| Director: | Arturo Ripstein |
|---|---|
| Production: | Conacite Dos |
| Running Time: | 110’ |
| Language: | Spanish |
| Country: | Mexico |
| Year: | 1977 |
| Main Cast: | Roberto Cobo Calambres, Lucha Villa, Ana Martín, Gonzalo Vega, Julián Pastor, Carmen Salinas, Fernando Soler, Emma Roldán, Blanca Torres, Marta Aura |
| Screenplay: | Arturo Ripstein, José Emilio Pacheco, Cristina Pacheco, Carlos Castañon |
| Cinematographer: | Miguel Garzón |
| Editor: | Francisco Chiu |
| Production Designer: | Kleomenes Stamatiades |
| Costume Designer: | Kleomenes Stamatiades |
| Music: | Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras |
| Sound: | Guillermo Carrasco, Ricardo Saldívar |
| Restoration: | Cineteca Nacional México, Imcine |
| Notes: | 14+ |
Cinema
El lugar sin límites (The Place Without Limits)
Venice Classics
Synopsis
El lugar sin límites tells the history of La Manuela, a homosexual who, together with his daughter La Japonesita, run a provincial brothel. One night while Pancho harasses La Japonesita, La Manuela decides to come out in his defense with a dance. As a result of the seduction, Pancho passionately kisses La Manuela. Father and daughter compete for the same passion in a ruthless place where kindness mixes with hatred.
Director’s Statement
What I really liked about the novel, published in English under the title Hell Has No Limits, was its inability to recognize difference. Seeing the homosexual, in other words the symbol of everything that is deplorable, the perfect example of the outsider, and looking at the reaction to all this. This was the point from which we approached the film, seeking the elements of intolerance that have always interested me greatly. Because the impossibility of recognition of the other generates violence. Manuel Puig was involved in the adaptation of the novel but then chose not to put his signature to it. The excuse he had made for not signing the film was that El beso de la mujer araña [Kiss of the Spider Woman] was about to be published and he didn’t want to be classified as a gay writer, but simply as a writer. As if he had ever been classified in any other way! Instead I suspect that it was because he didn’t know how a heterosexual director was going to handle the character of a homosexual, who in traditional Mexican cinema has always been a caricature. He was always an amusing, effeminate weirdo. He didn’t know what tone I would give the film and decided that he didn’t want to take responsibility for it.
Andrea Martini and Nuria Vidal, eds., Arturo Ripstein (Turin: Lindau - Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani, 1997)
Producers/Distributors
PRODUCTION 1: Cineteca Nacional - Laboratorio de Restauración Digital Elena Sanchez Valenzuela
Av. México Coyoacán #389 Col. Xoco Del. Benito Juárez Mexico
03330, Ciudad de México – Mexico
Tel. +52 (55) 41551200
http://www.cinetecanacional.net
dora@cinetecanacional.net
PRODUCTION 2: Mexican Film Institute Imcine
Insurgentes Sur 674 Col. Del Valle Del. Benito Juárez
03100, Ciudad de México – Mexico
Tel. +52 (55) 54485328
monserrat.sanchez@imcine.gob.mx
http://www.imcine.gob.mx/
PRODUCTION WHEN THE FILM WAS MADE: Conacite Dos
WORLD SALES: Edna Martinez - Mexican Film Institute Imcine
Insurgentes Sur 674 Col. Del Valle Del. Benito Juárez
03100, Ciudad de México – Mexico
Tel. +52 (55) 54485344
sales@imcine.gob.mx
PRESS OFFICE: Alfredo Del Valle - Mexican Film Institute Imcine
Insurgentes Sur 674 Col. Del Valle Del. Benito Juárez
03100, Ciudad de México – Mexico
Tel. +52 (55) 54485300
adelvalle@imcine.gob.mx
