ixta_coyotl

This film is generally held in much lower regard than de Fuentes other 1936 classic, Vamanos con Pancho Villa. The conventional wisdom is that Alla en el Rancho Grande, despite having been a huge commercial success, lacked the artistic merits and brave political message of Vamanos con Pancho Villa, which a survey of Mexican cinephiles rated the most important Mexican film ever in a famous 1994 survey. This film, on the other hand, has been generally regarding in Mexico as fodder for the ignorant masses, which set off the culturally embarrassing genre of the ranch comedy.

With my expectations tempered by that background, I must say that I found Alla en el Rancho Grande to be quite an outstanding surprise. For starters, the humor is actually funny; yet it's done with a subtly and restraint quite uncommon in Mexican "comedy". This is a testament to the skill of the actors, as well as the director and editor. Secondly, the film does a good job of providing a look into the true life of a Mexican village, with references to atole and pulque and the like. It's also filmed on location and it looks and feels authentic. Maybe that's one factor which drew audiences in the day, not just their presumed lack of sophistication. The storyline is well developed and character list is fairly busy; this is not a primitive talkie like most Mexican films of the 1930s. And the songs are all well done and interesting (you'll note no less than the great Emilio Fernandez in the cockfight dance). Gabriel Figueroa (a student of Eisenstein and a contemporary of Greg Tolland) does steady early work here as cinematographer. Finally, Esther Fernandez is perfectly cast as the orphaned Cruz; her youthful spark and ever-so-slightly coquettish glances provide a remarkable complexity and attraction to her character, which in fact make the whole story line plausible.

Mexican cinephiles tend to be excessively slanted towards high art in film (call it elitism), and are also frequently tinted by a mild strain of malinchismo (a peculiar yet pernicious domestic strain of self-loathing or mental slavery). Unencumbered by those mental deficiencies, I must say that Alla en el Rancho Grande might actually be the height of pre classic Mexican cinema.

A final note, de Fuentes remade this film in 1949 with Jorge Negrete in the lead. Needless to say, it was a sad retread unworthy of the original film.

By a strange twist of fate I happened to watch this film right after Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 dud, Rumble Fish. Fuera del Cielo claims to be an original script, but you could have fooled me as it felt like a 75% copy of that earlier story.

Demian Bichir plays the quiet, brooding part of the Motorcycle Boy, here called Marlboro. Mickey Rourke couldn't do much with that part himself, and Bichir provides no more. Perhaps I'm too used to seeing him as an on-the-edge middle class capitalino, but I never bought into him in this part. As his nemesis, Damian Alcazar gives perhaps his most uninspiring performance. I think Alcazar is one of the best actors alive today, on par with de Niro. His problem here is certainly the lame script and poor camera angles from the primerizo director, which have the effect of making him look distant and small. Rafael Inclan as the uncle is a poor replication of his great uncle Miguel (along with Claude Raines one of the great character actors ever), but here he surprises with one of his better performances; its too bad the script leaves him hanging out to dry. The female roles are the best and most interesting: Dolores Heredia (the lead from Santitos) is excellent, and as her fast-blooming daughter, Martha Higareda (Amar Te Duele) steals and enlivens every scene. Finally, Armando Hernandez as el Kuku provides a perversely interesting feel in his most prominent role yet. This script has him crossed somewhere between Matt Dillan's role in Rumble Fish with Eric Roberts' from The Pope of Greenwich Village.

Fuera del Cielo is most interesting in a few odd off moments (Hernandez breaking things in the background, Inclan reflecting on his life, Higareda encountering her sexuality, or Alfedo Garcia's girlfriend Isel Vega posing as a mother). But for the most part, this film just feels worn out, like retreaded tires.

While Mexican cinema saw new directions in 2006 with documentaries, an animated film, and Guillermo del Toro's Laberinto del Fauna, New Mexican Cinema laid two stillborn eggs in the form of this film and Un Mundo Maravilloso. Whether the movement is completely dead or not will probably hinge on Sultanes del Sur, Alejandro Lozano's follow up to Matando Cabos with Tony Dalton and the Catalan Jordi Molla. Stay tuned.

I finally got a chance to watch this by moving to Mexico and buying the DVD (143 pesos, or about US$13.50). You can get it on ebay occasionally and i think its well worth the asking price. The image has been digitally restored and it has both Spanish and excellent English language subtitles. I don't know why these haven't been made more widely available in the us yet.

Anyway, regarding the film: I was expecting it to be "hopelessly dated" as per a prior review and was pleasantly surprised to find this among Indio's more sophisticated works. I also liked the fact that he took a different turn and left the country for the big city. Gabriel Figueroa took advantage of the urban scenery with some great shots of the Zocalo, old town callejons, and dancing in the fabled danzon cabaretera. The story is never overwhelmingly complex but the acting is routinely superb and Fernandez manages to subtly lace the ambiance with the same universal human themes from his rural dramas; he was as much a student of Renoir as he was of Eisenstein.

Definitely give Salon Mexico a look if you get the chance. I guess you could call it "hopelessly dated" if you feel the same way about Casablanca or Double Indemnity. But then again you would be saying more about yourself then the film you are reviewing!