In 1931 Antonio Moreno completed Santa, Mexico’s first true sound film. In it he established one of the foremost genres of Latin American cinema—the popular melodrama—which continues to this day. Latin American filmmakers came to the fore in the fifties and sixties and, as 1992’s Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) showed, Latin American films continue to be a major part of the international film scene.
In this work over 300 of the most significant films from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and other Latin American countries are covered. Each entry includes the English title, director, year of release, running time, language, country and a detailed plot synopsis. Notes about the production and the filmmakers are also provided for many entries.

The late Ronald Schwartz was a professor emeritus of Romance languages and film at City University of New York (Kingsborough) and the author of numerous books. He lived in Manhattan.

Ronald Schwartz
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 304
Bibliographic Info: 78 photos, chronology, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2005 [1997]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-2226-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2174-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface      1
Introduction      5
A Note on the Format      13
The Films Listed Chronologically      15
The Films: A–Z      21
Select Bibliography      275
A Note on Video Sources      277
Index      279

• “Easy-to-use, well-formatted”—Choice
• “Thorough and accurate”—ARBA
• “A useful text in a field so lacking in good reference materials”—British Bulletin of Publications.