Friends who teach in the areas of Latin American cinema will be interested in LA LLORONA (Ramón Peón, 1933), ostensibly the first horror film made in Mexico in the sound era. It begins with a man who dies in front of a church apparently seeing a ghost and sets up a discussion of superstition vs science. It then cuts to a child’s fourth birthday party where a father tells his son of a curse on the family where the firstborn son gets killed at four years old. This is then explained through a tale where Hernan Cortés betrays the mother of his child, whom he’d seduced but refused to wed, in order to marry a Spanish aristocrat. In response, the woman kills her four-old son, then herself and curses his lineage. So this is a tale of the crazed woman, the vengeful woman. Half-way through the film the story is told again through the tale of La Llorona, this time through an indigenous woman whose Spanish lover betrayed her and she too kills her son and herself and curses the family. But in this indigenous retelling the story also becomes a metaphor for the Spanish conquistadors killing off the indigenous population and the rape of Mexico. La Llorona is Mexico herself. It’s a fascinating film, lots of attempts at camera movement, some of it a bit stodgy, lots of double exposure for the ghost parts, and interesting contrast between imagery of the conquistadors with their fanned collars and Mayan imagery. It’s a very teachable film that should lead to lots of interesting discussion in an excellent disk from Powerhouse with lots of history, and context and an audio-commentary from Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.
José Arroyo
