Mexican film series: Salón México, 1949

Running alongside the exhibition ‘Modern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection', The Gaze Upholds History: The Development of Modern Film Language in Mexico is a film season dedicated to twentieth-century Mexican cinema. This period saw the consolidation of a mythical national imagery and identity, shaped by the social movements sparked by the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and by the many dialogues, exchanges and reinterpretations between painting, photography and film. 

Salón México is a 1948 Mexican melodrama written and directed by Emilio Fernández and starring Marga López, Miguel Inclán and Rodolfo Acosta. The film follows a cabaret dancer as she struggles to give her sister a better life. Mercedes works at the ‘Salón México’ to pay for her younger sister Beatriz’s education at an exclusive girls’ school. Beatriz has no idea how Mercedes earns her living and dreams of marrying Roberto, a young pilot in Squadron 201 and the son of the school’s headmistress. Trouble begins when Mercedes and Paco, the man who exploits her, win a danzón competition. Paco refuses to share the prize money, and in desperation, Mercedes steals it while he sleeps.

Duration: 95 minutes.

Capacity: 144 people.

Audience: General audience. Children aged 7 and over must be accompanied by an adult.