A taxidermist is married to a wife who constantly nags, feigns illness and tells neighbours he’s is abusing her whenever he doesn’t do what she wants. What do you think will happen? EL ESQUELETO DE LA SEÑORA MORALES/ THE SKELETON OF MRS MORALES (Rogelio A. Gonzalez. Mexico, 1960) was voted 19th in a list of the top 100 films in the history of Mexican cinema and currently on MUBI as part of the ‘Spectacle Every Day: The Many Seasons of Mexican Cinema’. Based on a short story by Arthur Machen, ‘The Islington Mystery, the film stars Arturo de Córdova, Amparo Rivelles and Elda Peralta and is written by Luis Alcoriza, who that year also wrote Buñuel’s THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL’. In the podcast we discuss all of this plus the film’s visuals, pacing, tone, whether it’s macabre rather than Surrealist, whether it’s misogynist …and more. Our favourite in the series thus far. Rogelio A. González is a director we’d never heard of. This film makes us want to see more of his work.
The podcast may be listened to here:
The podcast can also be listened to on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2zWZ7Egdy6xPCwHPHlOOaT
and on itunes here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/first-impressions-thinking-aloud-about-film/id1548559546
Machen’s short story may be read here:
Some stills from the film:
José Arroyo