Arráncame la vida

Period pieces in Mexico have been well done almost always, but productions of period pieces had been only made for soap operas, never before had a movie production been so well done.

Although I never read the novel by Angeles Mastretta, I knew it was somehow accurate, since I hear she is a direct descendant from the story's protagonist Catalina -names are changed in the novel and film. This is shown by the richness of dialogs and curious anecdotes which constantly make you wonder which parts were completely true and which sprung from the author's vivid imagination.

Apart from the richness from the story and how the storytelling evolves smoothly throughout the film, the production design makes you feel completely Mexico in the 1930s. The costumes are great also.

The direction is almost perfect. Roberto Sneider takes you by surprise first at about minute 20, then slowly and smoothly hypnotizes you and never lets go.

Much credit goes to the lead Ana Claudia Talancon whose good looks and very well developed character arc make you fall at first for her beauty and innocence, and later for her humanity, courage and cleverness.

Daniel Gimenez Chaco's performance deserves praise also. He captures the Mexican Macho Persona perfectly, his cynical viewpoint of things and comments, bring humor to a character who would be otherwise despicable.

Second characters like de Tavira's and others feel a bit underdeveloped, but in the end all actors do great jobs with their little screen time and their contribution suffice.

The drama never falls for the temptation to go overly melodramatic and dialogs are kept smart enough - even ironic at times - to make this movie a fresh and satisfying take on the Mexican way of life. It actually feels so accurate that deep thoughts of "nothing has ever changed really" do spring a few times.

The music and editing are very well done also.

Congratulations to everybody involved!

With these gushing reviews where this is a tale of a woman enthralled by a sophisticated older man. When in reality it was a poorly conceived story of a lecherous old man preying on a naive juvenile with way too much gratuitous nudity which is a dead give-away to a poor script.

There are ways to portray emotional and physical affection without the women in these movie having to bare their assets in order to get people to watch this drivel. I lost interest in the entire plot when this weak AF cliched sex scenes and especially when Catalina was underage. But this is what we are left with now-a-days as the quality of the end product continues to sink below muck.

Add the dead pan acting of various cast members to the cliched meeting Catalina and the band director as how weak this adaptation of a better reading product which often the case. It seems that these writers just can't take the gist of a good book and get it on film without screwing things up and than having to toss in female nudity to cover up another failed attempt.

Read the Book and bypass this nonsensical rubbish.

I love the drive in this movie. It sweeps from country to city with wonderful undertones and great panoramic scenes. The actors did a great job and the directing was superb. The story is told in a hurry up and wait fashion that I usually see in Italian films. The ruthlessness of the general is played down with the tender way he treats his wife and family. It leaves you confused and unsure who to root for. I also love when actors can pull of playing very young to mature and have you believing it. Entitlement is a universal theme where the very rich takes advantage of the poor. I loved the lead actress how she played the part and the story kept going as if it would never end and you wanted to keep watching. It kind of makes one wish there was a sequel to this historic fiction based upon real characters.

In my opinion this is by far the best and most important Mexican movie since "La Sombra del Caudillo". A movie also made from a novel in 1960 that was seized by the army and never released, and was done in the same style of using fictitious names. After I heard that this movie was filmed in my home town Puebla (I'm a US citizen now living in LA), and a candidate for a nomination for best foreign film, I rushed for the book and read it. It didn't take too long for me to realize who and what she (Angeles Mastretta) was talking about, and I loved it. So I rushed for the DVD and couldn't find it, but somehow I saw the movie. In the version that I saw, I noticed an important and brief episode from the book (among others) that was missing in the movie almost at the end. I'm referring to a serenade performed by the best and most popular artists in those days, Pedro Vargas and Agustin Lara (there's a statue of Lara in a park in Los Angeles), that ended in a clean fist fight won by the kid with the motorcycle, that the young daughter of the general loved, and who mysteriously died a few days later in a motorcycle accident (?). Who was the rich kid? Well, who could afford to take these artists to Puebla for a simple serenade? But who wants to be an enemy of the media anyway. I wonder if the richest man in the world, whose name appears at the end in the credits as contributor to the movie, also contributed to the omission of this episode or if it was not filmed at all, that, I don't know. But anyway that is not too important compared to another character that is almost invisible in the book (and movie) by the name of "Don Mike Heiss". If you find out who he really was then do a simple research, like I did, and visit the archives of the New York Times. You'll be surprise of these articles from 1917 (the year Zapata was murdered)-1919 (Villa was murdered a few years later) when USA was about to invade Mexico again just to liberate this special agent ("Heiss") from a Puebla penitentiary. "HEISS" became the richest man in Mexico and probably in the world after Rockefeller, and was the partner of all the richest man in Mexico at the time, with the help of "General Ascencio", who was in charge of making offers nobody could refuse. After "Ascencio" died, "Cienfuegos" became one of the richest men in the world during the six years he was president. All this just proves that unfortunately there is nothing to celebrate next year on the centennial of the revolution the 18th day of November 1910, with the exception of remembering Aquiles Serdan the first martyr of the unconsummated and so-called revolution, initiated also in my beautiful home town of Puebla de Los Angeles (Mastretta?). The acting in this movie is the best I've seen in many years. Thank you Ana Claudia, Daniel and Roberto, from now on you are my favorite actors and director. Please don't go to Hollywood, you all are more needed in Mexico.

Living in the USA I am daily subjected to a negative view of Mexico and its people, whom certain Americans feel should keep quiet, stay in Mexico and do as they are told (by good old Uncle Sam); therefore, it is a pleasure to watch a film, which counters this negative stereotype and shows a beautiful country with its own way of life - sometimes good, sometimes bad. The political system may appear corrupt to the American style, but it is theirs and some of them achieve their aims by violence rather than purchasing them. Mexico is not alone in military strong men running the country. I have not seen many Mexican films, "Like Water for chocolate" was probably the first, but I have watched several telenovellas and enjoy seeing the ways and traditions of our next door neighbor. I gave this fine film a 10 as it was excellent, and I hope to see more such films in the future.