PART 1


Gabriel Figueroa is Mexico's most distinguished cinematographer to date. Internationally acclaimed for his black and white photography in films such as La Perla (1945), Maclovia (1948) and Enamorada (1948), his compositions in these films draw heavily on the aesthetic of the muralist movement —foreshortening, chiaroscuro, emphasized perspectives, Mexican landscapes with dense, cloud-laden skies—, and contain his unforgettable portrayals of actors such as Maria Félix, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz and Jorge Negrete which have gone down in history as part of The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. Diego Rivera used to tell him that his movies were murals in motion that possesed, moreover, an additional virtue: they were capable of travel.


Portrait by Hoyningen – Huene 1945


“Rieles” Movie Una golfa 1957 by Tulio Demicheli


Among his most note-worthy collaborations with film directors are the twenty films he shot with Emilio "el Indio" Fernández, some of which won awards in Venice, Berlin, Cannes and beyond; The Fugitive (1947), shot with John Ford, for which he won a Golden Globe; the Oscar-nominated The Night of the Iguana (1962), shot with John Huston; the seven films he shot with Luis Buñuel, among which stand out Los Olvidados (1951) and Nazarín (1958). His last film, after fifty years of uninterrupted work and two hundred and thirty five films, was Under the Volcano, which he shot with John Huston.


Roberto and Gabriel Figueroa


Gabriel Figueroa


Gabriel Figueroa


Esperanza López Mateos


Gabriel Figueroa


Recording of Cielito Lindo


Emilio Indio Fernández, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz and Gabriel Figueroa (1949)


María Félix and Figueoa


Gabriel Figueroa, Cantinflas and Negrete (CTM strike)


C. Cooper, Figueroa, Gregory Peck, John Ford and E. Fernández (1948)


Venice Film Festival (1952)


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