Our visit to the Hispanic Society helped me better understand Buñuel’s way of filming Las Hurdes, as well as how he explored and investigated Mexico City while making Los Olvidados. His style in Los Olvidados feels very different from most Mexican films of the time, but I also began noticing certain similarities. Even some melodramas with musical numbers could be surprisingly violent or contain surreal moments that remind me of Buñuel’s tone.

Violence is structural and can also be political, which helps me understand how it was portrayed in Mexican cinema during the 1940s and 1950s. There are realities captured in his (and the era’s) films, but Buñuel saw the culture and deeply understood it. A testament to the film’s longevity is that it’s still used as a reference for stories about “corrupted youth.” I saw the film’s name mentioned under an ad for Barrio Triste playing at NYFF.

I think that, to this day, many European filmmakers still try to sensationalize and expose problems within Latin America without real investigation or care for culture. Their approach often feels weirdly colonial, exoticized, and morally simple. This is frustrating, especially considering there’s already an example from 75 years ago showing how to do it. This film is very interesting to me, considering it a predecessor to the beginning of various Latin American movements and “Third Cinema.”

Buñuel’s career was also marked by very interesting collaborations. I was really interested in his work and friendship with Luis Alcoriza, who later wrote screenplays about topics that were still considered taboo in Mexican society (like Safo 1963). I also found it funny that in his autobiography, Buñuel writes about daydreaming of getting angry at Alcoriza. Their collaboration is such a special period. They really seemed to push each other creatively and grow from it, which I think followed them through their careers.