Landscapes of subjectivity in contemporary Mexican cinema

Abstract

This article examines the reconfiguration of masculinity in contemporary Mexican cinema, arguing that recent films are less interested in equating man and nation than in exploring male subjectivities. The article focuses on directors such as Carlos Bolado, Carlos Reygadas, Fernando Eimbcke and Julián Hernández, whose films feature male protagonists in liminal periods of their lives on the cusp of transformative possibilities. Drawing on the work of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, the analysis suggests how the films chart the becomings of male subjects through the exploration of rural and urban landscapes. Through formal experimentations with spatial and temporal markers, the films rewire the relationship between the viewer and pro-filmic events and, in the process, position the film-makers themselves as auteurs on the global art scene. While exploring such engagements with global trends, the article also insists on the films’ connections to larger socio-economic transformations that are reshaping the role of men in Mexican society.