El imperio de la fortuna (1986)

A very poor and handicaped man, lives in a small town in Mexico with his mother. He works announcing things along the town ("The priest lost his cow, if someone sees it ..."). He is very ... See full summary »

Director:

Arturo Ripstein

Writers:

Juan Rulfo (story "El gallo de oro"), Paz Alicia Garciadiego (screenplay)

Stars:

Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Blanca Guerra, Alejandro Parodi

12 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ernesto Gómez Cruz	...	Dionisio Pinzón
Blanca Guerra	...	La Caponera
Alejandro Parodi	...	Lorenzo Benavides
Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez	...	La Pinzona
Socorro Avelar	...	Madre de Dionisio
Juan Antonio Llanes	...	Cura de San Miguel
Carlos Cardán	...	Don Isabel
Loló Navarro	...	Doña Iris
Edmundo Barahona	...	Merenguero
Raymundo Gómez Cruz	...	Quitamantas
María Barber	...	Monja
Jorge Fegán	...	Juez Veedor
Alfonso Godínez	...	Amarrador
Emilio Ebergenyi	...	Padrino
José Ruvinskis	...	Padrino

Storyline

A very poor and handicaped man, lives in a small town in Mexico with his mother. He works announcing things along the town ("The priest lost his cow, if someone sees it ..."). He is very interested in the cock fightigs. One day a man gives him a looser cock, thinking to give him something to eat, but instead he takes care of the animal and it becomes a winner cock. He begins to win some money. La Caponera, a very good looking singer, erlier avoided him but now she uses her coquetry to gain some drinks. He thinks she is his talisman so she marries her when he becomes rich, taking her apart from the show-bizz, so she begins to feel very unhappy.

---

Plot Keywords:

peasant | cockfight | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Country:

Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

28 November 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Realm of Fortune

Filming Locations:

Tlaxcala, Mexico

Company Credits

Production Co:

Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE)

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of El gallo de oro (1981)

User Reviews

Read the original

In only a few cases a movie es able to surpass the book it is based on. This, is definitely NOT the case. The book, originally written by Rulfo is very close to his most famous stories from "El llano en llamas". His stories are paintings of sorts which show a part of the old rural México. People enthralled in traditions, poor people, people of the land, yet not less complex than any urban sophisticated character. His characters were motivated by the love of the land, and haunted by the demons of their choices and mistakes. In the book she is shown as a woman who fears monotony and anonymity in her lifetime. He believes that all happiness and thus all sense of meaning resides in pleasing his wife. They are driven by culture, by tradition, by the land... and in the end losing whatever material things they have in life means nothing after having lost themselves, and hope. Yet somehow, Ripstein simplifies all of this: she has to be driven by pure greed, he's just a macho compulsive gambler. It's about sex, and greed and profits. They turn out to be vulgar, and nothing could be further from what the great Rulfo wrote. In his search for realism, Ripstein makes life look like a sad succession of trivial events: eat, drink, f**k, f**k up and die. Stay away from Ripsteins movies... they all turn out to be the same.