Chapter 2 - Movement, Performance, and Gesture: the Arch of the Brow and the Slap

Summary

Félix Moves a lot. There are few pauses in her performance style. The moves are not involuntary or twitchy, but are deliberate and often fluid indicating intentionality. In addition to her body in motion, there are also a lot of cuts in the edits of her films. This is most likely a conse-quence of filmmaking practices in Mexico during the Golden Age. Shooting times were short, there were few re-takes, and set ups were quick and efficient. The rapid turnover and streamlined approach to filmmaking at this time are a fundamental reason why the Golden Age is often referred to as ‘cine industrial’ [industrial cinema]. This required the performers to respond to these conditions. They had to be able to find their mark promptly, collaborate well with co-stars, crew, and directors, and step into new roles with little preparation. Félix had an ability to work in these conditions, respond to her co-stars’ performance styles, and still managed to imbue her characters with a sense of agency that challenged gender norms. This chapter will consider Félix's performative style by focusing on her movements including her expansive and signature gestures and her micro-gestures that are indicative of the constraints of the industry but also of an approach to acting that is under-theorised and, consequently, under-appreciated.

Gender, Camp, and Performance

Félix did not conform to conventional ideas about womanhood in Mexico. Just as her roles ranged across a spectrum so too did her gender performances. Underpinning my analysis is queer theory's challenges to fixed ideas about the link between biological sex and how a body should be read or behave, and supposes that gender is learnt, culturally determined, and performed. Sometimes, Félix's performances venture into the terrain of drag. She drew on a rich repertoire of gendered movement and attire that were opportunities to challenge prescribed ways of being a woman in what was a conservative period of Mexican history. Her use of conventional ‘male’ and ‘female’ gestures and movements ‘disrupt gender categories’ and serve as examples of how the ‘performance of gender mocks the fixed expectations of the male/female binary’.