NIGHT FALLS (1951): URBAN NIGHTTIME AND MEXICAN MODERNITY

Abstract

Night is essential in the configuration of modern cities. This article explores how the night shapes urban imaginaries and problematizes the relationships between darkness, the city, and the subjects in the context of modernity in Mexico by resorting to the film Night Falls (1951) by Mexican director Roberto Gavaldon. In this article, two spaces related to the urban night are defined, which are aesthetically built on film noir. Finally, it is proposed that cinema contributes to characterize the physical world of the night with the help of certain spatialities and the actions of the characters that intervene in them.