RIP Gabriel Retes

Mexican Filmmaker Gabriel Retes dies at 73

Cinema Tropical

April 20, 2020

Mexican filmmaker Gabriel Retes died today in Mexico City at age 73 of undisclosed causes. A prolific film director, actor, and producer, he directed over 20 feature films and acted in over 50 film productions. He was able to navigate through different stages of Mexican cinema, working with different film format and modes of production, creating a solid and unique filmography including titles such as El Bulto and Bienvenido, Welcome, that have been selected as some of the best Mexican films of all time

Son of theater actor, director and playwright Ignacio Retes and actress Lucila Balzaretti, Retes was born on March 25, 1947 in Mexico City, and began acting at 12. Combining his work as a stage actor and director, he makes hisde but as a film actor in the super 8 short film Ardiendo en el sueño by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, followed by the feature film Cristo 70 by Alejandro Galindo.

In the early seventies he combined his acting career working with film directors such as Alejandro Galindo, Alberto Mariscal, José Estrada and Jorge Fons, with the directing of his own super 8 short films. During these days he creates a solid body of work with titles such as Sur, El paletero, Fragmentos, Tribulaciones en el seno de una familia burguesa, and El asunto. With Taibo II and Eduardo Carrasco Zanini he founded the Marginal Cinema Cooperative, an independent and militant super 8 club dedicated to support the struggles of workers and labor unions through their films.

In 1975, he makes his debut feature film, Chin Chin el Teporocho / Chin Chin the Drunken Bum, the big screen adaptation of the popular novel by Armando Ramírez. Starring Carlos Chávez, Jorge Santoyo, Jorge Balzaretti, Abel Woolrich, Tina Romero, Diana Bracho, and Aarón Hernán, the film tells the story of Rogelio, a young man of humble origin in the neighborhood of Tepito, who falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy grocer, Michelle, but his marriage to her will be a failure and he will end up as a one more drunk. Retes was presented with the Ariel Award for Best First Film by the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences.

His second feature film, Nuevo Mundo (1976), the story of a priest set in the 16th century Mexico who converted the local pagan population to Christianity by making a statue of Virgin Mary resembling a native woman, was censored around the controversy it generated on the veracity of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Retes’ third film, Paper Flowers / Flores de papel (1977) participated in the official competition at the 28th edition of the Berlin Film Festival. That same year, Retes created the Cooperativa Rio Mixcoac, and produces his next two feature films; Broken Flag / Bandera rota (1979)—an official selection at the Moscow and Havana Film Festivals—and Mujeres salvajes (1984).

Retes’ 1989 The Naked City / La ciudad al desnudo, tells the story of Alfonso and Aurelia, who with their infant daughter flee the scene of a traffic accident they inadvertently caused, leaving several people seriously injured. The protagonist, Lourdes Elizarrarás was the winner of the Ariel Award for Best Actress.

His 1992 film El Bulto, premiered at the height of the so-called ‘New Mexican Cinema,’ marked an international landmark for the director, screening in numerous international film festivals and winning multiple awards. Starring himself, his father, his son Juan Claudio, his daughter Gabriela, his mother, and his wife Elizarrarás, the film narrates the story of Lauro (Retes) who wakes up after being in a comma for 20 years, and has to confront the realities of a very different country two decades later. Retes was awarded with the Best Actor Award at the Amiens Film Festival.

Retes followed the success of El Bulto with Bienvenido/ Welcome (1994), a poignant and bilingual meta comedy chronicling the making of a low budget film on the effects of AIDS on a marriage. The film also starred himself, his wife, and his son. The film received the third prize for Best Film at the Havana Film Festival, the awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the Gramado Film Festival in Brazil, and was the winner of four Ariel Awards for Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Set Design.

In 1999, Retes directed the film adaptation of Guillermo Arriaga’s novel A Sweet Scent of Death / Un dulce olor a muerte starring Diego Luna. The film was the winner of the Best Director Award at the Cartagena Film Festival, and the second prize for Best Film at the Havana Film Festival. More recent directorial credits include Despedida de amor (2003), @Festivbercine.ron (2004), Bienvenido/ Welcome 2 (2006), The Revolution and the Artists (2018), and Identidad Tomada (2020). As an actor he also participated in Carlos Bolado’s Bajo California: El límite del tiempo (1998), Ángel Flores Torres’ Piedras verdes (2001), the Costa Rican film Caribe (2004) by Esteban Ramírez, Alejandro Sugich’s Casi treinta (2014), and Julio Bekhor and Fernando Sma’s El viaje de Keta (2018).

RETES, Gabriel (José Ignacio Gabriel Jorge Retes Balzaretti)

Born: 3/25/1947, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

Died: 4/20/2020, Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

Gabriel Retes’ westerns – director, writer, cinematographer, actor;

Sur – 1969 [director]

Siete muertes para el texano – 1971

They Call Him Marcado – 1971

Los bandidos – 1974 [director, writer, cinematographer]

Cinco mil dolares de recompense – 1974 (Ricky)

La rebellion de los colgados – 1986 [producer]