This year, the Cannes Classics Selection started off with a Mexican flare and a very special guest, Martin Scorsese , presenting the film “Enamorada” by Emilio “El Indio” Fernández at the Buñuel theater.
Starring María Félix and Pedro Armendáriz , “Enamorada” (1946) is considered to be one of the 12 best movies of Mexican cinematography and a classic in global cinematography, featuring photographer Gabriel Figueroa. The movie’s restoration was one of Scorsese’s first projects when creating the World Cinema Foundation , 24 years ago, with the goal of helping developing countries to rescue their cinema treasures. The participation of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Film Library , as well as Televisa Foundation , UCLA Film and Film Archive were also key to the restoration, financed by the Material World Charitable Foundation .
A few years ago, in an interview granted by the movie director to EL UNIVERSAL, Scorsese assured that, in his opinion, “cinema is food for the soul, and with every part that we lose, we also lose a bond to our history and to the world,” he also commented that his fascination for “El Indio” began many years ago and he considers him to be “one of the best directors in the world.”
We must not forget that Scorsese was once a sickly child who, according to his own testimony, spent most of his days locked up, watching people pass by from the window of his house in Queens while his father ironed trousers and his mother cooked to keep the family going, which is why he has always stated that cinema was his refuge. During his childhood, he saw thousands of movies and grew up between the aisles of movie theaters, watching the classics. Among these classics were, of course, movies from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, which is why it is no coincidence that one of the first movies that his foundation set out to rescue was “Enamorada”, as well as “Redes” (1934) by Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel , which was also projected in the Cannes Film Festival of 2009.
During the presentation at the Buñuel Theater, accompanied by the general director of the Festival, Thierry Frémaux , Scorsese told a few anecdotes about “El Indio” Fernández. Emilio had participated in the Mexican revolution but was captured and put in prison after a riot in 1943. After that, he left the country and moved to Chicago, then he went to Los Angeles, where he became the model for the Oscar Statuette designed by Cedric Gibbons.
The connection between “El Indio” and Gibbons was Dolores del Río , with whom he worked later on in the movie “María Candelaria.” Scorsese asked Frémaux to tell the story of how “El Indio” had been infuriated by a critic that destroyed one of his movies, “It’s a story that Pierre Lescure (President of the Cannes Film Festival) tells, but we don’t know if it’s true”, the director added, jokingly, “but as the legend goes, Fernández was the first director to respond with gunshots to a movie critic that hadn’t liked one of his movies,” he said, provoking chuckles in the audience.
Movie director Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez, with Laura Ferlo - Photo: EL UNIVERSAL
However, the story seems to be true. Fernández’ biographers tell that there were actually several journalists who were haunted by the movie director, who would chase and shoot at them after a bad review. It is told that “El Indio” usually solved his problems in a violent way.
This is the second time that “Enamorada” is projected in the French festival. The first time was in 2005, during the 58th edition of this Festival, when the film was projected in the section Cinéma de la Plage, which is free and open to the public at the beach of the French Riviera.
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