Enamorada

During the Mexican Revolution, General José Juan Reyes and his troops take the conservative town of Cholula. Collecting from the wealthy, he comes up against Beatriz, the daughter of the richest man in town. She slaps him. Rather than take offence, the general falls in love, and a contest between two stubborn people begins in the middle of a revolution. Emilio Fernández drew loosely on The Taming of the Shrew, but the film's real force is in the image. The cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa builds the Mexican landscape, the clouds and the church interiors into a national aesthetic; the pair's work is regarded as the signature of the golden age of Mexican cinema. María Félix plays Beatriz and Pedro Armendáriz the general. The film won seven Silver Ariel awards in 1947. It was later restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the World Cinema Project of the Film Foundation. Who it's for: Viewers who like the golden age of Mexican cinema, Figueroa's cinematography, and melodrama set in the revolution. Who it's not for: The construction of the romance is a problem from here, with the woman's resistance treated as conquest. The telling also leans on melodrama.