AFS: El Compadre Mendoza
Austin Film Society presents: El Compadre Mendoza, directed by Fernando de Fuentes
Mexico, 1934, Drama, 85 min, Black & White
Spanish with English subtitles
Starring: Alfredo del Diestro, Carmen Guerrero, Antonio R. Frausto
Sunday, October 8th, 2017, 6:30 PM
AFS Cinema
6406 N I-35 Suite 3100 Austin, TX 78752
Advance Ticket Sales HERE.
CLA Members receive $3 off admission of tickets purchased at the box office.
Synopsis
Austin Film Society’s Classical Mexican Cinema series continues with Fernando de Fuentes’ Revolution Trilogy. Each screening will be hosted by University of Texas Professor Charles Ramírez Berg, author of the book “The Classical Mexican Cinema: The Poetics of the Exceptional Golden Age Films.”
Initially a movement to overthrow the dictator Porfirio Díaz, by 1913 the Revolution had devolved into a factional civil war, with various leaders vying for power. During this chaotic period, Rosalío Mendoza (Alfredo del Diestro again), a wily, well-to-do rancher, thrives by opportunistically supporting whichever faction appears at his hacienda’s doorstep. When troops loyal to Emiliano Zapata arrive, Mendoza befriends their general, Felipe Nieto (Antonio R. Frausto). They become so close that the Mendozas name their first child after Nieto, and he becomes the boy’s godfather. But what will Mendoza do when a rival faction offers him a huge sum of money to betray Nieto? In a national survey of film critics and historians in 1994, EL COMPADRE MENDOZA was voted the third best Mexican film ever made.
Presented by the Austin Film Society, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower our community to make, watch, and love film and creative media.
Sponsored by Cine Las Americas