Erotic torments and class conflicts come to a head in Julio Bracho’s formally daring masterpiece, one of the most important Mexican melodramas of the decade.
1954’s Llévame en tus Brazos (Take me in your Arms)follows a fisherman’s daughter (Ninón Sevilla) through a nightmare of exploitation and misery. Bracho and esteemed cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (Los Olvidados, The Night of the Iguana) bring exquisite atmospherics to each shot with carefully calibrated lighting and meticulous compositions. But the film equally belongs to Sevilla, whose unforgettable performance elevates this rapturous portrait of agitated desire into something far more complicated and ahead of its time.
