In the neon-lit Cabaret Chango, Cuban rumbera Violeta (Ninón Sevilla) attracts adoring crowds with her daring dance performances. When she rescues a baby from the garbage one night, she attracts the wrath of brutal gangster Rodolfo (Rodolfo Acosta) and is propelled into a desperate downward spiral. Violeta’s self-sacrifice attracts the potentially redemptive attention of rival club owner Santiago (Tito Junco), but the threat of tragedy is never far away.
Gritty noir meets swooning melodrama and breathtaking musical performances in this stunning showcase for Sevilla. The pairing of director Emilio Fernández and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa is widely acclaimed, but the often overlooked contribution of frequent collaborator Gloria Schoemann also deserves credit – as the editor of over 230 films across a 40 year career, Schoemann is one of the defining artists of the Mexican Golden Age.
Screening as part of Stronger Than Love: ¡Too Much Mexican Melodrama! – a touring programme of four visually lush, emotionally explosive films from Mexico’s Golden Age (1930s-1950s). Curated through a feminist lens, the programme celebrates melodrama’s heightened aesthetics and unruly passions as a radical space for female expression: on screen and behind the camera.
With thanks to distributor / partner BFI, Viviana García Besné, Film Noir UK
