Screening, Dos Monjes (1934)

This vividly stylized, broodingly intense early Mexican sound melodrama by Juan Bustillo Oro hinges on an audacious flashback structure. When an ailing monk recognizes a new brother at his cloister, he becomes deranged and attacks him. Dos monjes recounts the men’s tragic shared past once from the point of view of each, heightening the contrasts between the two accounts with visual flourishes drawn from the language of German expressionism, including camera work by avant-garde photographer Agustín Jiménez.

This film will be introduced by Paula Halperin, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and History and Director, School of Film and Media Studies at SUNY Purchase College.