A Vision of Resurrection for Mexican Film Classics

Gregorio Luke gives cultural lectures with the fervor and reverence of a missionary hungry for converts. The Mexican-born museum director slips into a trance of extemporaneous eloquence. He closes his eyes, tilts his head back, puts his arms out and seems to lift off the podium. Phrases gush forth passionately, unimpeded by his marked lisp.

Luke speaks as if he’s seen a vision. His listeners can’t help but see it too.

Last month, Luke lured an audience into a cultural seance about the future of Spanish-language cinema in the United States. It came at the finale of his series of lectures on the Mexican film industry delivered at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, where he’s been director almost two years.

I only caught the last half of the last lecture, but his closing ideas so intrigued me that I cornered him afterward. Circled by admirers, Luke couldn’t stop talking about his hopes for the revival of a once-glorious film culture that’s been allowed to decay.

Many may not realize that Mexico during the 1930s and 1940s ranked among the top movie-

producing nations in the world. The archive of films from that golden era is a national treasure. But some of the original negatives are literally crumbling from neglect, Luke said, rubbing his fingers together on imaginary celluloid that seemed to disintegrate from the touch.

Such is the fate of scores of excellent films. Many haven’t been shown on a big screen for decades, outside of special film revivals and festivals. They feature stars like the gallant Jorge Negrete, the alluring Dolores del Rio and Cantinflas, the lovable comic icon with a social conscience. Not to mention Maria Felix, the grand diva of Mexican movies who will be honored with a lifetime achievement award Saturday at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival.

These are not just celebrities. They are people who helped define the Mexican character through their roles as lovers and losers, romantics and revolutionaries, defenders of the poor, afflictors of the rich, paragons of machismo and models of female strength.

“This image of Mexico, and how to be a Mexican, is something that really was created in the movies,” Luke said last week at Viva, the museum’s restaurant. “All of this ethos, these cultural types, it’s very much a creation. It’s not spontaneous.”

Today, the Mexican movie business is slowly rebounding. Still, it produces fewer than 10 films a year, said Luke, down from more than 100 in its heyday.

Luke wants this cinematic treasury rescued, restored and rerun on big screens with improved sound. He envisions premieres that would attract generations of film lovers, from immigrant grandparents to their American offspring.

“I think the community would overflow with enjoyment,” he said. “It would be a cultural sacudida [shake-up] for our region.”

Luke is not the only one to dream of cinematic rebirth. Last week, a sold-out crowd packed the restored Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles for a special screening of “El,” the 1952 classic from Spanish director Luis Bunuel. It marked the debut of the Latin-American Cinemateca of Los Angeles, a new nonprofit group that aims to organize six such screenings a year.

Pushing Spanish-language films for profit poses much higher risks, as my Calendar colleague Lorenza Munoz has documented. Earlier this year, a brutal beating at the box office greeted the debut of Latin Universe, the first company in more than two decades to gamble on wide commercial release for Latin American films.

So it won’t be easy to recapture Latino audiences who once packed theaters like Los Angeles’ Million Dollar and Santa Ana’s Yost. I still remember seeing a Cantinflas film in downtown Oakland with a college sweetheart. She was smiling when the lights came back on and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, an unexpected reaction that hooked me on the seductive power of old Mexican movies.

Luke reminded me that film-going was once a cultural happening among Latinos, especially at a time when racism denied them admission to mainstream movie houses. In some places, entire families dressed up for midnight screenings, the hour reserved for Mexican audiences.

Luke believes a liberated Latino market in the United States can be a catalyst for the industry’s revival, provide a forum for new filmmakers and even a spark for urban renewal. “The Mexican movies are a perfect vehicle for that because there is such a pent-up demand for them,” said Luke. “There is a thirst of 30 years.”

The museum director is no movie mogul. But he sure can make you believe in his vision.

Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com.