Arráncame la vida (2008)

Director:

Roberto Sneider

Writers:

Ángeles Mastretta (story)
Roberto Sneider (screenplay)

Release Date:

12 September 2008 (Mexico)

Genre:

Drama

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Ana Claudia Talancón	...	Catalina Guzman
Daniel Giménez Cacho	...	Andres Ascencio
José María de Tavira	...	Carlos Vives
Mariana Peñalva	...	Mercedes
Irene Azuela	...	Bárbara
Jake Koenig	...	Mike Heiss
María Aura	...	Pepa
Danna Paola	...	Lilia Ascencio - Age 12
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Metztli Adamina	...	Eufemia
Alain	...	Marcos
Rodolfo Almada	...	Gral. Aguilar
Andrea Arámburo	...	Adriana
Marta Aura	...	Josefina
Carmen Beato	...	Doña Elena
Fernando Becerril	...	Don Marcos
Julio Bracho	...	Cienfuegos
Iván Bronstein	...	Redactor en jefe
Delia Casanova	...	Julia
Joaquín Cosio	...	Juan
Marcia Coutiño	...	Otra señora concierto
Rubén Cristiany	...	Notario
Rafael Cuervo	...	Leandro
Vicky de Fuentes	...	Lucina
Abundino Díaz Alcantara	...	Campesino mitín
Camila Fuentes	...	Pía
Guillermo Gil	...	Rodolfo
Aranza Gleason	...	Teresa
Federico González Compeán	...	Matón
Alberto Guerra	...	Guillermo
Max Gutiérrez	...	Téllez
Jesús Jiménez	...	Admirador Vives 2
Emilio Lechón	...	Checo - Age 3
Eugenia León	...	Toña la Negra
Surya MacGregor	...	Olga
Alejandra Marín	...	Magda
Itari Marta	...	Soledad
Patricia Martínez de Velasco	...	Tía Gertrudis
Pilar Ixquic Mata	...	Sofía
Arantza Moreno	...	Verania - Age 5
Gina Morett	...	La güera
Ana Ofelia Murguía	...	Clarita
Concepción Ojeda	...	Viejita Tonantzintla 1
Concepción Ojeda Jr.	...	Viejita Tonantzintla 2
Pilar Padilla	...	Sra. González
Andres Pardave	...	Juez
Enrique Paredes	...	Enrique
Salvador Parra	...	Admirador Vives 1
Victor Partida	...	Octavio
Julián Pastor	...	General de arresto
Flor Payán
Leticia Pedrajo	...	Sra. del Secretario
Álex Perea	...	Pablo
Jorge Reynoso	...	Gral. Fuentes
Carolina Rincón	...	Pilar
Elvira Ruiz	...	Enfermera
José Carlos Ruiz	...	Soriano
Gael Sánchez	...	Checo - Age 7
Rafael Sánchez Navarro	...	Cordera
Alicia Santillana	...	Verania - baby
José Sefami	...	Poncho Peña
Alfredo Sevilla	...	Gral. Jiménez
Carla Sneider	...	Vecina Vives
Camila Sodi	...	Lilia Ascencio
Itza Sodi	...	Javier
Alejandro Usigli	...	Julián
Isela Vega	...	Gitana
Humberto Velez	...	Canales
Rocío Verdejo	...	Marilú
Mario Zaragoza	...	Borracho

Also Known As:

Tear This Heart Out (International: English title)

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Mexico:B15 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Mexico

Company:

Altavista Films

Trivia:

Mexico's 2009 Academy Awards official submission to Foreign-Language Film category.

The importance of this movie

In my opinion this is by far the best and most important Mexican movie since "La Sombra del Caudillo". A movie also made from a novel in 1960 that was seized by the army and never released, and was done in the same style of using fictitious names. After I heard that this movie was filmed in my home town Puebla (I'm a US citizen now living in LA), and a candidate for a nomination for best foreign film, I rushed for the book and read it. It didn't take too long for me to realize who and what she (Angeles Mastretta) was talking about, and I loved it. So I rushed for the DVD and couldn't find it, but somehow I saw the movie. In the version that I saw, I noticed an important and brief episode from the book (among others) that was missing in the movie almost at the end. I'm referring to a serenade performed by the best and most popular artists in those days, Pedro Vargas and Agustin Lara (there's a statue of Lara in a park in Los Angeles), that ended in a clean fist fight won by the kid with the motorcycle, that the young daughter of the general loved, and who mysteriously died a few days later in a motorcycle accident (?). Who was the rich kid? Well, who could afford to take these artists to Puebla for a simple serenade? But who wants to be an enemy of the media anyway. I wonder if the richest man in the world, whose name appears at the end in the credits as contributor to the movie, also contributed to the omission of this episode or if it was not filmed at all, that, I don't know. But anyway that is not too important compared to another character that is almost invisible in the book (and movie) by the name of "Don Mike Heiss". If you find out who he really was then do a simple research, like I did, and visit the archives of the New York Times. You'll be surprise of these articles from 1917 (the year Zapata was murdered)-1919 (Villa was murdered a few years later) when USA was about to invade Mexico again just to liberate this special agent ("Heiss") from a Puebla penitentiary. "HEISS" became the richest man in Mexico and probably in the world after Rockefeller, and was the partner of all the richest man in Mexico at the time, with the help of "General Ascencio", who was in charge of making offers nobody could refuse. After "Ascencio" died, "Cienfuegos" became one of the richest men in the world during the six years he was president. All this just proves that unfortunately there is nothing to celebrate next year on the centennial of the revolution the 18th day of November 1910, with the exception of remembering Aquiles Serdan the first martyr of the unconsummated and so-called revolution, initiated also in my beautiful home town of Puebla de Los Angeles (Mastretta?). The acting in this movie is the best I've seen in many years. Thank you Ana Claudia, Daniel and Roberto, from now on you are my favorite actors and director. Please don't go to Hollywood, you all are more needed in Mexico.