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I agree that the busty woman was more liberated in terms of sexual desire yet I feel that she was just as objectified as the other women within the movie if not more. When she falls down all the men fondle her in front of her over-controlling, angry an…

I agree about the colors and the vigorosity of the film. I also want to comment that I did not quite understood the role of the busty women. She was not a prostitute, she seemed more like a overly liberal (libertine) women who wanted to have fun. She d…

Es interesante como los espacios se pueden dictar la manera la gente interrelacionarse. Cuando la pelicula comence la gente inhabita el espacio diferentemente en contrato al fin de la pelicula. Eventualmente la carrera construye los espacios personales…

There were a lot of scenes in the movie that did not correspond very well nor contributed anything to the overall plot, such as the couple who show up white and clean and leave filthy after they have spent days eating. Perhaps this is supposed to empha…

Alright!
Yeah.
This film was a visual treat to watch.
Loved the bright colours, the look, the feel.
It evoked such a youthful vigour and vibrancy.
The characters were big and outrageous, from the busty woman to the overeating grandmother to the gun toting machoman.
I also appreciated the jabs at English speaking Americans… "There’s nothing Mexican here" and "We are also Catholics"
The humour translated well.
Sincerely acted moments (at least they looked sincere, couldn’t say about their dialogue) such as the groups preference to watch the car race finish instead of staying at the funeral of the old woman, were great.
Silly idea but well portrayed.
In fact, I’ve come to realize that one of the biggest challenges facing a viewer who can’t understand the language, aside from the obvious, is the ability to detect sincerity in the characters.
For all I know, these actors look the part but might be delivering ridiculous cheeseball lines.
That being said, foreign language films automatically contain a level of authenticity because of this barrier.
Most likely that’s because the foreign films that I’m exposed to are brought over and released here because they are truly exceptional.
Regardless, fun film, high energy.
Nice.

It took me a little while to get into the movie as I wasn’t sure what to make of the style of filming as the camera shots and scenes were sort of confusing. I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of dubbing of the characters voices and that a few sc…

Mecánico nacional Me gusto la película. La historia era simple pero si era interesante considerar cómo el director demostró la cultura y el nacionalismo Mexicano. También pensé que era interesante cómo los Gringos o los extranjeros eran …

I think this film says a lot about the culture of Mexico. First, there is the obvious “machismo” throughout the whole film. Men treat women as if they were very inferior. Women are slapped and pushed by men, and nobody thinks this is a big deal….

Despues de leer “Sexuality and Space” escrito por Andrea Noble, me sorprendi que este pensamiento tambien existe cuando uno piensa de Londres en los años despues de la revolución industrial. Durante los años del sigle diecinueve, la ciudad de Londre…

Wow. This movie really gives me mixed feelings. On the one hand I don’t like how it’s very chaotic and incoherent at some parts, on the other it might just be reflecting what Mexico City was really like at that time. It is chaotic since there were…

The readings for this week seem to be more centered around “El Callejon de los Milagros” than “Mecanica Nacional,” so I’m going to focus more on the readings. The “Sexuality in Space” reading goes pretty far in depth into the film, even as far as cam…

La película fue muy extraña. Los hombres trataban las mujeres con mucha violencia. Los hombres podrían coquetear con cualquiera mujer ellos deseaban, cuando el carácter principal lo descubrió que su esposa estuvo con un otro hombre. Me gusto como …

Mecánica Nacional – una película acera de como funciona la sociedad mexicana…?  En esa película hay muchas conversaciones (literalmente, entre los hombres en la fiesta) y comentarios (más sútiles) acerca de la sociedad méxicana.
La familia es la unidad central es no sólo esta película sino en la sociedad mexicana (latinoamericana). Como ejemplo de la relación […]

Mecánica Nacional – una película acera de como funciona la sociedad mexicana…?  En esa película hay muchas conversaciones (literalmente, entre los hombres en la fiesta) y comentarios (más sútiles) acerca de la sociedad méxicana.
La familia es la unidad central es no sólo esta película sino en la sociedad mexicana (latinoamericana). Como ejemplo de la relación […]

La verdad es que no podía entender mucho el significado del cine, porque las personas hablan muy rápido para mi, especialmente la primera parte antes de la muerte de la abuela. Pero creo que la segunda parte es mucho más fácil para entender. Busco …

Mecanica Nacional fue una pelicula interesante. Es deficil para mi de decir que tipo de pelicula es. Hay aspectos de comedia.. pero pienso que el director quiere mandar un mensaje a la audiencia. La historia es relativamente simple, la mayoria de la…

I don’t really know what to say about this film. It has 88 votes on IMBD (one is mine) and I can understand why. This is not really a good film. A good film has a narrative and characters the audience cares about. It follows a structure and makes a poi…

Watching this movie was like watching the wild side of immature teenagers. I didn’t understand most of the language, so most of my opinion is from a visual observation. It was like watching a party that I probably wouldn’t ever want to go to beca…

Mecanica Nacional is to me a very clear example of a tragic-comedy. It has a linear narrative with a lot of funny situations and extravagant characters and at the same time, its turning point is a sad and tragic event: The death of the grand mother Don…

Lo que me llamó la atención – en conexción al progreso y la modernización de la ciudad de México – fue la atención a la belleza que da Buñuel. Hay dos escenas que viene a la mente. Hay una escena sin sonido en que un hombre desconocido solic…

Estoy de acuedo contigo que la pelicula en una manera mostraba que haya esperanza para el futuro. Originalmente despues la pelicula senti impotente y que no habia indicacion de esperanza. En el otra mano aunque Pedro fue matado al final el estaba trat…

I thought “Los Olvidados” was a great film. Even though it was very subversive and ahead of its time in a lot of ways, it was also very different from recent dramatic social commentary films in that it showed slumming Mexican life all from real charac…

Me gusta la película Los Olvidados mucho porque la trama es coherente y credible. Me parece que más realista que Aguila o sol pero al mismo tiempo, Aguila o sol es una comedía. Pienso que la película puede ser un forma de documentary porque los esc…

One of the most truly fascinating aspects of this film, as seen by a modern viewing audience, is the categorization of this film as a “Documentary”. Clearly the film is shot in a linear, narrative structure, with broken up sequencing of events, and makes no effort to appear candid (or at least doesn’t appear candid when viewed today). It would be interesting to research the reactions and thoughts on the film upon release, and if the label of documentary held up in the public eye in the early 1950’s. Regardless, the reading focuses entirely on this issue so I’ll digress…

As for the content of the film…
I am a huge fan of surrealist films, especially those made by Bunuel and Dali, so I very much enjoyed the bizarre dream sequences in the film. The slab of meat especially giving off the sense of a grotesque greed and hunger, and the deadly grabbing of the meat by Jaibo. The surrealist elements also bled out of the dream sequences and into the narrative of the film, particularly with the reoccurring image of the black hen to Pedro whenever something ill fated has happened, or is about to happen. And the old, blind man also carries with him a feel of the unreal, crippled yet capable of drastically affecting the lives of the boys. In fact the old blind man was a very strange character as he was set up by Bunuel to be sympathetic (blind and attacked by a gang of boys) but switches completely by the end of the film when we realize how horrible he is to those around him (creeping on the girl and abusing “small eyes”)
Great film.
Pedro’s character was especially heartbreaking.
Lovely.

I can’t see my posts on the course blog and I am getting really frustrated 🙁

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