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The Kneeling Goddess (La Diosa Arrodillada) (Mexico, 1947); Red Fish (Los Peces Rojos) (Spain, 1955)

Red Fish (1955)
January 18, 2014 - 7:30 pm

The Kneeling Goddess (La Diosa Arrodillada) (Mexico,1947)

Directed by Roberto Gavaldón

In this near-noir by actor Arturo de Córdova’s frequent director Roberto Gavaldón, millionaire Antonio Ituarte (de Córdova) gives his wife an unusual wedding gift: a life-sized statue of a kneeling, nude woman—secretly modeled by his lover, Raquel (María Félix).  When the mistress demands that Antonio leave his wife, to whom misfortune then befalls, Antonio becomes the very figure of the tormented reprobate—both inflamed and disgusted by his obsession with Raquel.

Producer: Rodolfo Lowenthal, Luis Cortés, Jorge Cardeña. Screenwriter: José Revueltas, Roberto Gavaldón, based on a story by Ladislao Fodor, with the collaboration of Alfred B. Crevenna and Edmundo Báez. Cinematographer: Alex Phillips. Editor: Charles L. Kimball. Cast: María Félix, Arturo de Córdova, Rosario Granados, Fortunio Bonanova, Carlos Martínez Baena.

35mm, b/w, in Spanish with English subtitles, 107 min.

Red Fish (Los Peces Rojos) (Spain, 1955)

Directed by José Antonio Nieves

In this noir outing from Spain, novelist Hugo (Arturo de Córdova) arrives at a seaside hotel in the middle of a storm with his beautiful lover and adult son in tow. As winds rage, the son is tragically swept from a cliff into the sea… or so the police are told, who do not recover a body. Mysteries fold in upon one another, with de Córdova as a storyteller of questionable motives.

Producer: Rafael Carrillo. Screenwriter: Carlos Blanco. Cinematographer: Francisco Sempere. Editor: Margarita de Ochoa. Cast: Emma Penella, Arturo de Córdova, Pilar Soler, Félix Defauce, Félix Acaso.

35mm, b/w, in Spanish with English subtitles, 100 min.