WELCOME TO OUR NEXT SCREENING
Emilio Fernández's
VICTIMS OF SIN
(Victimas del pecado)
(Mexico | 1951 | 84 mins | PG)
Wednesday 24 September, 7.30PM, University of Otago’s Castle 1 Lecture Theatre**
Cabaret performer Ninón Sevilla stars in this blend of noir, melodrama and mambo musical from one of Mexican cinema’s most celebrated auteurs.
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| | “Onstage, Violeta (Ninón Sevilla) is the star of Cabaret Changó. When she dances, her power extends over the nightclub’s audience—drunks, musicians, gangsters, and onlookers – which shifts, from chaos to joy, with every transition she makes between tempos and traditions. Backstage, however, Violeta lives under the thumb of the violent and possessive Rodolfo – as do scores of local sex workers and dancers. When a newborn that Rodolfo claims isn’t his is abandoned, Violeta sacrifices her status and sets into motion a generational tale that |
| mixes melodrama, amped-up noir lighting, and dancefloor storytelling that anticipates the intensified montage of Bob Fosse. Director Emilio Fernández, already a Palme d’Or winner (1944’s María Candelaria), together with cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa, turn the film’s cabaret confines into a dynamic space for sweeping camera moves. As a classic example of the cine de rumberas genre, Victims of Sinis a jolting rediscovery, mixing high-level craft and underworld action” (The Cinematheque). |
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FURTHER REVIEW
“'From her inflamed look to her fiery mouth, everything is heightened in Ninón', wrote an awestruck twenty-two-year-old François Truffaut in a 1954 issue of Cahiers du cinéma. 'Her forehead, her lashes, her nose, her upper lip, her throat, her voice' – her every molecule, apparently, exuded a preternatural force of attraction. Consider her signature move. Seemingly possessed by the percussive rhythms of an Afro-Cuban |
| ensemble, Ninón would collapse to the ground. Legs folded,her torso facing skyward, she’d bounce like a springboard... To say that Sevilla is the beating heart of the film might seem cliché, but in this case it’s justified, not least for the palpable strength that pulses from her screen presence, the hypnotics of her cha-cha. Sevilla, as Violeta, a nightclub headliner turned streetwalker, also seems to be the only person with a soul" (Beatrice Loayza, 4Columns). |
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–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Finally, watch critic Linus Lau discuss Victims of Sin! ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
ABOUT THE DUNEDIN FILM SOCIETY
ADMISSION
Free to members.
TO JOIN
To purchase a Half Season membership:- complete a membership form from our website and pay by online bank transfer (06-0942-0696013-00);
- or join at the door before any screening (cash only).
- you can also join at the OUSA office reception at the University of Otago (cash only).
Alternatively, you can purchase a Three-Film sampler ($25), which can be also be shared to bring two friends to one screening. The sampler does not expire and can be used over multiple years.
Membership includes generous discounts at Rialto Cinemas (from Monday to Friday); and FREE entry to the 2025 screenings of all other affiliated New Zealand Film Societies. Each member is entitled to ONE FREE GUEST ADMISSION to a single screening.
**To get to the Castle 1 Theatre: walk up between the University of Otago’s Arts building (Burns) and Information Services building (Central Library), on Albany Street.
WE WELCOME YOUR FEEDBACK!... on this screening, or any other Dunedin Film Society showing, on dunedinfi...@gmail.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– |
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| | Our mailing address is:
Dunedin Film SocietyC/- 1 Crewe Street Maryhill Dunedin, Otago 9011New Zealand |
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