
Directing
Arturo Ripstein
Born
1943-12-13 (82)
Place of birth
Mexico City, Mexico
Known for
Directing
Credits
61 titles
Arturo Ripstein y Rosen (born December 13, 1943) is a Mexican film director. Ripstein got his break into movies working as an uncredited assistant director for Luis Buñuel. In 1965, he directed his first feature, Tiempo de Morir. Written by Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez, it began a tradition of making independent films written by high-profile Latin-American authors. His 1981 film Seduction was entered into the 12th Moscow International Film Festival. His 1989 film Love Lies was entered into the 16th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1997 Ripstein won the National Prize of Arts and Sciences, the second filmmaker after Buñuel to do so. Some of Ripstein's films, especially …
Known for
5.2After her experiences in Nazi Germany, actress Macarena Granada traveled to Hollywood, where she became a star. In the 1950s, the diva returns to Francoist Spain to star a Hollywood blockbuster about Queen Isabella I of Castile. (A sequel to The Girl of Your Dreams, 1998.)
The Queen of Spain
2016
7.2Family honor, greed, machismo, homophobia, and dreams collide in a small Mexican town.
The Place Without Limits
1978
6.8In Vera Cruz in the 1940s, Nacho, an Indian, waits tables at Don Lázaro's café at Hotel Ofélia. He falls for Lola, an opium-addicted, alcoholic whore who's hopelessly in love with Gardenia Wilson, a masked wrestler who slept with her once but knows she's unbalanced. Don Lázaro warns Nacho about Lola, and Nacho knows his love will be unrequited, but he'll do anything, regardless of how degrading, to be near her. Lola, for her part, can be sadistic. Republican exiles who are regulars at the café encourage Lola's desire to assassinate Franco. Nacho in turn mixes this political mirage with his fascination with the plot of "The Mikado." Where do fantasies and obsessions lead?
The Virgin of Lust
2002
6.0Surrealist master Luis Buñuel is a towering figure in the world of cinema history, directing such groundbreaking works as Un Chien Andalou, Exterminating Angels, and That Obscure Object of Desire, yet his personal life was clouded in myth and paradox. Though sexually diffident, he frequently worked in the erotic drama genre; though personally quite conservative, his films are florid, flamboyant, and utterly bizarre.
Speaking of Buñuel
2000
5.0Set in Mexico City, Mentiras Piadosas is the doomed love story of Clara and Israel. She is a health inspector and he is an herb merchant, who is obsessed with the construction of an enormous model of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. They both decide to leave their respective partners to live together, however, jealousy, blackmail and guilt will become unbreakable patterns destroying their tragic relationship
Love Lies
1989
5.7Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
No One Writes to the Colonel
1999
Film credits
2020s · 4 titles
6.9After the death of his son, Javier hopes that restoring his family's abandoned ranch will allow him and his wife Mariana, who attempted suicide, a new beginning, but his grandmother refuses.
Jugaremos en el bosque
2024
NRLegendary 1970s Mexican horror film auteur Juan F. Moctezuma II reportedly influenced the work of mega-directors Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, Sam Raimi, and more. But the last film Moctezuma made and his first in Hollywood, produced by Roger Corman, 1000 PATHS OF DEATH, was surrounded in mystery because it was shot in complete secrecy. And then he disappeared with the footage. Did his nemesis, the famous luchador Scorpion, sabotage his work yet again? Discover the truth in this fun film that delves into every level of the Mexican exploitation industry as it unfolds its obsessive tale.
Where Is Juan Moctezuma?
2025
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Recuerdo De Mi Presentación
2020
NRJavier Espada's documentary about the making of Bunuel's masterpiece "Los Olvidados".
Memoria de Los Olvidados
2025
2010s · 4 titles
5.2After her experiences in Nazi Germany, actress Macarena Granada traveled to Hollywood, where she became a star. In the 1950s, the diva returns to Francoist Spain to star a Hollywood blockbuster about Queen Isabella I of Castile. (A sequel to The Girl of Your Dreams, 1998.)
The Queen of Spain
2016
5.0Many stories happen simultaneously through Internet. In the real world, people are lonely, isolated, desperate for finding love, friendship and tenderness. They project themselves as superheroes, with infinity of friends and hypersex. They live asphyxiated in front of their machines, unable to live with the people that surround them, exasperated for finding a pinch of love in the fantasy of the net. Outside the virtual world, they do not exist.
Internet Junkie
2015
5.2"Nazarín is a Quixote of the priesthood " "Among the films I have made in Mexico, Nazarin is one that I prefer." "As inexplicable as the accidents that set it off, our imagination is a crucial privilege."
Tras Nazarin: Following Nazarin
2015
NRThis documentary explores key moments in the life of writer Juan Rulfo, with artists such as Werner Herzog and Eduardo Galeano reflecting on his work.
One Hundred Years with Juan Rulfo
2017
2000s · 2 titles
6.0Surrealist master Luis Buñuel is a towering figure in the world of cinema history, directing such groundbreaking works as Un Chien Andalou, Exterminating Angels, and That Obscure Object of Desire, yet his personal life was clouded in myth and paradox. Though sexually diffident, he frequently worked in the erotic drama genre; though personally quite conservative, his films are florid, flamboyant, and utterly bizarre.
Speaking of Buñuel
2000
No synopsis available yet.
Arturo Ripstein habla de Luis Buñuel
2002
1990s · 1 titles
1980s · 2 titles
1970s · 3 titles
4.3An erotic model has three lovers, one of them is the father of her child. Which of the three will be?
The Flight of the Stork
1979
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Adriana del Rio, actriz
1979
6.2Narration of one of the bloodiest episodes of the Mexican national history, The Tragic Ten, beginning when General Victoriano Huerta sent to kill President Francisco I. Madero, Vice President José María Pino Suárez and Senator Belisario Dominguez. The film recreates the moment of the execution at the hands of Huerta and his accomplices Bernardo Reyes, Félix Díaz and Manuel Mondragón.
Cuartelazo
1977
1960s · 5 titles
6.6Mama has four daughters in their late teens. some of them might be more interested in careers than husbands, but she's hoping she'll find a highly suitable young man for each of them. If there are any out there that meet her standards.
Los novios de mis hijas
1964
6.7Betty is visited by a strange salesman the day she is going away on a trip. He stays in the house as a series of bizarre events occur with his arrival.
Familiarities
1969
5.9When a young boy steals billiard balls from a local saloon, a stranger is charged with the crime. The local layabouts find there is no reason to hang out at the bar without being able to shoot pool, and the boy entertains thoughts of forming a gang to steal more billiard balls in hopes of making money.
There Are No Thieves in This Village
1965
8.3A group of people, including Capulina and Viruta, head towards the city by train. A heavy storm interrupts their journey and now they must take a haunted path to reach they city. (English Subtitled)
The Specter's Road
1967
6.0As a teenager and student at a convent school, young Mariana runs away with her boyfriend, provoking the wrath of her father who sends her to Switzerland for ten years.
Mariana
1968
Behind the camera
7.2Family honor, greed, machismo, homophobia, and dreams collide in a small Mexican town.
The Place Without Limits
1978
7.2Family honor, greed, machismo, homophobia, and dreams collide in a small Mexican town.
The Place Without Limits
1978
6.8In Vera Cruz in the 1940s, Nacho, an Indian, waits tables at Don Lázaro's café at Hotel Ofélia. He falls for Lola, an opium-addicted, alcoholic whore who's hopelessly in love with Gardenia Wilson, a masked wrestler who slept with her once but knows she's unbalanced. Don Lázaro warns Nacho about Lola, and Nacho knows his love will be unrequited, but he'll do anything, regardless of how degrading, to be near her. Lola, for her part, can be sadistic. Republican exiles who are regulars at the café encourage Lola's desire to assassinate Franco. Nacho in turn mixes this political mirage with his fascination with the plot of "The Mikado." Where do fantasies and obsessions lead?
The Virgin of Lust
2002
5.0Set in Mexico City, Mentiras Piadosas is the doomed love story of Clara and Israel. She is a health inspector and he is an herb merchant, who is obsessed with the construction of an enormous model of the ancient city of Tenochtitlan. They both decide to leave their respective partners to live together, however, jealousy, blackmail and guilt will become unbreakable patterns destroying their tragic relationship
Love Lies
1989
5.7Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
No One Writes to the Colonel
1999
6.8Driven by desire and desperate for self-love, Coral and Nicolás will abandon their past lives in a journey surrounded by murder.
Deep Crimson
1996
6.6Mexico City. Every day, Beatriz is insulted and humiliated by her jealous husband, but she does not flee his side because they have created a codependency and, at least for her, she would not conceive of her life any other way: by dint of feeling humiliated, she feels desired and desirable.
Devil Between the Legs
2019
7.4A disciplined and sexually driven man forces his family to stay isolated in their home in order to protect them from the “evil nature” of human beings.
Castle of Purity
1973
7.4A disciplined and sexually driven man forces his family to stay isolated in their home in order to protect them from the “evil nature” of human beings.
Castle of Purity
1973
7.7The film tells the story of the Boteros, a middle-class Mexican family struggling against poverty after their father's death. Ignacia (Egurrola) is the Boteros mother, a desperate woman who chooses to sacrifice the destiny of her three older children, in order to protect Gabriel (Laguardia) the youngest one. She believes Gabriel will climb the social structure and bring back the lost fortune to the family. But destiny has other plans for the Boteros and tragedy will overcome eventually. Based on the novel of Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz.
The Beginning and the End
1994
7.7The film tells the story of the Boteros, a middle-class Mexican family struggling against poverty after their father's death. Ignacia (Egurrola) is the Boteros mother, a desperate woman who chooses to sacrifice the destiny of her three older children, in order to protect Gabriel (Laguardia) the youngest one. She believes Gabriel will climb the social structure and bring back the lost fortune to the family. But destiny has other plans for the Boteros and tragedy will overcome eventually. Based on the novel of Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz.
The Beginning and the End
1994
7.5The arrival of Aunt Alejandra triggers a series of nightmarish events that will put the life of a family at mysterious risk.
Aunt Alejandra
1980
6.8After being released from jail, "Tarzan" Lira seeks to rebuild his life as a bank employee. Unfortunately, it might not be as easy as he thinks.
Life Sentence
1979
6.8After being released from jail, "Tarzan" Lira seeks to rebuild his life as a bank employee. Unfortunately, it might not be as easy as he thinks.
Life Sentence
1979
5.3Poor Dionisio finds himself as recipient of the good fortune, but soon he forgets that everything that goes up also has to go down, and that in the depressing nothingness of his town it is easy to die.
The Realm of Fortune
1986
5.8The Lecumberri Penitentiary was one of the most notorious prisons in 20th-century Mexico, known for the notorious inmates who were held there and the appalling living conditions inside. This documentary records daily life in the prison shortly before its closure.
Lecumberri, the Dark Palace
1977
5.8The Lecumberri Penitentiary was one of the most notorious prisons in 20th-century Mexico, known for the notorious inmates who were held there and the appalling living conditions inside. This documentary records daily life in the prison shortly before its closure.
Lecumberri, the Dark Palace
1977
4.6In a seedy brothel, their frustrations parade: A poet who has never published, a revolutionary who came late to history, a provocative angel, a bureaucrat with delusions of a dancer, a greedy Chinese man and his timorous wife, Monica, a prostitute with low professional esteem, a group of prostitutes of dubious sensuality and, finally, a priest with a stench of holiness and another with redeeming instincts. But a stranger with the air of a princess appears, and upsets the balance of the establishment.
Crazy Carnival
2006
5.5"La Nueva Jerusalem" is a small community of believers lead by Papá Basilio and Mamá Dorita. They're waiting for the second coming of Christ, so they've abandoned the world, searching for a new spiritual life. Mamá Dorita sees in young Tomasa the signals of the chosen one. The young girl will be the new leader in "La Nueva Jerusalem".
Divine
1998
6.1A woman seeks help from one of her bigamous husband's killers to transport his corpse back to her home.
The Ruination of Men
2000
5.4After her husband leaves her for a younger woman, the helping of her caring, but cynical godmother, is not enough to prevent Julia from plotting her revenge.
Such is Life
2001
5.8Two dark-comedy stories involving blackmail, murder and love triangles in Rio de Janeiro
Dangerous Game
1967
6.0In a reinterpretation of Madame Bovary set on contemporary Mexico City, Emilia, a middle class housewife, tries to deal with the monotony of her life. One day, she loses the two things which makes everything beareable: her lover and her credit card.
The Reasons of the Heart
2011
NRHomero Olmos, a famous television publicist known as "H.O." or "The Voice of Experience," is driving along a lonely road heading to Rio de Janeiro when he meets Claudia and Luis, a newlywed couple whose car has been in an accident.
H.O.
1967
6.8Thriller directed by Arturo Ripstein.
Trail of Death
1981
6.0Perla, a prostitute and the star in a miserable cabaret in the docks, falls in love with a sailor without knowing that he is her brother. Tomasa, Perla's mother, tries to prevent this incestuous relationship at all costs, but fails to do so. Set in a sordid environment, the director makes no concessions in this tragic love affair, which is narrated from three different points of view.
Woman of the Port
1996
5.7A married couple entrusts the care of their young son to a strange clown. The film focuses on the relationship between the clown and the child, to whom he reluctantly tells stories and tries to keep entertained while waiting for his fee to be paid.
The Children's Hour
1969
5.7A married couple entrusts the care of their young son to a strange clown. The film focuses on the relationship between the clown and the child, to whom he reluctantly tells stories and tries to keep entertained while waiting for his fee to be paid.
The Children's Hour
1969
8.0Friends of Luis Buñuel discuss the director while Buñuel mixes drinks and entertains friends in his home.
The Castaway on the Street of Providence
1971
5.0The legendary life of Mexican singer Lucha Reyes is the basis of this fictionalized biography ( or as director Arturo Ripstein puts it "an imaginary biography"). Lucha Reyes was an unconventional, and sexually liberated woman, most famous for her "cancion ranchera" style singing. Her story begins in 1939, where at 33 she still lived at home with her mother, Dona Victora, the madame of a renowned Mexico City whorehouse. Lucha marries the liberal Pedro Calderon and then buys a beggar's daughter. She becomes the mother to this child, Luzma. Lucha craves lasting love like junkies crave heroin. But for her loyal daughter, she never finds it and in the end no one can help her.
The Queen of the Night
1994
6.7Deceived over and over again by the whole world, a woman does not want to give up in the face of life's adversities.
The Illegal
1979
8.0An examination of the problem of alcoholism in Mexico, focusing primarily on the underprivileged, though it also analyzes how this addiction transcends social, gender, and temporal barriers.
The Drunkard
1976
8.0An examination of the problem of alcoholism in Mexico, focusing primarily on the underprivileged, though it also analyzes how this addiction transcends social, gender, and temporal barriers.
The Drunkard
1976
6.1Two wrestlers decide to go to a hotel in order to meet two prostitutes.
Bleak Street
2015
6.0A plague is spreading through 16th century Mexico, and the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church is rooting out Jews, for they are believed to be its cause. At his father's funeral, a monk observes his family practicing Jewish burial rite, and he reports them, leading to devastating consequences for the whole family.
The Holy Inquisition
1974
6.0A plague is spreading through 16th century Mexico, and the Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church is rooting out Jews, for they are believed to be its cause. At his father's funeral, a monk observes his family practicing Jewish burial rite, and he reports them, leading to devastating consequences for the whole family.
The Holy Inquisition
1974
7.0No synopsis available yet.
Exorcismos
1970
4.8A Romanian aristocrat retreats to a desert isle with his wife and servants on the eve of World War II.
Foxtrot
1976
4.8A Romanian aristocrat retreats to a desert isle with his wife and servants on the eve of World War II.
Foxtrot
1976
5.5A gunfighter is appointed sheriff of a town that is terrorized by a gang of criminals.
Cinco mil dolares de recompensa
1974


