Grandes Figuras de Cine Mexicano (Great Figures of Mexican Cinema)

The giants of the golden age of Mexican cinema hit the big screen once more at the Grandes Figuras de Cine Mexicano (Great Figures of Mexican Cinema). Presented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Consulate General of Mexico in Houston, the nine-hour festival includes four films. Our personal favorite is Ahí está el detalle (There’s the Detail), starring the ever wonderful, grammatically challenged Cantinflas. The 1940 comedy, considered one of his best, revolves around a mix-up between Bobby, the family dog, and Bobby, the supposed lover of a married woman with a very jealous husband. Cantinflas is in love with the family’s cook, or rather, we should say, with the family’s cook’s cooking…oh, damn, we’re starting to sound like him.

Also on the bill is Maria Candelaria, the story of a young woman who falls ill. When her lover steals medicine from a shop to save her, a string of tragedies befalls them. The 1943 drama stars Dolores del Río and Pedro Armendáriz. Maria, the first Mexican film ever to be screened at Cannes, took home the festival’s Grand Prix award. There’s also the allegorical Macario. Based on a Brothers Grimm tale, the film follows a farmer and his dealings with God, the Devil and Death. Rounding out the lineup is Yo bailé con Don Porfirio, a musical comedy about a man whose life gets complicated when his two daughters, one legitimate and one illegitimate, are mistaken for one another. Noon to 9 p.m. Talento Bilingüe de Houston, 333 South Jensen.

Sun., Aug. 12, 12-9 p.m., 2012