Fernández returned to Mexico in 1933 and in 1943 directed his first successful movie, Flor Silvestre, which starred Dolores del Río. The next year, in 1944, he directed his greatest work María Candelaria, which won him many awards, prestige, and status as one of the greatest filmmakers in Mexican history. This film presented the spirit of the Mexican national identity and captivated audiences. Fernández continued working in film until the last years of his life, when he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1976 and served six months in prison. After his imprisonment he directed two more films and then retired before dying of malaria on August 6, 1986. Throughout his life he directed an amazing total of 42 movies.
Fun fact: It is rumored that the Oscar award is modeled after Emilio Fernández!
The film begins with a scene of a reporter repeatedly questioning an artist about one of their paintings, a work depicting a nude indigenous woman named María Candelaria. The film then begins a flashback which takes place in Xochimilco, México, where most of the film takes place. María Candelaria and her lover, an honest man named Lorenzo Rafael, want to get married despite fierce competition from Lupe, another lover of Lorenzo, and hostility from Don Damián, the local merchant and exploiter of indigenous women. In order to raise money the young couple raise a pig, which Don Damián kills. Don Damián, determined to destroy the couple's relationship, does not give María the medicine she needs to combat malaria. Furious, Lorenzo breaks into his store and steals the medicine, which leads to his imprisonment. In order to raise money for bail, María agrees to model for a painter who eventually asks her to take off her clothes. María refuses and leaves. The painter completes the naked image with another woman, and the finished product, the one the audience sees at the beginning of the movie, is seen by everyone in Xochimilco, who think it is María Candelaria. An angry mob of townspeople chase María and stone her to death at the foot of the prison which holds Lorenzo. Miraculously, Lorenzo escapes the prison and hears the last words of María. He carries her body to the "Canal de los Muertos", the Channel of the Dead.
Describes the setting of a scene in a play or a film. It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”
Lorenzo, dressed in all white, is illumined by the bright sun high in the sky, while the shadow of the cross from the top of the church is seen in front of him. This type of overhead and harsh lighting (of the sun) and the resulting shadows enhance the melodramatic essence of the movie, since it emphasizes the fervor of this frame, in which Lorenzo appears before god in the hope that he and María can marry, despite their adversity.
This is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. Cinematography comprises all on-screen visual elements, including lighting, framing, composition, camera motion, camera angles, film selection, lens choices, depth of field, zoom, focus, color, exposure, and filtration. Cinematography sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual narrative. Each visual element that appears on screen, a.k.a. the mise-en-scène of a film, can serve and enhance the story—so it is the cinematographer’s responsibility to ensure that every element is cohesive and support the story. Filmmakers often choose to spend the majority of their budget on high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen.
También, la escena tiene tiro de contador de las tomas. Sin embargo, cuando la cámara está en Lorenzo, no está directamente a la cara. Solo hay una parte rápido cuando miramos Lorenzo en un primer plano extremo, pero todo eso de la escena está en primer plano. Aunque las tomas son en primer plano, las tomas con Lorenzo está detrás del hombro de una guardia de la policía. Este toma inspira un sentimiento de la audiencia que estamos en la escena, mirar la conversación entre los dos detrás de alguien.
Ya que esta escena está en su mayoría Maria en sus primeros planos extremos, su cara y sus emociones son el enfoque de la escena. Aunque Lorenzo es el que está en la cárcel, ella está entre barras en la toma. Esta imagen crea un sentimiento de estar atrapado, y las emociones de su cara se comunica la desesperación y amor que ella tiene por su amante. No miramos a Lorenzo en el mismo sentimiento, así la audiencia recibe un entendimiento que él tiene más poder que ella, el resultado del tema del patriarcado en la película. También, la imagen de Maria entre las rejas presagia su destino final de la muerte.
Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes. Editing can condense space and time, emphasize separate elements and bring them together, and organize material in such a way that patterns of meaning become apparent. In addition, editing can determine how a film is perceived: for instance, quick, rapid cuts can create a feeling of tension, while a long take can create a more dramatic effect. The first photoplays generally had no cutting, owing to the fact that they were single-reel films; once filming began, you could not stop until the film ran out. (https://filmglossary.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/term/editing/)
Sound is an integral part in a film. It refers to everything that the audience hears including sound effects, words and music. Sound is used in films for various purposes, including: providing the information to the viewer about the location of the scene, heightening the mood, telling the audience about the characters and advancing the plot. Every person who watches a film realizes that the choice of voices, soundtrack and music present in a film affect the way that the viewer perceives a particular film. As a result, the sound is an important and integral element of the film, one that determines the way that the viewer experiences and understands a film as a visual experience.
Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. A narrative can be considered to be the chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. In order to analyze the narrative of a film, we need to first make the distinction between the plot of the film and the story of the film. This is sometimes referred to as the discourse and story of a film. Narrative may also be called the story thought story mainly refers to the events that describe the narrative.
Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films. (Genre comes from the French word meaning "kind," "category," or "type"). These provide a convenient way for scriptwriters and film-makers to produce, cast and structure their narratives within a manageable, well-defined framework. Genres also offer the studios an easily 'marketable' product, and give audiences satisfying, expected and predictable choices. Genres refers to recurring, repeating and similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, styles, themes, syntax, templates, paradigms, motifs, rules or generic conventions.
Fink, Agustin J, Emilio Fernández, Mauricio Magdaleno, Rio D. Del, Pedro Armendáriz, Alberto Galan, Gabriel Figueroa, Gloria Schoemann, and Francisco Dominguez. María Candelaria (Xochimilco). Chicago, Ill.: Distributed by Facets Multimedia, 1997.