Una familia de tantas

This movie is pure gold. Beautiful, nerve racking and also quite funny! If you want to get an idea about how things worked in the late 40's, specifically in Mexico city, this movie will show you just that! The figure of the patriarch, the customs, the inequality, and the first breaths of women's liberation in the country.

The patriarch of the Cataño family attempts to force his version of propriety and order on his middle-class urban Mexican family. However, things begin to unravel throughout the movie.

I am not sure how historically accurate this movie is in terms of the typical cultural milieu of Mexican families in the middle of the 20th century. The plot involving an excessively strict father, servants, and marriages to cousin seems like it would not be out of place in 19th or 18th century Europe. I get the impression that the work may be based on something else, but I can't identify it. Anyway, this is significant because the family seems a bit extraordinary, but the title, "Just Another Family," may at first seem misplaced.

However, upon closer inspection, the story is, except for a few references to current economic events and the dated plot device of a door-to-door salesman, more or less timeless and universal. In short, the power of a patriarch is insufficient to repress the budding sexuality of his children, and this leads to a breakdown and restructuring of the previously tight family structure.

At first it seems to be a feminist critique of patriarchy, because the daughters get the brunt of the father's ire. However, the behavior of the family's eldest son is also brought into question later in the film. At that point, one might see it as a story about orderly society's inability to suppress human sexuality in general (without regard to gender). However, the last few lines of the movie generalize all of this - it turns out human sexuality was just a vehicle for delivering a broader message.

That message is that human nature in general is difficult to control or suppress and yearns for freedom. In pursuit of this freedom, it will eventually burst through cracks in the pavement of order and hierarchy if it finds even a small nook by which to do so.

As this dynamic of order against unruly human nature exists at every level of modern society, by the end of the movie, I found the title to be apt: this is just another story that could happen in any family, in any society, in any human interaction.

Simple but always relevant, Best Picture award for 1949 well-deserved.

The story, the script, the actors ensamble so well directed makes one top mexican films of the 40's. The dialogue among all the characters is so well done, A must see. Catch the eye on the scenegraphy made by one the most important painter in Mexico ( Gunther Gerszo)and the USA. Well decerved the cinema prizes "Ariel", Some new filmakers in Mexico cinema have learn the visual Galindo's eye in many ways, the detail in customes, furniture. Besides Luis Buñuel,Rogelio A. Gonzales,Fernando de Fuentes and some other filmmakers of the time made a very strong, way in reflecting the mirror of our history in society, " Maru que esperas para ponerte los zapatos, primero es Dios y después los padres" dialogue by the patriarca the actor Fernando Soler.

This film from the self called "Golden Age" of Mexican cinema is not only one of the most representative achievements of how high was the productions standards in those days, but also an spectacular shown of artistic precision. Filmed in the classic American way with a solid narrative timing based on economic shots and a strong screenplay, this movie shown how much director Alejandro Galindo learned in his pass by Hollywood aside with director Gregory LaCava. The plot is simple but full of heart and mind: a cleaning machine breaks the stability of a conservative family; the modern time has come to fall apart the strong 19 th century comfort. From this point the post revolutionary society enters in crisis: the sons will be raised against his parents to discuss the authority terms. The generational barrier has rise. "Una familia de tantas" is a must see film for all those who likes the best classic cinema and for those who wants to know better the history of Mexican modern urban society in the middle of 20 th century.

In the beginning of the 20th century, Mexicans were influenced in their daily lives by the exquisiteness of France's elegant and traditional culture. France combined perfectly with Spain's heritage in their family values. Mexican family members were very close and their Religious beliefs allowed them to see the family as the center of their lives. Pretty soon this changed. After the end of World War II the European influence gave way to the one from the United States, which was totally different. The upper and middle classes younger generations, in a desire of new guidelines looked to the North to adopt what that Country had to offer. Families were never the same since then. The control that the Father used to have over his family members diminished abruptly, kids wanted to live their own lives even if this meant not to accept what till then had been the Patriarch's decision. This is exactly what this movie is all about: The initiation of lost family traditions, which through the beginning of the 21st Century has disintegrated many families in Mexico. It is a movie that allows many of us to meditate about traditions and modernity.