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“PEDRO PARAMO”: THE FINEST ADAPTATION?

by Alfredo Galindo

Since the first time it was published in 1955, Pdero Paramo, the first novel of Mexican writer Juan Rulfo was considered by many the best Mexican novel of the 20th Century.

About the Book

Mixing the context of the real post-Revolutionary Mexico with symbolic and allegorical elements of the magic realism, the novel made way for the movement known later on as “the literary Latin American Boom”, “Pedro Páramo” tells two stories in one: in the beginning it follows a young man, Juan Preciado, who arrives in a literal ghost town called Comala in search of his father, Pedro Páramo, and from then on we follow the story of a young Páramo, a landowner who got corrupted and lost the ideals of the Mexican Revolution of the beginning of the century.

End of an Era

Unfortunately, just when the novel became an instant best seller, the Mexican Golden Age of Cinema was ending: many consider 1958 the official year of this ending with the release of the revolutionary epic “La Cucaracha”, a film directed by one of its most successful filmmakers, Ismael Rodriguez, and the only one having in the top bill the two box office queens of this era: Dolores del Río and María Félix, embraced by two of the male icons at the time: Pedro Armendariz and Emilio “Indio” Fernandez.

Pedro Paramo’s First Film Adaptation

The ranchero genre got wasted but even Ismael Rodriguez couldn’t muster a box office hit with a neo-western like “Hermanos del Hierro” (1961.) Rodriguez trying a new narrative on aesthetics even with “El Indio” presence as a guest star, so it was even harder to have a producer interested with filming such a unusual narrative like “Pedro Páramo.” Manuel Barbachano Ponce, one of the supporters of Luis Buñuel art house gems like “Nazarín” (1958) got in the game and brought to life for the first time the novel for the big screen in 1967 with Spanish director Carlos Velo and instead of having a Mexican actor like Ignacio López Tarso (“Nazarín”; “Macario”), who was relegated to a supporting role opposite American born John Gavin.

Sure to be a smash hit around the world in the time, Barbachano´s betted on Gavin to play Pedro Páramo , whose previous credits were Alfred Hitchock “Psycho” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus.” Alas the great technical look of the best cinematographer of the Mexican Golden Age, Gabriel Figueroa, did not make the film a success in its native Mexico.

The Second Adaptation

A decade later, a second adaptation of “Pedro Páramo” known as “El hombre de la media luna” had for the first time a Mexican director (José Bolaños) and a Mexican actor like Manule Ojeda (“Romancing the Stone”) playing Pedro Páramo, but the inclusion of other foreign faces as Italian actress Venetia Vianello (the director´s girlfriend at the time) playing the female lead of Susana San Juan was not well received.

Italian actress Venetia Vianello played the female lead of Susana San Juan was not well received.

Not even the always uplifting music of Italian master Ennio Morricone on his only music contribution for a Mexican film in all his filmography, could save the film from another disappointment.

Pedro Paramo’s latest Remake

Entering the new millenium, and the vision of one of the best Mexican cinematographers of his generation, Rodrigo Prieto (from Alejandro G. Iñárritu´s “Amores Perros” to the latest Martin Scorsese films) chose “Pedro Páramo” for his directorial film debut which was just announced will have its world premiere in the next edition of the Toronto Film Festival. The big gamble now is that canceled Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) will be back to the spotlight as Juan Preciado.

Mexican actor Manuel García Rulfo, better known for the recent “Lincoln Lawyer,” is set to play Pedro Paramo.

The big role of “Pedro Páramo” was embraced by Mexican actor Manuel García Rulfo, better known for the recent “Lincoln Lawyer” series for Netflix and a family member of Juan Rulfo, the novel’s author, also from Jalisco, Mexico. This makes Rodrigo Prieto´s “Pedro Páramo” not only one of the much anticipated films of the upcoming awards season … but Mexican film history.