The Golden era of Mexican cinema was in the 40s and perhaps the first half of the 50s. Enamorada is a movie that synthesizes very well the spirit of the time by means of the stars that gave Mexican cinema recognition in Spanish speaking countries.

The cast and crew could have not been more impressive: Pedro Armendariz as a revolutionary general with strong religious and moral convictions and a good eye for  the ladies, Maria Felix, the love interest, in all her 20something glory, just before becoming a cinematic icon, directing Emilio "El Indio" Fernandez, who directed many of the most emblematic Mexican movies (and who was a real character, he ended in jail for a while for shooting a man) and cinematography by one of the best accomplished cinematographers in the history of cinema, full stop, Gabriel Figueroa.

The plot is simple enough, the general arrives with his troops to town, falls in love with the prettiest and richest girl in town, who abandons everything to follow the man that has robbed her heart (amidst the cannon explosions in the battlefield). This is all shot with the wonderful background of the town of Cholula, known for its many churches, several of them quite impressive. Pure golden nostalgia.

This neatly brings me to "Closing the ring", which is a nostalgic film as well. Mr Attenborough packs together a nostalgic film where the US bomber pilots are all good country guys, the girl all of them love is pure and hot, and even Belfast's troubles in the 90s have a certain nostalgic air, but that may be me stretching it a bit too far, heck, the IRA guys felt almost honourable.

Spoilers now.

The plot revolves around a group of friends that have to go to the war, all of them are in love with the same girl but only one gets the top prize, unfortunately fate had other plans for all of them.

Fast forward 40 years and a Belfast boy finds a ring while helping an old man to dig stuff in the outskirts of Belfast.

Suffice to say that everybody lives happily ever after.

Mr Attenborough was present and gave a masterclass  of what is to love cinema, of humilty recognizing his limitations ("I am not an auteur" repeated apologetically several times) and of endurance if one keeps in mind the tragedy he has endured and his generosity of spirit.

End of spoilers (how do I obscure this???)

The movie does not brake any new ground, will not pass to history as a great movie, but will keep you entertained and perhaps make you shed the odd tear, or make you laugh, which is a good great deal what going to the movies is all about (Mr Attenborough begged us to watch more movies in the cinema and less DVDs so we can appreciate the performances. He has got a point, but on this era of CGI and special effects, he may be missing one).

Finally I watched tonight in all its 2 hours 30 minutes of glory the Nigerian movie "Irapada" (Redemption). To say it is bad is an understatement. Bad sound, bad cuts, grainy image (the first thing the director did was to apologize for not having had a chance to transfer to HDDV), lousy acting, plot all over the place (a Mexican telenovela makes more sense), and to top it all it lasts a back achingly 2:30.

But you know what? The guy that made the movie deserves a prize for perseverance. He directs, produces, acts and who knows how many more credits gets. His idea is flawed but noble (to present a movie encomphazing all the country, breaking barriers) and continues a tradition of Nigerian cheap cinema ( the industry is affectionately known as Nollywood  I believe, where what matters is to keep the movies coming, forget about the production values for later). He manages several laughs (many of them involuntary I have to say) one or two poetic moments and certainly one learns lots about Nigeria, so kudos for that, but for bunnies sakes, brevity was mandated here.

Website here if you are curious: http://www.irapadamovie.com.

There was a short before the movie that was quite impressive (Area boys, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbK4tMhAMRE ) by another Nigerian film maker but who clearly knows what he is doing. Crisp, fast paced, funny.