Learning Beyond the Classics: Mexican Cinema: Épocas de Oro
Directed by Arturo Ripstein
With Regina Orozco, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Sherlyn
Not Rated, 114 minutes, DCP
In Spanish with English subtitles
Mexican provocateur Arturo Ripstein takes the ever-ripe lovers-on-the-run premise of dime-store pulp to its deliriously overheated, wickedly perverse extreme. In 1940s Mexico, a lusty, hot-for-Charles Boyer nurse (Regina Orozco) meets a balding con man (Daniel Giménez Cacho) who's touchy about his toupee through a lonely hearts ad, and it's not long before they're off on a cross-country crime spree robbing and murdering widows in between bouts of carnal passion. Based on the same true-crime shocker that inspired The Honeymoon Killers, Deep Crimson—presented here in its 2023 director's cut—blends the heavy-breathing hysterics of golden-age melodrama with startling violence and Buñuelian black humor.