Word: n
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ripple his biceps on a prison work gang, get his top ripped off in a fight. In Angelitos Negros, an amazing document I'll get back to later, he performs a nightclub number stripped to the waist - in blackface (and blackchest, and blackback). Eva Perón had her descamisados, but up in Mexico, Pedro was the all-time shirtless...
...fast graduate course watching the 10 old films and the tribute documentary ?Así era Pedro Infante! (This Is Pedro Infante!), all from Rodriguez Brothers Productions, and most of them directed by Ismail Rodriguez, who guided Infante in 17 of his 62 movies. The "Colecció n Pedro Infante -Edició n de Homenaje" (Warner Home Video, all titles sold separately) not only clued me in to one of the major stars of Mexico's midcentury; it opened a window on the most vital, teeming movie industry south of Hollywood...
...vigor of these films is easy to spot; they move with such speed and confidence. They often begin in an efficient fury. Nosotros los pobres...! is a folk opera, a neorealist musical, opens with an elaborate production number, "Ni hablar, mujer," composed by Manuel Esperón, who wrote songs for 34 Infante films (and who, apparently, is still alive at 95). In a few mins., the film introduces us to two dozen characters with singing, strumming, speaking or whistling parts, as the camera glides, pans or swoops to keep up with them...
...Infante character: he keeps falling in love with racial snobs. In The Woman I Lost he becomes a fugitive for having protected Silvia Pinal's honor, only to find that she disdains the half-breed beauty who has saved his life. (She is played by Blanca Estela Pavón, Infante's love interest in six of his late '40s, who died in a plane crash in 1949, at 23). "You dirty Indian," Silvia hisses. "What do you know about love?" The Mexican audience knew to hiss back...
...year later, a child is born: Belén, and her skin is dark. Ana Luisa, horrified, and fearful of being ostracized by her rich friends, blames José Carlos for having had black ancestors. Now would seem to be the time to tell Ana Luisa where she came from; but the doctor says her heart is too weak to take a severe shock. "I wish I could say it were my fault," the new father says of his baby girl. "Then I could proudly say she is from my black blood." Instead he promises Mercé he will keep...