Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Mexican New Wave


“Amores Perros” (Love’s a Bitch) directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu is one of those movies that a lot of people remember or that is in their “movies to watch” list. This is not coincidental, because this is one of the most remarkable Mexican movies of the last decade. “Amores Perros” along with “Y tu mamá también” and “The Crime of Padre Amaro” are films that belong to what is called the “buena onda", or new wave of Mexican cinema.

Mexican film in the last decade has changed enormously. Before the 1990’s, Mexican films were mostly romantic comedies or action movies. During that time, government controlled the movie industry, including the content of the films. When the country’s administration changed, the new era of Mexican cinema started to flourish little by little.

Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro are some of the directors identified as part of this new wave. Lately, Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, stars of “Y tu mamá también”, have recently begun directing and join this new wave as well. Even though the content of the movies in some cases has been challenged, this new generation of directors has insisted on showing Mexico’s reality or human nature in general as real as possible with all its cruelty, pain and beauty.

Some of the movies from this new wave that Austin Public Library offers are:

Japón by Carlos Reygadas

Mirada de Mujer by Antonio Serrano

Bella by Alejandro Monteverde

21 Grams by Alejandro González Iñárritu

The crime of Padre Amaro by Alfredo Ripstein

The violin by Francisco Vargas

Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Y tu mamá también by Alfonso Cuarón

Pan’s Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Buena onda" means good vibes. I think what you mean to say is "nueva onda" which means new wave.

Aleph said...

Hey there! Yes, literally "buena onda" means "good vibes," however, in the film context for the English world, this period of good, interesting or different movies by directors from one country it is known as "new wave."
You can hear about the "Italian new wave," "Russian new wave," and "French new wave" for example. Translations sometimes are tricky. Thanks for the comment!

Anonymous said...

I thought Guillermo del Toro is Spanish.

Aleph said...

Hi! Nope, he was born in Guadalajara, Mexico.