The Pearl

Emilio Fernández's 1947 Mexican film adapts John Steinbeck's novella, with the author co-writing the screenplay. The fisherman Quino and his wife Juana are poor, and the town's foreign doctor refuses to treat their son Coyotito after a scorpion sting. When Quino finds an extraordinary pearl in the sea, Juana senses the discovery will bring nothing but disaster. Gabriel Figueroa's cinematography is the film's real strength: the treatment of sky, sea and faces produces some of the best-known images of the golden age of Mexican cinema. The story is built as a parable and the characters become types, which comes from the form of the source. Its criticism of the colonial order is direct: the same side sets the price, buys the goods and refuses the treatment. Who it's for: viewers interested in the golden age of Mexican cinema, Steinbeck adaptations and Figueroa's photography. Who it's not for: anyone wanting character depth, or avoiding content about violence toward a child and loss.