shark fisherman who works on the coast of Tabasco, Mexico. He works hard and sends money to his wife and children, who live in Mexico City. Although he misses his family, he's ... See full summary »
Director: Luis Alcoriza | Stars: Julio Aldama, Dacia González, Tito Junco, Amanda del Llano
Votes: 201
20. Skeleton of Mrs. Morales (1960)
85 min | Comedy, Crime, Horror
A taxidermist decides to murder his wife after having to put up with her after fifteen years of hellish marriage.
Director: Rogelio A. González | Stars: Arturo de Córdova, Amparo Rivelles, Elda Peralta, Guillermo Orea
Votes: 2,112
21. The Woman of the Port (1934)
76 min | Drama
Rosario (Palma) becomes a prostitute after losing her father and discovering her boyfriend had a liaison with another woman. In Veracruz, Rosario lives above a sordid cabaret "selling her ... See full summary »
Directors: Arcady Boytler, Raphael J. Sevilla | Stars: Andrea Palma, Domingo Soler, Francisco Zárraga, Joaquín Busquets
Votes: 429
22. Tívoli (1975)
127 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Director: Alberto Isaac | Stars: Alfonso Arau, Pancho Córdova, Lyn May, Carmen Salinas
Votes: 152
23. Nosotros los pobres (1948)
Not Rated | 128 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Nosotros Los Pobres stars Pedro Infante as a carpenter whose entire family must work together to clear his name after he is charged with a murder..
Director: Ismael Rodríguez | Stars: Pedro Infante, Evita Muñoz 'Chachita', Carmen Montejo, Blanca Estela Pavón
Votes: 1,164
24. Novia que te vea (1994)
114 min | Comedy, Drama
Two Mexican Jewish girls of come of age in Mexico City during the 1960s.
Director: Guita Schyfter | Stars: Claudette Maillé, Maya Mishalska, Angélica Aragón, Ernesto Laguardia
Votes: 133
25. In the Palm of Your Hand (1951)
113 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A fortune teller blackmails a beautiful widow whose husband has recently died.
Director: Roberto Gavaldón | Stars: Arturo de Córdova, Leticia Palma, Ramón Gay, Consuelo Guerrero de Luna
Votes: 359
26. Una familia de tantas (1949)
130 min | Drama
A strict patriarch exercises almost absolute control over his family and uses it to impose his vision of order and conservative family values. However, the budding sexuality of some of his children causes the union to unravel.
Director: Alejandro Galindo | Stars: Fernando Soler, David Silva, Martha Roth, Carlos Riquelme
Votes: 391
27. The Castle of Purity (1973)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
The story of a disciplined and sexually driven man who keeps his family isolated in his home for years to protect them from the "evil nature" of human beings while inventing (with his wife)... See full summary »
Director: Arturo Ripstein | Stars: Claudio Brook, Rita Macedo, Arturo Beristáin, Diana Bracho
Votes: 2,389
28. Another Dawn (1943)
108 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
The disaffected wife of a failed civil servant, is thrilled to re-encounter Octavio, a former lover who is now a union activist on the run from a corrupt politician. Hoping to help him, she... See full summary »
Director: Julio Bracho | Stars: Andrea Palma, Pedro Armendáriz, Alberto Galán, Narciso Busquets
Votes: 340
29. Canoa: A Shameful Memory (1976)
Not Rated | 115 min | Adventure, Crime, Drama
A group of university employees arrive in a small village during a hiking expedition. Once there, the local priest accuses them of being university students who're attempting to spread communism and mobilizes the townspeople to lynch them.
Director: Felipe Cazals | Stars: Enrique Lucero, Salvador Sánchez, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Roberto Sosa
Votes: 1,870
30. Woman of the Port (1991)
110 min | Drama
Perla is a teenager who has been prostituted by her mother, Tomasa and acts as a dancer in a cabaret-brothel. The pianist who plays at the venue is a romantic singer-songwriter and ... See full summary »
Director: Arturo Ripstein | Stars: Evangelina Sosa, Alejandro Parodi, Damián Alcázar, Patricia Reyes Spíndola
Votes: 236
Tell Your Friends