The names Ismael Rodríguez and Gabriel Figueroa are certainly well known to the San Francisco Festival and the International cinema world. In 1961, Animas Trujano, the Mexican entry directed by Rodríguez, won the Golden Gate Award for the Best Picture. Gabriel Figueroa, the director of photography, was presented the special Jury Prize for Photography in 1961. He is a many-time prizewinner in the principal film festivals and is considered by many as being the finest cameraman in the world. They are together again in this year’s Mexican offering, The Paper Man, a touching story set in contemporary Mexico City. Told with much humor and insight, it dwells on the loneliness of a mute—a paper-picker who finds that he doesn’t need to buy his way out of a lonely world. In fact, a windfall of a 10,000 peso note only serves to disillusion him about the real value of money. The Film Festival is proud to announce that for the first time four previous Golden Gate Award winners will be appearing in the same film—The Paper Man. Ignacio Lopez Tarso, who won the Best Actor Award for Macario, the 1960 Mexican entry, plays the mute paper man. He is supported by Noe Murayama, who won the 1962 Best Supporting Actor Award for Tlayucan. Alida Valli, an Italian actress, introduces herself in the Mexican cinematography with her role as the prostitute in this most simple and strange story. —San Francisco Film Festival
Ismael Rodríguez (October 19, 1917 – August 7, 2004) was an acclaimed Mexican film director. Rodríguez directed many major stars, including Pedro Infante, Dolores del Río, María Félix, and even Toshirō Mifune, the favorite actor of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, as a Mexican Indian in the film Ánimas Trujano (1961). This film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Rodríguez’s most renowned international film is Tizoc, Pedro Infante’s last movie, starring alongside María Félix. For this role, Infante won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. —Wikipedia
Following the vein of Italian Neorealism, this film follows the story of a poor mute man whose only wish in life is to have a son. Needless to say but, when he finally has the means to raise a child, the whole world conspires against him. This is tragedy in it's purest form. An excellente, heart-warming film, with an impeccable performance by one of Mexico's greatest: Ignacio López Tarso (nevermind the soap operas)
