The Forgotten (1950)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The forgotten |
| Original title | Los olvidados |
| Country of production | Mexico |
| original language | Spanish |
| Publishing year | 1950 |
| length | 77 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Luis Buñuel |
| script | Luis Buñuel, Luis Alcoriza |
| production |
Óscar Dancigers , Sergio Kogan, Jaime A. Menasce |
| music | Rodolfo Halffter, Gustavo Pittaluga |
| camera | Gabriel Figueroa |
| cut | Carlos Savage |
| occupation | |
| |
| synchronization | |
The forgotten (Original title: Los olvidados ) is a Mexican film by Luis Buñuel from 1950.
action
At the center of this real-life story is Pedro, who is part of a gang of criminal youth led by El Jaibo in the slums of Mexico City .
When Pedro watches Jaibo murder another youth who dared to leave the gang, he becomes more and more dependent on Jaibo. Jaibo also has a brief affair with Pedro's mother, whose love Pedro tries in vain. When Pedro finds a job, Jaibo visits him there and steals a knife. The theft is blamed on Pedro and he is sent to a reformatory. There he finally gets a chance to develop and start an apprenticeship.
Pedro returns to the city and seeks a confrontation with Jaibo, whom he accuses of murder in the presence of the other gang members. There is a fight with Jaibo, who then flees. Shortly afterwards he ambushes Pedro at his sleeping place and kills him in revenge. Jaibo was later shot dead by the police.
background
After a few films that were successful in Mexico, but artistically undemanding, Buñuel wanted to make a realistic film about the children in the slums of Mexico City. He personally visited the slums to study the people more closely. The result was a staggering realism film that lacks the sentimentality of similar films (some years ago, film material with an alternate happy ending was discovered that was shot but not used by Buñuel). This partly cynical tone also distinguishes this film from the comparable films of Italian neorealism . For many of those involved in the film this realism went too far, so one of the scriptwriters quit his collaboration. The reaction of the Mexican audience was negative and after only three days the film was withdrawn from the cinemas. The film was criticized and many organizations demanded the expulsion of the Spaniard Buñuel.
At the Cannes Film Festival , however, The Forgotten was enthusiastically received (see below). The renowned film critic André Bazin described it as "a film that burns itself into the mind like a red-hot iron and does not offer the conscience any opportunity to relax". The pride in the honor for Buñuel changed the public opinion of the film. It was now a success at home as well and eventually won several of the national film awards ( Ariel Prize ). For Buñuel, the success of Die Vergessenen marked a return to the international film business after having been lost for 20 years.
Today, The Forgotten is considered Buñuel's best film from his Mexican period (from 1946 to 1965). Even if the shocking realism is the focus of the film, typical stylistic devices from Buñuel can be found in this film. Two dream sequences are reminiscent of Buñuel's earlier surrealist films , and the bare feet of Pedro's mother stand as a symbol for sexuality ( foot fetishism ). Other leitmotifs recurring in the film are chickens, which mostly appear as doers and are associated with death and violence, and milk as a symbol of innocence.
Reviews
“The unvarnished portrayal of the darker side of the big city of Mexico City, where ragged, feral children grow up to be criminals or poor livelihoods that vegetate on the edge of civilization. Educational and social questions are touched on, but are not the main interest of Buñuel, who depicts an oppressive piece of reality on an artistically high level. The thesis can be deduced from the film, which is concerned in its very close realism, that the moral conditions can only be changed if the social conditions are improved. "
"Bunuel describes the terrible neglect of children and adolescents on the outskirts of the metropolis of Mexico with almost unbearable drasticness and accusatory artistic obsession."
Awards
Luis Buñuel won the award for best director at the 1951 Cannes International Film Festival . In 1953 the film was nominated for the British Film Academy Award for best film and for the United Nations Award . At the award ceremony of the Premio Ariel in 1951 Los Olivados was awarded the Premio Ariel for the best film .
2003 was The Forgotten as the second film of Metropolis in the UNESCO the list world documentary heritage added.
literature
- Mark Polizzotti : Los Olvidados . London: British Film Institute , 2006 ISBN 978-1844571215
Web links
- The Forgotten in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film information, criticism, posters, scene photos at der-film-noir.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Forgotten. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed January 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 419/1952
Codex Techialoyan of Cuajimalpa (1997) | Collection of Mexican Codices (1997) | Códices from the Oaxaca Valley (1997) | The Forgotten (1950) (2003) | Biblioteca Palafoxiana (2005) | American Colonial Music (2007) | Collection of books on indigenous languages (2007) | Collection on the Ashkenazim in Mexico (2009) | Pictographs from the 16th to 18th centuries from the National Archives of Mexico (2011) | Historical collections of the Colegio de las Vizcaínas on women's education and support (2013) | Judicial files on the Amparo trial in Mexico (1869–1935) (2015) | Work by Brother Bernardino de Sahagún (2015) | Estate of Manuel Álvarez Bravo (2017)