Leticia Neria PhD thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText ...

leave. But the two are caught and punished by Don Perpetuo, who makes Calzonzin risk
his life in a bullfight. Calzonzin does not even have the support of the ordinary citizens
from San Garabato, perhaps because they were also deceived by him.
As Treviño points out, this film portrays ‘the hypocrisy and corruption of many
of Mexico’s most revered institutions: government, the church, and the military’. 41
Many of these topics are diluted in simple jokes, love stories and even an exaggerated
ending in which all the bullfight attendants throw bags full of coloured dust. In fact, El
Águila Descalza has a similar ending, but the fight involves sacks full of powdered
drugs.
In any case, the tolerance of the authorities in allowing this movie to be screened
– and indeed, in financing it - is remarkable, because the previous administration had
censored the comic Los Supermachos. Ironically, Rius participated in the film script and
even drew the images to illustrate the posters that advertised it. 42
The film was well received by the public and was nominated for four Ariel
Awards in Mexico, winning two. It also won best movie in the Third World film festival
in Cairo in 1976. 43 José López Portillo’s administration did not benefit Arau, and in fact
one of his films, Mojado Power (1980), was never released in Mexico though it won an
award in France and was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film. 44 His biggest
success came in 1992 with the film Como agua para chocolate, from the novel written
by his ex-wife Laura Esquivel. The film cost millions of dollars and won 21 awards
41
Treviño, ‘The New Mexican Cinema’, p. 29.
42
A copy of the poster can be consulted in Rogelio Agrasánchez Jr., ¡Más! Cine Mexicano. Sensational
Mexican Movie Posters 1957-1990 (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007), p. 115, and another poster
may be found in García Riera, Historia Documental… 16: 1972-1973, p. 176.
43
García Riera, Historia Documental… 16: 1972-1973, p. 158.
44
‘ARAU Incháustegui, Alfonso’,
[17th September 2011]
172