CINEMATINEE, MAY 2008.
A potpourri of movies, past and present, often with an emphasis on life in the west- which could mean the new west, the old west, or anything in between-the CineMatinee series is designed to show area residents that film is a form of art as well as entertainment! At least one film a month for this series has a ‘New Mexico Connection’, drawing from the vast pool of movies made in the state or perhaps featuring a star/story from New Mexico talent.
Unless otherwise noted, screening time is 1.30 PM, and admission is $4 for everyone except film society members who are admitted for $1. The theatre is located one half block of the Mesilla Plaza. For more information, please call (575) 524-8287 or 522-0286.
May 3- Santitos- (2000, rated R, 100 minutes, in Spanish w/subtitles) A holy innocent walks through the halls of sin driven by foggy logic and the faith of a saint in Santitos, a hilarious Mexican comedy of Catholicism, religious visions and wrestling stars.
"Thank goodness I forgot the Easy-Off," she declares when St. Jude appears in her oven to inform her that her deceased daughter is actually alive.
Following vague clues about "La Casa Rosa" (the pink house), she embarks on a journey that takes her through a series of brothels (graduating from housekeeper to star attraction), through Tijuana to America, and into a coin-operated sex club in the very jaws of sin in Los Angeles.
Alejandro Springall's cheerfully absurd odyssey, produced by filmmaker John Sayles, stays just this side of lampooning the veneration of saints and heeding the call of questionable visions. Esperanza keeps up a one-sided conversation up with the Lord and phones home juicy confessions to her soap-opera addicted priest, who is skeptical but riveted as her stories become more outrageous than his favorite show.
It's remarkably bright, funny and sweet for a film that wades through so much sleaze, as Esperanza follows her visions.
The innocent energy of Heredia's spirited performance keeps the film from sinking into a morass of sleaze especially after Esperanza soon gets her own guardian angel -- a sweet, seductive masked Mexican wrestler named the Angel of Justice.
Springall's greatest achievement in Santitos is carving out a colorful world where every dark corner is brightened by Esperanza's spiritual cleansings. Like a naive, madcap modern saint blowing a fresh breeze through halls stale with sin, her faith and charity keeps her innocent through her trials.
Screening before Santitos will be the 10 minute short film, The Tehuacan Project, a narrative documentary about two Lucia and Jesus, both deaf from childhood disease, who find their way to Tehuacan, Mexico, in hopes of finding a cure at Mexico’s first school for the deaf. Narrated by Adrien Brody. Executive producer is Brad Pitt.
