The Secret Formula

Story

Surreal and anarchic, a furious delirium of images: a chain of sausages roams the land throttling people, Coca Cola is injected intravenously, farmers stand stiffly in an empty landscape. The film confronts national myths and economic colonialism – a spectacular statement against the Mexican film industry in the 1960s and the melodrama genre that dominated it. The Secret Formula: a formula against the mainstream and the simpering of sympathy cinema. In the “first competition for experimental film” organized by the cinematic trade union in 1965, the film won in almost every category.

Director

Rubén Gamez (*1928; †2002) was aphotographer in advertising and an active trade union member, who from the1950s onwards revolutionized the aesthetics of Mexican advertising with his commercials and trailers. The Secret Formula is seen as a turning point in Mexican film history.