Bleak Street

“One of Mexico’s more rebellious filmmaking legends takes audiences on a wild, carnivalesque dive into a neighborhood where murder takes a bizarre shape.”—Variety

Even though the 73-year-old Mexican filmmaker Arturo Ripstein is one of the titans of international cinema, few of his films have been distributed in the US. The son of one of Mexico’s most prominent film producers, he grew up on the sets of Luis Buñuel films and other productions from the golden age of Mexican cinema (1936–59). Still a force to be reckoned with, Ripstein serves as the crucial link between Mexico’s studio era and the new generation of auteurs such as Carlos Reygadas and Guillermo del Toro, who both acknowledge his profound legacy.

Bleak Street, Ripstein’s 29th film, is a bizarre, ripped-from-the-headlines crime story of twin mini-luchadores who never remove their masks, the mother who adores them, and two prostitutes whose best days are long behind them. Filled with empathy and dark humor, this Buñuelian phantasmagoria of kinks, hustles, and eccentricities gives voice to people living on the margins without sentimentalizing them. (99 mins., DCP)

See Radiohead’s latest video, Daydreaming (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2016), in 35mm before this screening. The Wex is one of a limited number of venues in the country to receive a print of this much-talked-about new video.