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Article: The Sins of the Fathers; In 'Padre Amaro,' Melodrama Collides With All-Too-Real Life
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- November 29, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Carlos Carrera's "El Crimen del Padre Amaro" opened in Mexico
recently and quickly became the most successful indigenous film ever
in that country. Carrera and screenwriter Vincente Lenero most likely
would attribute that success -- as well as a promising early run in
U.S. art houses -- to the film's bold confrontation of political
issues within the Catholic church.
Fans of "El Crimen del Padre Amaro" ("The Crime of Father Amaro")
have probably been more interested in luxuriating in its melodrama,
so tawdry as to hark back to the "women's pictures" of the 1940s.
Those films, like this one, often couched subversive social
commentary within soapy plots and tragic characters. Formally ...