Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Mexico and Curated Screen Violence

238 Pages·2020·2.517 MB·English

by  Niamh Thornton

TASTEMAKERS
and
TASTEMAKING
SUNY series in Latin American Cinema
——————
Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado and Leslie L. Marsh, editors
TASTEMAKERS
and
TASTEMAKING
Mexico and Curated Screen Violence
Niamh Thornton
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2020 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
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For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thornton, Niamh, 1972– author.
Title: Tastemakers and tastemaking : Mexico and curated screen violence /
Niamh Thornton.
Description: Albany : State University of New York, 2020. | Series: SUNY
series in Latin American cinema | Includes bibliographical references
and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2020023295 (print) | LCCN 2020023296 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781438481135 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781438481142 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures—Mexico—History and criticism. | Motion
pictures—Aesthetics. | Television—Aesthetics. | Curatorship—Philosophy. |
Television programs—Mexico—History. | Violence in motion pictures. | Violence
on television.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.M4 T463 2020 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.M4
(ebook) | DDC 791.430972—dc25
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023295
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020023296
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix

Introduction
Tastemakers and Tastemaking: Questions of Taste,
Violence, and Gender 1
Chapter One
Cultural Institutions and Gendered Taste Formation:
Nelson Carro and the Cineteca Nacional in 2010 27
Chapter Two
Commonplace and Routine: Amat Escalante’s Extreme Realism
in Los bastardos (2008) and Heli (2013) 59
Chapter Three
Reversioning and Thick Contexts: The Cinematic Adaptations
of Los de abajo 87
Chapter Four
Bodily Excess and Containment: Bordertown (Gregory Nava,
2006) and The Virgin of Juarez (Kevin James Dobson, 2006) 115
Chapter Five
Curating Cruelty and Criminality: The Radical Mediation of
Kate del Castillo 149
vi Contents
Conclusion
Ethical Reflections on Legitimation and Taste 183
Filmography 193
References 199
Index 217
Illustrations
Figure 1 Slow cinema inspired by James Benning in Los bastardos 63
Figure 2 Opening credits (1939, left, and 1976, right) 98
Figure 3 The wife (1939, left, and 1976, right) 101
Figure 4 Macías in death (1939, left, and 1976, right) 108
Figure 5 Macías’s wife after his death (1939, left) and Macías
in death (1976, right) 109
Figure 6 Lauren/Lopez as reporter 131
Figure 7 Lauren/Lopez as worker 132
Figure 8 Teresa/del Castillo finding her way 166
vii

Acknowledgments
To get from concept to manuscript takes much energy, time, thinking,
and most of all support, encouragement, and nurturing. This is done with
the help of many individuals too numerous to mention. These include
colleagues and peers, friends and families. I am indebted to them all, but
am responsible for the final version.
Thank you to the University of Liverpool for giving me research leave
in 2011 to carry out interviews and research in Mexico City and for the
award of a Santander Grant in 2015 to complete my research in Mexico.
To the staff at the libraries at the University of Liverpool for their support
in sourcing material and those at Liverpool John Moores University at IM
Marsh for the space to complete the writing and editing.
Thank you to Ana García Bergua for her support and sharing her
contacts with me so that I could interview individuals who otherwise were
unavailable. Thank you to Nelson Carro of Cineteca Nacional de México
in Mexico City for being generous with his time, insights, and expertise.
To Elides Pérez Bistrain, Genoveva García Rojas, and the rest of the staff
at the Centro de documentación at the Cineteca Nacional de México in
Mexico City for finding what I needed and directing me to materials that
only the archivists know connect to each other.
As a work in progress over years of thinking, presenting, writing,
and conversations this has been the product of many conference papers,
blog posts, and the insights and questions of others. Sometimes they’ve
been the result of me trying out my ideas in the world and realizing where
they don’t always make sense to others. I appreciated all of those responses
because they helped make this better. Thanks to those who have read and
given considered feedback on drafts including Victoria McCollum. Any
mistakes are mine, but the feedback has made it better. Thank you to the
ix