Vicente Leñero
Birth : 1933-06-09, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Death : 2014-12-03
History
Playwright and narrator. Studied Engineering at UNAM and Journalism at Escuela Carlos Septién García. Director of Revista de Revistas; deputy director of Proceso. His plays Pueblo rechazado, Compañero, La carpa, Alicia tal vez, Pelearán diez rounds, Hace ya tanto tiempo, Señora, La noche de Hernán Cortés, La mudanza and Nadie sabe nada, among others, have been premiered. Reporter and director of Excélsior, Proceso and Revista de Revistas. Fellow of the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica de Madrid, 1956; of the CME, 1961 and 1964; and of the Guggenheim Foundation, 1967. Member of the SNCA, as creator emeritus, since 1994. Member of the Mexican Academy of Language since 2010. First and second place in the National University Short Story Contest 1958. Winner of the Biblioteca Breve Award 1963 for Los albañiles. Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Award for the best play premiered in Mexico 1979 for La mudanza. Mazatlán Literature Award 1987 for Puros cuentos. Awards for the best play of the year granted by the Agrupación de Periodistas Teatrales and El Heraldo 1988 for Nadie sabe nada. National Literature Award Juan Ruiz de Alarcón 1992 for his career as a playwright. Fernando Benítez National Cultural Journalism Award 1997. Xavier Villaurrutia Award 2000 for La inocencia de este mundo. National Prize of Sciences and Arts, in Literature and Linguistics, 2001. Salvador Toscano Medal 2008, awarded by the Cineteca Nacional, the Carmen Toscano Foundation and the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in recognition of his work as a film screenwriter. Letras de Sinaloa Award 2009. Bellas Artes Medal in 2011, for his career as a playwright. Presea Caridad Bravo Adams, awarded by SOGEM, in 2014.
Story
Carmen Altamirano was buried alive at 2 years old by her parents. 30 years later, she will have to dig up her past.
Screenplay
A married woman, who's husband leaves her alone way too many times, is seduced by a junior spoiled young man, leading her into the fullfillment of her unsatisfied needs.
Script Consultant
An intimate play evolving around three main characters: an adult woman, her mother and her female lover. Two days in their lives occur in two opposing setting, everyday life in the demanding metropolis of Santiago and a sailboat trip cruising a beautiful bay. The three character remain trapped in a claustrophobic confrontation. The film dialogs with 'Knife in the water' from the side of women, an intense character drama with many involuntary humorous scenes. The eternal, never completed quest of seeing and recognizing the other as they are or, at least, as they want to be seen.
Screenplay
Tells the story behind an assassination attempt perpetrated in 1897, by a dipsomaniac man, against the President of the Mexican Republic, General Porfirio Diaz.
Screenplay
Three young women live, suffer and enjoy themselves in Ciudad Juárez. They are alike in terms of their origin, they all come from the lower classes, however, Chuya, Cata and "La Güera" have their own environments, their own families and their own personalities. This triangular story shows some crucial moments in their lives: their first love, their first sexual encounter, their first pregnancy, their first disappointment, which take place in a reality that is sordid, but always vital.
Writer
Malboro and Cucu, the starring characters, are two brothers who split after the older one, Malboro, went to prison five years. One day he is set free, willing to return to his life. Cucu is the younger brother, who has become a boxer with possible success, if only the beater he keeps somewhere inside, didn't arise in the worst moments. The relationship between the two brothers is somehow ambiguous, there's something unclear that caused Malboro's arrest. To complete the triangle is Uncle Jesus who has been like a father to them; a retired boxer who's always thinking about his past. Sara is Malboro's great love, a woman full of shame and resented after almost leaving her whole life behind to follow Malboro, but he failed in their attempt to run away because that same night, he got arrested by Rojas. Rojas is Sara's husband, a police officer who hates Malboro and will do anything to get him out of his way...
Screenplay
Sent to Mexico to help take care of aging Father Benito, young Father Amaro faces a moral challenge when he meets a 16-year-old girl who he starts an affair with. Likewise, the girl's mother had been having an affair with Father Benito. Father Amaro must choose between a holy or sinful life.
Screenplay
A couple meet each other often in a motel room.
Thanks
A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man. Their lives are catapulted into unforeseen situations instigated by the seemingly inconsequential destiny of a dog.
Screenplay
Mexico, 1949. The fable of a janitor turned Mayor on a little town lost in the Mexican desert, who gradually realizes how far his new acquainted power and corruption can get him.
Screenplay
Heated tempers, frustrated desires and dashed hopes plague a diverse group of individuals whose lives cross paths in Mexico City. There is the bar-owner's son, Chava, who yearns to emigrate to America. A poor barber, Abel, is madly in love with the gorgeous Alma, who eventually becomes a high-class prostitute. Finally, there is Susanita, the desperate spinster who pursues many love affairs in hopes of finding a husband.
Screenplay
Diego is a young musician who lives the terrible death of his uncle to AIDS. While in his deep depresion he meets Gabriela, which brings back a smile to his face. Just when life seems more promising than ever, one beutiful night death once again took a toll on his life. It seems as though the phantoms of the past are never going to let him go.
Writer
The beautiful and popular movie star Miroslava is depressed tonight. As she prepares her suicide, her entire life is revealed on screen in a disturbing portrait of a lonely woman.
Story
When Bobby Terón decides to return to the ring after retiring as a boxer, he faces opposition from his wife. While his wife believes that Bobby is not fit to fight, his manager Hernandez assures him that the boxer will regain his prestige. Hernandez arranges a fight, only this time he is not willing to submit to an unfair decision like the one that ended his pupil's career and decides to play with the same weapons.
Writer
Between chargers, noise and improvisedly placed furniture, a couple experiences a violent marital crisis, ignoring that they are observed by many characters that will soon face them with their own demons. Inspired by a work by Vicente Leñero, Gabriel Retes orchestrates a portrait without concessions of the hell of the marriage institution and love chaos, made in video format in 1990 and completed by the filmmaker more than a decade later.
Writer
The story runs in the 1940s Mexico City. A schoolboy (Carlos) falls in love with his best friend's mother (Mariana). Carlos is impressed because this family is not like the ordinary mexican families of the time, because they have many expensive American things, although they are not rich. The drama begins when Carlos gets out of school to go to declare his love to Mariana, and is discovered by his teachers.
Writer
Public-works engineer entrusted with a big project faces problems in his home life and conflicts with a corrupt local businessman.
Author
A soap opera actor is mixed in a real drama very similar to what he represents in his work.
Writer
The arrival of Aunt Alejandra triggers a series of nightmarish events that will put the life of a family at mysterious risk.
Writer
After 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.
Screenplay
Young woman tries to discover the family secret that led to her father being murdered, and she gradually is manipulated into a lesbian relationship.
Screenplay
In this highly regarded Mexican war film, peasant Demetrio Macias leads a band of outlaws in a revolt against the Federales during the Mexican Revolution.
Novel
When a worker is found murdered on the construction side, the investigation swiftly turns from things criminal to the political circumstances surrounding the building itself. Widespread corruption and neglect by the builder himself are seen to have brought the situation about. Much of the movie is filmed using hand-held cameras, and the majority of the dialogue is in the difficult-to-understand and very slangy Spanish dialect of Mexico City's bricklayers.
Writer
Two young, millionaire couples are commemorating the birthday of one of them. Jealousy, desire and ambition will end in tragedy and a dead man - the waiter.
Adaptation
In an old monastery in Mexico, the faith of all young aspiring priests is tested by the prior using psychoanalysis. During the process, young people manifest indecision, sexual problems (such as incest or homosexuality) and lack of faith.
Theatre Play
In an old monastery in Mexico, the faith of all young aspiring priests is tested by the prior using psychoanalysis. During the process, young people manifest indecision, sexual problems (such as incest or homosexuality) and lack of faith.
Writer
A woman with a troubled past introduces lust, depravity and sex to a religious commune.
