Mexican Melodramas

It was melodramas from which the innovators of 1960s and 70s Latin American cinema got tear-filled eyes in their youth and which they later on rejected all the more vehemently as "products of alienation." Telenovelas have long since replaced melodramas and become today's audiovisual mass experiences. They often fall back on the same stereotypes and myths that were spawned by the classical cinema of dreams and tears in the middle of the last century: love with all convul-sions of passion, motherhood and male obsession, honor and faithfulness, guilt and atonement. The storylines are often outrageous and priggish, but at times also reveal remarkable socio-critical diagnoses. At any rate, what can be admired when viewing this cross-section of melodra-matic subgenres is the exquisite photography of cameraman Gabriel Figueroa as well as the highly expressive acting of the big stars of the period: María Félix, Libertad Lamarque, Dolores del Río, and Pedro Armendariz.