Matilde Soto Landeta (1913-1999), was among the first female directors in Mexican cinema. Born into a wealthy family, Landeta worked her way up in the film industry from makeup artist via script supervisor and assistant director to finally director, and financed her own projects when the male-dominated industry wouldn’t.
Her third film, Streetwalker (Trotacalles), has an explicitly feminist lens on the exploitation of women. It is the story of two estranged sisters whose paths cross again after many years. Middle class and married, Elena (Miroslava Stern) has been seduced by an unscrupulous swindler, who happens to be the pimp of Maria (Elda Peralta), a prostitute. But are the sisters really so different under the skin?
It would be another 40 years before Matilde Landeta was able to direct another film.
We appreciate the support of Marcela Fernández Violante // DCP courtesy of Filmoteca UNAM
Truly radical for its time, in the way that it so clearly positions marriage as equivalent to prostitution, and makes husbands equivalents to pimps.
First Impressions
Matilde Landeta
Miroslava Stern, Ernesto Alonso, Elda Peralta, Miguel Ángel Ferriz, Isabela Corona
Mexico
1951
In Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Monday April 06
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Eduardo Soto Landeta
Screenwriter
José Aguila, Matilde Landeta
Cinematography
Rosalío Solano
Editor
Alfredo Rosas Priego
Original Music
Gonzalo Curiel
Production Design
Luis Moya
Also in This Series: Mexico Noir
Curated by best-selling novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexican Gothic), Mexico Noir is an invitation to discover a new shadow world.
The Night Falls
An arrogant, womanizing sports star eventually gets his comeuppance in this jet-black crime drama from director Roberto Gavaldón.
In the Palm of Your Hand
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...
The Kneeling Goddess
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.
The Skeleton of Mrs Morales
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...
Streetwalker
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?
Victims of Sin
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.
El Suavecito
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...
Salón México
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.
Crepúsculo
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.