María Candelaria (1944)

Director: Emilio Fernández.
Writers: Emilio Fernández, Mauricio Magdaleno.
Stars: Dolores del Rio, Pedro Armendáriz, Alberto Galán.    
Runtime: 86 minutes    

Plot: A young journalist presses an old artist to show a portrait of an indigenous woman that he has in his study. The body of the movie is a flashback to Xochimilco, Mexico, in 1909. The film is set right before the Mexican Revolution and Xochimilco is an area with beautiful landscapes inhabited mostly by indigenous people.

Review: It is a sad tale on the whole—poor Miss del Rio suffers and suffers as the outcast daughter of an Indian peasant who was stoned to death—but, surprisingly enough, it has several chucklesome moments. To enjoy the lighter exchanges of conversation, the spectator needs a command of Spanish, as there are no English titles and, moreover, it is difficult to differentiate by the actions of the players whether their mood is serious or joyous.

Her fellow peasants make life miserable for Maria because they mistakenly believe her to be a wicked woman. And this suspicion is heightened when word gets around that Maria was the model for a famous painting, though actually she only posed for the head. Anyway, this unleashes the full hatred of the peasants, who stone Maria to death. Through all this, Miss del Rio suffers nobly. Although "Maria Candelaria" is one of the shorter Mexican films to reach the Belmont—it only runs an hour and thirty-odd minutes—the time goes by slowly. For the Mexican movie-makers are given to filming long static scenes in which the actors just stand around and talk.

Reviewed by Mohaiminul Islam