maría félix - South Africa Deluxe

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María Félix
For thirty glorious years, between 1936 and 1969, Mexican and Latin American audiences experienced the
golden age of Mexican cinema. The United States and Europe were embroiled in World War II, and the film
industries in France, Spain, Germany, Argentina and the United States were focused on producing war-themed
films. Mexico took this opportunity to focus on creating high quality, entertaining films that enthralled their
audiences. In terms of theme, aesthetics and ideology, films like Redes (The Waves, 1936), Allá en el Rancho
Grande (Out on the Big Ranch, 1936) and Vamanos con Pancho Villa, (Let’s Go with Pancho Villa, 1936) set a
high standard for the films that would follow.
There were two major types of film during this era. The state-supported films promoted the ambitions of
Mexican President, Cárdenas, and projected a nationalistic aesthetic and ideology. As American films proved
highly popular amongst audiences, films produced for commercial reasons imitated the style of successful
Hollywood productions. They followed similar narratives,
aesthetics and the ways in which they were produced. Studios
were established, actors and actresses were discovered, signed
and thrust into the limelight, and producers were powerful.
By 1947, the film industry was the third largest industry in
Mexico and employed 32 000 people. During 1946 and 1947,
72 film producers invested approximately $13 million in motion
pictures and the four active studios boasted millions of dollars
in invested capital, as well as strong national and international
distributor relationships. Across Mexico there were 1 500
theatres: about 200 in Mexico City alone. By the late 1940s,
Mexican films commanded more than 40 percent of domestic
screen time. It was the commercially driven films that would
prove to be more popular with cinema-goers.
When it came to scripts and themes, inspiration was drawn
from Mexican literature, traditions and contemporary Mexican
themes. Allá en el Rancho Grande introduced what became
one of the most popular themes in Mexican films: the comedia
ranchera. This was Mexico’s answer to the cowboy musical
genre and incorporated elements of comedy, tragedy, popular
music and folkloric or nationalistic themes. Historical epics,
family melodramas, social injustices and urban melodramas
were also popular with audiences of this period. Characters
Photos: © Cartier
The Golden Age
of Mexican Cinema
Both crocodiles are crafted in gold,
the first with 1 023 brilliant-cut, fancy,
intense yellow diamonds, weighing
60,02 carats, with two navette-shaped
emerald cabochons for eyes. The second
crocodile features 1 060 emeralds,
weighing 66,86 carats, with two ruby
cabochons for eyes.
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like the ranchero films’ charros (traditional Mexican horsemen,
known for their colourful attire and participation in Mexican
rodeos) were very masculine, and the femme fatales took your
breath away with their exotic beauty. The films played out across
the backdrops of expansive ranches, the battlefields of the
Revolution and cabarets, often focusing on rural themes despite
the fact that the population was increasingly urban.
Femme Fatale
A collector of beautiful things
Photos: © Cartier
Perhaps one of the greatest icons to be born from the golden age
of Mexican cinema was María Félix. She was a striking beauty
with long, dark and lustrous tresses, which framed her exquisitely
high cheekbones and smouldering eyes; she took your breath
away every time she appeared on screen.
Félix was discovered in Mexico City by businessman Fernando
Palacious, who introduced her to film maker Miguel Zacarías.
He gave her the chance to star in her first film, alongside Jorge
Negrete, in El Peñón de las Ánimas. She turned down offers to
work in the United States, preferring to work in Mexico, and her
refusal to learn English led to her roles being confined to Spanishlanguage films.
Her breakout role occurred in her third film, Doña Barbara (1943),
in which she played a Venezuelan woman who had been raped in
her youth, and who ran her ranch despotically, (while dressed in men‘s clothes) and dabbled in witchcraft. She
threw herself into the role, embracing the character’s persona, adopting her tough mannerisms and dressing
in men’s clothes. From that point onwards, she was known as La Doña.
Félix was the epitome of a strong and sexual woman, and her off-screen relationships were as tempestuous as
those of the characters in her films. Her first marriage to Enrique Alvarez in 1931 lasted seven years and was by
all accounts an abusive relationship. The marriage ended in divorce and with Alvarez kidnapping their young
son, Enrique. She married Agustín Lara, a Mexican singer, actor and songwriter in 1943. He was responsible for
returning her son to her and wrote the song María Bonita (Pretty Maria) for her, which became an international
hit. The couple divorced in 1947. On 18 Ocober 1952, Félix married actor Jorge Negrete with whom she’d
co-starred in her first movie. Sadly, Negrete died from hepatitis 14 months later. Her fourth and final marriage
was to Swiss businessman Alex Berger in 1956 and she remained with him until his death in 1974.
Of men she reportedly said, “I cannot complain about men. I have had tons of them and they have treated me
fabulously well. But sometimes I had to hurt them to keep them from subjugating me.”
While she was less well-known in English-speaking countries, Félix’s star shone brightly in Latin America and
Europe. She had appeared in 47 movies by 1970, 18 of them during Mexico’s golden age of cinema. Over the
span of her career, she won three Ariel awards for best actress, as well as receiving a lifetime achievement
award in 1985. In 1996, she became the first Latin American woman to receive the ‘Commandeur de l‘Ordre des
Arts et des Lettres’ bestowed by the French Government.
This necklace was
carefully crafted in
platinum, white gold
and yellow gold, with
2,473 brilliant-andbaguette-cut diamonds,
weighing 178,21 carats
in total.
Félix appreciated beautiful things and was a keen collector of jewellery, porcelain, carpets, silver, cashmere
shawls, books and antique furniture. Her love of reptiles led her to commission remarkable pieces from Cartier,
which visitors to Cartier’s Style and History exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris were able to appreciate in
early 2014.
Her snake necklace was commissioned on special order in 1968, and was carefully crafted in platinum,
white gold and yellow gold, with 2,473 brilliant-and-baguette-cut diamonds, weighing 178,21 carats in total.
It boasted two pear-shaped emeralds for eyes and its belly was adorned with delicate green, red and black
enamel. Articulated around a highly complex armature of platinum and gold, her snake necklace represents
an extraordinary technical feat that required two years of work.
Félix commissioned her famous crocodiles necklace in 1975. Both crocodiles are crafted in gold, the first with
1 023 brilliant-cut, fancy, intense yellow diamonds, weighing 60,02 carats, with two navette-shaped emerald
cabochons for eyes. The second crocodile features 1 060 emeralds, weighing 66,86 carats, with two ruby
cabochons for eyes. The two crocodiles are entirely articulated and can be worn separately as brooches or
together as a necklace. When worn around the neck, the feet can be replaced by clawless paws that will not
irritate the skin. Félix spent her final years moving between Paris, where she owned a racehorse stable left to
her by Alex Berger, and Mexico City, the place where she always felt most at home. She was predeceased by
her son Enrique, who died of a heart attack in 1996, a loss from which she never recovered. She died on 8 April
2002 - her 88th birthday - leaving behind a larger-than-life legacy filled with myth and legend and a remarkable
body of work. Lindsay Grubb