SESSION SIX: 17 MARCH 2012 Mexico DOÑA HERLINDA Y SU HIJO (tr. DOÑA HERLINDA & HER SON) Dir. Jaime Humberto Hermosillo. 1985, 90 min. Spanish, with English subtitles. Script: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, from the novel, by Jorge López Páez. Starring: Arturo Meza, Marco Antonio Treviño, Guadalupe del Toro.
 An entertaining comedy-drama about a traditional Catholic family trying to adjust to the changing (gay) times.
Rodolfo is a doctor from a rather proper
Mexican family. When he falls for a penniless music student, Ramón, he realizes
that he may be the love of his life. But what is he going to do about the
constant nagging of his devoted mother, who insists that he must get married to
a nice girl? Rodolfo comes up with an unorthodox solution, which will derive
into more complications, and will inspire an even less orthodox solution, until
the whole idea of the traditional family unit has been blown up in a thousand
pieces. The first mainstream Latin-American feature film with a gay theme, “Doña
Herlinda and her Son” is
a great satire of prim posh fakers, with the added unintentional amusement
value (for Europeans) of the slightly overplayed style of acting which is a
convention of Latin-American television soap operas. Leaving Rodolfo’s family arrangements aside, the film is
worth watching for the extended open-air dancing scene alone, a shocking
reminder of the full stylistic and choreographic horrors we indulged in the
eighties.
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