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

eceived by the critics 53 but the public enjoyed it and it ran for twelve weeks in the
theatres. According to García Riera, it showed the ‘indignación que le causaba [to Isaac]
el ejercicio del poder que disfrazaba de moralismo su arbitrariedad, su corrupción y su
desprecio por la opinión pública’. 54 Tívoli was full of cabaret routines and is an accurate
reconstruction of the burlesques from the 1950s. 55 The fact that it takes place in the
distant past may explain why the government tolerated it and even financed it. But in a
country where the same party had ruled for forty-five years, criticism against the
government referred to the current state party. Therefore, Tívoli is a good example of
the tolerance and openness of the Echeverría administration.
The next presidential period was not productive for Alberto Isaac. His work was
blocked by Margarita López Portillo after he criticised Mexican investment in a U.S.
film production. 56 In 1983 he was appointed director of the recently created Instituto
Mexicano de Cinematografía and he tried to rebuild the Mexican cinema. 57 He
continued directing and writing movies until his death after a heart attack in 1998. The
film industry lost a great creator, but also lost a great cartoonist, sportsman and
journalist.
Films and Mechanisms of Humour
Incongruity
At this point I will show how the use of humour allowed discussion of topics that were
not welcome in other media, such as TV or newspapers, or which were too traumatic.
The language of humour made it easier to keep certain topics in the social imaginary so
53 García Riera criticised the film and years later reconsidered his opinion and mentioned that the critics
were unfair with the film. Ibid., p. 68.
54 Ibid., p. 65.
55 Mora, Mexican Cinema… p. 130.
56 Ibid., p. 149.
57 Ibid., p. 150.
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