Maria Candelaria

Emilio Fernandez, the director of "Maria Candelaria" clearly demonstrates he was a genius. El "Indio" Fernandez elevated the Mexican cinema into an art form thanks to this great 1944 movie that won the best prize at Cannes. "Maria Candelaria" is a collaboration between Mr. Fernandez and Mauricio Magdaleno. The film is beautifully photographed by Gabriel Figueroa, perhaps Mexico's best camera man of all times. The result is a deeply engrossing drama that remains as fresh today, as when it was originally released.

Dolores del Rio was a Hollywood star who refused to play stereotypes in any of the films in which she appeared in Hollywood. She was a woman of sophistication and good taste, but at almost 40, the actress realized it was time to reinvent herself, packed her Louis Vuitton trunks and left for her native land. There, she became the absolute queen of anything of quality filmed in Mexico. In a way, it is ironic her best film in Mexico she plays an Indian woman, something she wouldn't have agreed to do for the American cinema. She worked extensively on the screen and in the theater until her death in 1983.

In this film she was paired with one of the best actors of Mexico, Pedro Armendariz. The chemistry between them is what holds the drama together. Lorenzo Rafael loves Maria Candelaria, a local girl that is a woman generally hated by the people of Xochimilco.

We are given a prologue when the film opens as the painter reveals the canvas that has provoked the furor among the modest people of the area. We are taken in flashbacks to know the story, set in the floating gardens of Xochimilco, that were pristine when the filming took place. We watch as the flower sellers perform a sort of aquatic ballet as they go doing their every day business. One gets to know the story of Maria Candelaria, and her tragic story.

Dolores del Rio, even though she is supposed to play an Indian girl, looks as though she was a great lady in peasant clothes. Ms. del Rio's face had the angles the camera loved. She had one of the best opportunities of her distinguished career in the film. Pedro Armendariz is excellent as Lorenzo Rafael. Mr. Armendariz has great opportunities to show his extensive range playing opposite Ms. del Rio.

This is an Emilio Fernandez and Gabriel Figueroa masterpiece!

Mexico is a rich nation, but with a large "army" of poor and miserable people. The poverty is more evident in areas around Mexico City, and south of the country including Chiapas state. This film of Emilio "Indio" Fernández wanted to point out the situation of Indian population living close to Mexico City, Xochimilco. It is clear that during the first half of XX century the population in that area lacked of appropriate houses, sanitation, insufficient food, malaria was still a problem, illiteracy was high, corruption and lack of social justice governed the environment. The Indians had only church as a remedy, but this institution was also poor and unable to do too much for them, only advising the humans to pray. María Candelaria (Dolores del Río) was an unfortunate lady whose mother had problems in the past, she was having friendship with Lorenzo Rafael (Pedro Armendáriz), a tough but kind Indian living close to her. They only wanted to get married, but several difficulties hindered this objective. It is difficult to understand how a person considered as a Christian, is able to deny the medicine to others when they are close to die, and this scene is shown in the film. When population lives in a kind of world of ignorance, prejudices sprout as potatoes, and this is what happened to poor María Candelaria. This film is in black and white, technically distant from the films we see nowadays, but it is worth to see it in order to understand a bit of the miseries of people living south of Río Grande.

At first, it seems like this is going to be another standard melodrama, but within 10 minutes, you know that you're seeing really great actors at work in a very important film. Pedro Armendariz and Dolores del Rio are larger than life, absolutely perfect characters who love each other so sweetly and purely it makes everything else you've ever seen seem small in comparison. The photography is breathtaking, and the Mexico they live in - the floating gardens of Xochimilco at the turn of the century- is the stuff myths are made of. Of course there is conflict and drama and tragedy running all through the film, but the characters are so noble you can't feel sorry for them, no matter how badly they're treated. No one ever said this is supposed to be a realistic movie, but it certainly delivers an emotional jolt. It makes you not only fall in love with Maria Candelaria and Lorenzo Rafael, but with Mexico. It's like watching a beautiful dream unfold. No wonder so many Mexicans still mention this as their absolutely all time favorite film. Put it at the top of the list of films to see if you want to know more about Mexico's golden age of cinema.

There's no doubt about it, Pedro Almendáris and Dolores del Rio are the most known couple of Mexican actors. They filmed many movies together and gave us some of the best performances that any latin actors would ever give. They in conjunction with Pedro "El Indio" Fernández made this movie the best Latin (or Mexican) film ever done. A love story in times of war and hate, this film get deeply into what the Mexican culture was at the beginning of this century.

For the younger generations to see movies like this one, may seem that they are not real. They may imagine that the story being told was created by some sick mind. How can it be possible that human beings were so miserable? This story happens in what's now a suburb of Mexico City, but which at that time(early 1940's)was a little village by itself. The destiny of the poor people, specially if they were indians, was to live a life of misery. The few rich owners of the majority of the land and the resources in the area dictated what had to be done. If you were an Indian the situation was even worse. They decided, for their own benefit, the rules that had to be obeyed. If, like in this movie, one of those indians was a beautiful woman that was even worse for her, because she could be taken by the ruling class as a simple sex toy. If she would not accept this, she and anyone close to her would suffer all type of hardships. It is a beautifully told story that could have been a true one.