The Queen of the Night (Spanish: La reina de la noche) is a 1994 Mexican drama film directed by Arturo Ripstein, with a screenplay by Paz Alicia Garciadiego. Described in its credits as "an imaginary biography of the sentimental life of Lucha Reyes", the film was entered into the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.
Contents
Plot
Set in 1939, the film follows Lucha Reyes, a celebrated singer who has returned to Mexico City from Germany, where she had suffered vocal problems. She performs in a cabaret and moves in a circle that includes Oñate, a left-wing painter; Klaus Eder, a German who has fled Hitlerian fascism; and Jaira, her closest confidante. Her relationship with her domineering mother, Doña Victoria, offers little of the affection she craves.
She meets Pedro Calderón, the owner of the Arbeu, another cabaret, and the two fall passionately in love and marry. The union proves tempestuous: Pedro cannot tolerate her unconventional behaviour, including her impulsive decision to buy a child from a beggar woman, whom she names Luzma, on the pretext that she is unable to have children herself. Lucha, meanwhile, is tormented by Pedro's infidelities, even as he attempts to advance her career at his establishment — an endeavour that swiftly fails. She is reduced to singing in a pulquería, seated on a chair rather than on a proper stage, and is soon dismissed from there too after flouting its rules. Abandoned by her husband and eventually by her friends, she is forced to return to her mother's home, where she receives little comfort. Worn down by loneliness, alcohol, and despair, she takes her own life in 1944.
Cast
Patricia Reyes Spíndola as Lucha Reyes
Alberto Estrella as Pedro Calderón
Blanca Guerra as La Jaira
Ana Ofelia Murguía as Doña Victoria
Alex Cox as Klaus Eder
Arturo Alegro as Oñate
Alejandra Montoya as Luzma (adolescent)
Marta Aura as Balmori
Roberto Sosa as Gimeno
Juan Carlos Colombo as Araujo
Guillermo Gil as Gato Linares
María Marcucci
Maya Mishalska
Production
Crew
The film's screenplay was written by Paz Alicia Garciadiego, who also wrote the lyrics for the songs performed by Betsy Pecanins. Cinematography was handled by Bruno de Keyzer, with editing by Rafael Castanedo. The musical score was composed by Lucía Álvarez.
The film was a co-production involving Ultra Films with the Mexican film institute, Artists Entertainment, El Tenampa Films Works, Les Films du Nopal, and several other Mexican and international partners. In France, it received the participation of the Ministère de la Culture (CNC) and the Ministère des affaires étrangères.
Critical reception
The film has been praised for its oppressive visual style and intensely bleak atmosphere. One critic described it as "a film of absolute despair and beauty. Long takes that imprison the characters, baroque and overstuffed sets, dim and sombre lighting... The direction offers no escape. An entrancing and suicidal film, magnificent and nihilistic, of extreme darkness." Another noted: "One is bewitched by its narcissistic suffering, the twilight aestheticism, and the heartrending songs of Betsy Pecanins." A third described the film as treating the singer's life "in the form of a flamboyant melodrama."
Awards
Ariel Awards
The Ariel Awards are awarded annually by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences in Mexico. La reina de la noche received six awards out of 12 nominations at the 38th Ariel Awards in 1996.
Other awards and nominations
1994: Festival de Cannes – nomination for the Palme d'Or (Arturo Ripstein)
1994: Havana Film Festival – Best Supporting Actress (Blanca Guerra)
1994: Gramado Film Festival – Special mention for art direction (José Luis Aguilar); nomination for the Golden Kikito for Best Latin Film (Arturo Ripstein)