CULTURAL AND NARRATIVE DIMENSIONS OF LATIN AMERICAN CRIME FILMS OF THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract

The relationship between the early cinema and everyday life is expressed, in part, an important record of the early decades of cinematography: films related to crimes. Many of recurring events of the crime pages of newspapers were translated into cinematic narrative, supported by a spectacularized imaginary of these crimes among the general public. These films, recurrent in our cinematographies, combined documentary aspects with fictional patterns of narration. In this article, we will make reference to famous crimes in the Brazilian and Mexican societies of the early twentieth century, pointing out how these texts related to the world of crime reveal social characteristics that define certain behaviors observed in Latin American societies, especially regarding the relationship between city , cinema and fait-divers.