criterionforum.org

A treasure of Mexico’s cinematic golden age, this deliriously plotted blend of gritty crime film, heart-tugging maternal melodrama, and mambo musical is a dazzling showcase for iconic star Ninón Sevilla. She brings fierce charisma and fiery strength to her role as a rumbera—a female nightclub dancer—who gives up everything to raise an abandoned boy, whom she must protect from his ruthless gangster father. Directed at a dizzying pace by filmmaking titan Emilio Fernández, and shot in stylish chiaroscuro by renowned cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa amid smoky dance halls and atmospherically seedy underworld haunts, Victims of Sin is a ferociously entertaining female-powered noir pulsing with the intoxicating rhythms of some of Latin America’s most legendary musical stars.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
New interview with filmmaker and archivist Viviana Garcia Besné
New interview with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto on the work of Gabriel Figueroa
Archival documentary on cine de rumberas, featuring interviews with actor Ninón Sevilla
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by scholar Jacqueline Avila

New cover by Lauren Tamaki

this is the one title of the month I'm interested in - some really solid letterboxd reviews and friends recommending it. keep the golden age mexico titles coming!

Haven't heard of this one but I'm most intrigued by it as well. I almost always prefer Criterion when they go for rescuing stuff like this over, well, 95% of what they've been releasing lately

It got quite a lot of positive buzz when it played at Film Forum in New York a few months ago.

Emilio Fernández crafts a brutally-moral melodramatic crime epic, about three hours of content condensed into under 90 minutes. I was reminded of the bricklaying Hôtel du Nord and Carné in general on a few occasions, but this is a far less poetic than a raw, naked, painful ride to follow one's morals unconditionally. The economy of the narrative evades any sense of truncation, aided by the showstopping performance of Ninón Sevilla, as feral and poised and everything in between. She screams and cries and fights, but also laughs and smiles and dances in ways that are spellbinding and life-affirming. It's a beast of a movie, but incredibly impressive in its scope of vision, oddly by crunching it into a ball of forced intimacy between all its diverse tones. The beauty and chaos that ensue mirror the characters' tumultuous lives - and against all odds, it works. Oh and it’s also a literal and thematic Mother’s Day flick!