Rio Escondido, ville d'enfer

As a teenager I had already heard about Emilio Fernandez and Gabriel Figueroa, that together created the masterpieces of the Mexican cinema. They were legend. But for a long time seeing their films remained wishful thinking . Only later when it became possible to buy films through the internet that I decided to buy one of Emilio Fernandez's films. My informations were that his most creative period run, more or less, from 1943 to 1950 and "Rio Escondido" was one of his important films and was being offered for a cheap price. So I bought it and I had great expectations.

I was disappointed! Why? There are so many good things to say about the film! The cinematography is gorgeous, like other reviews already pointed out - the use of the arid landscape, the sky and clouds filling the screen. People and landscape, faces of peasants in close-up, scenes of crowds in grief and anger - the individual, the collective and nature, the silent witness. Somehow it feels like a Rivera's painting transposed into a cosmic frame.

The plot is also interesting: a teacher, Rosaura (Maria Felix) is called by the president. He gives her a mission - to go to a small village called Rio Escondido and teach the children the alphabet, history etc and prepare them to be the citizens of a new Mexico. When after a long travel she arrives in Rio Escondido she will have to fight many obstacles, and the principal one is the big landowner that practically owns the town. There will be a titanic fight with an ending worthy of Greek drama.

This was a time when the heroic years of the Mexican Revolution were still fresh in the minds of the Mexican people. The political party in power was officially a revolutionary one and, in fact, that was its name: Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) and idealism, in spite of all, was still present in many people outside and inside the government. This film was clearly conceived as a propaganda piece, and there lies the rub. A propaganda film (and I mean propaganda not in a derogatory way) can be excellent ("Ivan, the Terrible" can vouch for that) as long as it is emotionally sincere and artistically accomplished. Well, I can say that "Rio Escondido" succeeded in these two levels.

But I think that "Rio Escondido" failed in its portrayal of the teacher Rosaura, the character around whom all the action revolves. She is portrayed as a saint (one could call her Saint Rosaura) who is invested by God, I mean the President of Mexico (who is not shown in the film - we can only see his shadow, or his grizzled head seen from the back of the chair) - his solemn voice tells Saint Rosaura what her mission will be: To Fight Ignorance and Evil. Saint Rosaura, bathed in tears of emotion, leaves for Rio Escondido to fulfill her mission. She is portrayed in such a saintly way that she loses her human traits - no traces of humor or human insecurity. When she speaks she seems to be delivering political speeches. And the worst of it is that it is not even funny. She's so virtuous that she becomes a bore. You need to have flesh & blood characters with whom you can, in some way, identify, someone who is human, who has made mistakes (even Petro Infante himself in "Nosotros los pobres" is a womanizer and has his failures), like the rest of us poor sinners. But Rosaura Salazar is a perfect human being and the film loses much of its punch as a result.

"Rio Escondido" is a film to see just for its extraordinary visual beauty. If you want to see it, turn off the sound and put some music of your choice on. I give seven stars because of the visual treat.

Rio Escondido is a classic example of the Mexican Golden Age melodrama directed by Emilio Fernandez and shot by Gabriel Figueroa with here the heroine role given to Maria Felix instead of Dolores Del Rio. The story of a struggle for social justice in a miserable isolated village is reminiscent of Italian novelist Carlo Levi's Christ Stopped at Eboli, which was made into a magnificent film by Francesco Rosi. There are especially striking compositions or women shrouded in black or cloud capped deserts with cacti and mountains in the distance, and later the drama culminates with a beautifully lit funeral scene for the little boy who was killed trying to take water which a local tyrant is hoarding, and with a shooting Felix does in her white bed robe, followed by peasants storming with torches. Felix gives a typically feisty performance as this victimized heroine.

A master's camera at work, great still moments, superb use of black and white. Eisenstenian shots of people. And one of the most overtly manipulative films in Mexican cinema. The story of a mean (priista) landlord and major who takes away the water from the always suffering helpless indians and the beautiful (priista) teacher who opposes him, delivering one (priista) political speech after another to her children, becomes so dated it leads to unintentional laughter. The crucial moment, in which dying Rosaura after yelling that the children are Mexico, decides to write a letter to (priista) President Miguel Alemán himself is one of the lowest political moments I've ever witnessed in film. The President as God. Very enjoyable to the eye, Río Escondido tells us of a Mexico that only existed in the minds of propagandists. Great acting -as usual- by López Moctezuma as the mean cacique.

The president of Mexico has his country and people at heart, and he is looking for solutions. He knew that education is the key to making his country a better place, that's why he targeted the educators and gave them special assignments. This is where maria Felix shows that she has interest in her village Rio Escondido and her nation as well. This shows how teachers have are very influential or is necessary for the development of a nation and even those in authority knew that and invested in that.

Nevertheless, even though there are people who want things to change there are people who will oppose these positive changes because they will not gain as much want as they want and probably loose some of their power because people have become aware of the injustice done to them like wise gain the ability to be on equal grounds with these unfair figures. This was the case of the selfish mean president of the municipal of Escondido. He recognized the talent of maria Felix and pretended he cared for the people and even her. This shows that we must be careful of people when the show certain changes quickly because they recognized talent , and don't fall for these changes but observe these person to make sure it was genuine changes , as in the case of the PM of the municipal , who did that because he liked maria Felix.

Ultimately, because of his double standards she was able to complete her task of gaining means and methods of helping her country. This also tells us we can also learn from our mistakes and from the people who are doing injustices in our communities and because of these local experiences we are therefore able to help other communities and ultimately nations.

What can be more captivating than a rural Teacher who tries to act according to her principles, rather than giving up to the Politicals very particular interests??? Mexico had for many years, been exploited by a gang of people that had made Mexico, their own territory. Local "caciques" (controllers of the regions)were the ones that really controlled the Country. It has been said since ever, that ignorance is the best ally that any one can have. In those times, teachers, and anyone else for that matter had to accept what the local leaders had to say about education. This movie shows what an independent person can do to change the status of the establishment. Good movie to watch.