Manuel Michel
Directing
Biography
Manuel Michel (December 23th, 1928 – July 1st, 1983) was a Mexican film director, documentarian, screenwriter, and critic. He trained in cinema at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) and, after returning to Mexico in 1960, worked in newsreel production before directing award-winning shorts such as Un millón de niños (1961) and UNAM-produced documentaries. He directed the segment “Tarde de agosto” for the anthology feature Viento distante (Los niños) (1965) and made his only feature, Patsy, mi amor (released 1969), adapted from a story by Gabriel García Márquez and noted for introducing Ofelia Medina. In 1969 he also directed the “Yvonne” episode of Trampas de amor. From the late 1960s he focused on documentary and commissioned work—authoring, directing, and producing about 43 documentaries and more than 300 commercials—and co-founded the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, later teaching film language and screenwriting at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Known For
Written by future Nobel-prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, this is the story of Patsy, a wealthy debutante with an acute sense of living and boundless curiosity. She falls in love with an older man (Julio Alemán) whom is married and mediocre, and thus learns the hard way about unhappiness, marring her rose colored world.
Patsy My Love
Three stories: A young man disobeys his aunt by not killing a cat. An orphan boy, in love with his cousin, is fond of war novels, imagining himself as a hero. A couple of schoolboys in love wander around the city and forget the brutality of their respective homes.
Distant Wind
Love, infidelity and desire are the protagonists of three stories full of entanglements and romance.
Love Traps
A boy discovers desire and love, and that even when they are close, they can sometimes be far away.
August Afternoon
Modesta arrives in Mexico City to chase acting dreams, but a slick “producer” remakes her into “Yvonne” and tries to sell her to the wealthy, until she rebels and forces him to choose between ambition and love.
Yvonne
A large part of the town of Juchitepec, State of Mexico, has left its place of origin to seek its fortune in the city. The survivors suffer the sale of their best land for agriculture to a pantheon. Death is a constant in a place where there is barely enough food.