Gabriel Figueroa & Alex Phillips: Painting It Black

Dolores del Rio plays twins on different sides of the wealth divide in this fiendish Mexican Noir thriller. Maria decides to murder Magdelana and step into her high heels. But can she carry it off?

An arrogant, womanizing sports star eventually gets his comeuppance in this jet-black crime drama from director Roberto Gavaldón.

Charming, (over-)confident clairvoyant Professor Karin hits the jackpot when he hears about a beautiful widow whose millionaire husband has just died. But you don't need to be psychic to see that blackmailing a killer may not be his best idea...

In this overtly political thriller, a union organizer hides out from corrupt government goons with an old college flame — but the net is closing in...

In which wealthy industrialist Arturo de Cordova purchases the titular nude sculpture of his lover (María Félix) as an anniversary gift for his innocent, adoring wife. Soon enough the wife is dead, though untangling just how and why is part of the fun.

In this delightful black comedy, an avuncular taxidermist (our old amigo Arturo de Córdova) is beloved by many but not his wife (Amparo Rivelles), a religious fanatic who can't bear to be touched. One day she pushes him too far...

Middle class and married, Elena (Miroslava Stern) has been seduced by an unscrupulous swindler, who turns out to be the pimp of Maria (Elda Peralta), a prostitute and Elena's estranged sister. But are they really so different under the skin?

This movie is a hot scramble of piety and passion, sentimentality and sleaze. Ninón Sevilla plays Violeta, a rumba sensation who oversteps when she rescues a newborn from the trash. This gets her fired and wins the enmity of the pimp who fathered the kid.

To celebrate our Mexico Noir series we invited Midnight Boogaloo to get the party going with a mix of salsa, boogaloo and rock & roll. After their set enjoy the seminal dancehall melodrama Salón México, a classic from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.

In this free talk, educator and filmmaker Devan Scott (himself a professional cinematographer) will introduce you to the artistry of two giants of Mexican cinematagraphy, Gabriel Figueroa and Canadian Alex Phillips.

A seemingly genteel and highly reputable gentleman reveals his true nature on his wedding night in this searing melodrama from surrealist Luis Buñuel, one of the most shocking films from his Mexican period.

In this boldly stylized musical melodrama mixing reformist politics with outrageous musical numbers, the incomparable Ninón Sevilla is the poor fisherman's daughter navigating a success of dodgy men on her way to true love.

Prostitute Aurora (Cuban-born dance queen Ninón Sevilla) gets out of prison and exacts her vengeance by seducing the very married and respectable judge who put her behind bars (Fernando Soler). Eros makes a mockery of rectitude and righteousness.

Wealthy aesthete Archie de la Cruz has a confession to make (several in fact). Luis Buñuel's kinky black comedy is an elegant study in perversity, steeped in Freud and revelling in the repressed.

Victor Parra is Roberto, "el Suavecito", the smoothie. Sprinkling his Spanish with slang and English, and sporting a Zoot suit, he's a gangster-wannabe, an obnoxious macho who isn't quite as tough as he likes to make out...

Cheated by her pimp, Mercedes recklessly steals his wallet and is only saved from a severe beating by the intervention of a kindly policeman. Hard-hitting social realism sits beside patriotic sentimentality and multiple red hot dance sequences.

A brain surgeon (Arturo de Córdova) begins to doubt his own sanity when the woman he's in love with (Gloria Marin) marries his brother — and he starts fantasizing about murder.