5 Must-See, Crime & Passion-Filled Noir Films at MoMA’s Mexico at Midnight Series

Even if you haven’t caught any film noir classics, you’ve probably seen a thousand parodies of the fedora-donning hardboiled detective, the seductive femme fatale, the smokey exteriors, and the high contrast black-and-white cinematography that define the genre. It’s one of those enduring American film traditions that has come to be part of our collective consciousness, with modern masters like the Coen Brothers and David Fincher still drawing from the genre’s unmistakable visual and narrative cues.

At its peak, film noir was the dark underbelly of Leave it to Beaver post-war America, where corruption, pessimism, and moral ambiguity were the order of the day. But if you ask most film historians, or even take a quick glance at Wikipedia, you’ll learn that film noir also found fertile ground outside the United States in countries like France, England, Italy, and even Japan. Yet for some reason, everyone forgets about Mexico.

Until now, that is. While the Golden Age of Mexican cinema may forever be associated with rumberas, Cantinflas, and Pancho Villa, directors like Roberto Gavaldón and Julio Bracho were using Mexico’s world-class star system during the 40s and 50s to make dark noirs full of crime, passion, and betrayal. And this month New York’s Museum of Modern Art has finally given these films their comeuppance with Mexico at Midnight, a comprehensive program that will undoubtedly put Mexican film noir on the map once and for all.

Thanks to support from the Fundación Televisa and the Filmoteca of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the program will feature seven films that exemplify the country’s racy and bold take on one of the world’s most beloved film genres. You would be well advised not to miss it.

Here are a few titles you should be sure to check out.

Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir from Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age runs July 23 – 29, 2015.