One of the most rebellious… some call it a movement, others a genre, even a style of film is film noir. Our producer Antonia Cereijido is a huge Turner Classic Movie channel fan, and a classic movie fan in general. So she was very excited when she found out that Turner Classic Movies and Ball State University were teaming up to teach an online film noir class this summer. (If you are also a film noir fan or would like to learn more the class is still open. Click here for the link.)

While looking through tweets of fellow classmates she saw that the Museum of Modern Art is also celebrating film noir this summer by hosting a series of Mexican film noir films in July. (Click here for the link to that event.)

So Antonia will guide us through a short history of both the hispanic contributions to U.S. film noir and Mexican film noir.

Here are some clips:

Gilda (1936)

Rita Hayworth was actually born Margarita Carmen Cansino. She was the daughter of a Spanish immigrant.

Touch of Evil (1958)

Most film noirs are take place in urban settings – since places like cabarets and bars lend themselves to the seedy tone the films embody.

But the U.S./Mexico border was an attractive location too because it also welcomed the possibility of illegal activity and organized crime.

Orson Welle’s “Touch of Evil” is the most famous noir set on the border.

Border Incident (1949)

The film Border Incident is a great example of how film noir borrowed a lot from documentaries by giving a more realistic and immediate feeling to the film.

Distinto amanecer (1943)

Distinto Amanecer is considered by many the first Mexican film noir. It was directed by Julio Bracho and the entire film can be viewed on YouTube (unfortunately without subtitles)

La noche avanza (1951)

La noche avanza and En la palma de tu mano are both directed by Roberto Gavaldón who is considered the Mexican director who most developed film noir.

En la palma de tu mano (1950)