Max Kerlow
Actor · 1928 – 2016 · Mexico City, Mexico
Prolific Mexican actor with more than 100 films in his filmography. His first intention was to be a painter. However, life would take him on other paths and his incursion into the world of the arts would be as an architect, a career he studied at the suggestion of a cousin just out of school, given his interest in painting, and from which he graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1954. Shortly after, he dedicated himself to promoting crafts with artists such as Manuel Felguérez and Felipe Ehrenberg, one of his first assistants. With Felguérez he devised a different line of ceramics and with Ehrenberg he invented a technique for painting on amate paper, which he later taught to indigenous people in the facilities of his café-gallery La Amargura, located on the street of the same name in the San Ángel neighborhood. As a painter he only mounted one exhibition, although every day he drew and made caricatures from the news in the newspapers: "One ends up with more or less possibilities of doing what one wanted, although, as Picasso said, at this age is when one has more desire to do things; I feel that one understands them better, knows better what one wants to do, but it is already too late," he acknowledges in the documentary by Carolina Kerlow. However, it would be in the acting facet in which he would stand out the most and which would give Max Kerlow the most satisfaction. He began his career in Mexican cinema in 1963 under the direction of Juan José Gurrola in Confesión de Stavroguin. A friend of directors such as Paul Leduc, Felipe Cazals and Arturo Ripstein, it was natural for him to be invited to participate in their films, although Max Kerlow assured that he always liked acting: "I was invited to parties sometimes just to tell jokes; I have my diploma as a joke teller". He was also a magician. He was even able to combine his interests: "When Miguel Littin said "we are going to Chihuahua to film Actas de Marusia (1976), I took the opportunity to bring my catalogs and sold my crafts very well". And he was not just any actor making any movie. His film performances are proof of his histrionic quality. He participated in Las Poquianchis (1976), El apando (Felipe Cazals / 1976), Fox Trot (Arturo Ripstein / 1976); Frida, naturaleza viva (Paul Leduc / 1983), where he played the role of Leon Trotsky, Cabeza de Vaca (Nicolas Echevarria / 1991); Cómodas mensualidades (Julian Pastor / 1992); Kino (Felipe Cazals / 1993); De noche vienes Esmeralda (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo / 1997); La hija del caníbal o Lucía, Lucía (Antonio Serrano / 2003), Morirse está en hebreo (Alejandro Springall / 2007); Cinco días sin Nora (Mariana Chenillo, 2008). In 1998 he won the Ariel Award for best male co-acting for his performance in Por si no te vuelvo a ver (Juan Pablo Villaseñor, 1997), debut film of the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). In the Italian film Mediterráneo (1991), directed by Gabriele Salvatores, winner of the Oscar for best foreign film, Max Kerlow had a leading role. He also participated in documentaries and commercials.
Movies24
Movie4.7ThrillerHorrorCorporate smuggling of South American killer bees into the United States results in huge swarms terrorizing the northern hemisphere. A small team of scientists work desperately to destroy the threat, but the bees soon mutate into a super-intelligent species that threatens the world.
The Bees
1978 · 48 votes
Movie5.0DramaRomanceThe legendary life of Mexican singer Lucha Reyes is the basis of this fictionalized biography ( or as director Arturo Ripstein puts it "an imaginary biography"). Lucha Reyes was an unconventional, and sexually liberated woman, most famous for her "cancion ranchera" style singing. Her story begins in 1939, where at 33 she still lived at home with her mother, Dona Victora, the madame of a renowned Mexico City whorehouse. Lucha marries the liberal Pedro Calderon and then buys a beggar's daughter. She becomes the mother to this child, Luzma. Lucha craves lasting love like junkies crave heroin. But for her loyal daughter, she never finds it and in the end no one can help her.
Movie6.8ActionDramaIn 1528, a Spanish expedition flounders off the coast of Florida with 600 lives lost. One survivor, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, roams across the American continent searching for his Spanish comrades. Instead, he discovers the Iguase, an ancient Indian tribe. Over the next eight years, Cabeza de Vaca learns their mystical and mysterious culture, becoming a healer and a leader. But soon this New World collides with the Old World as Spanish conquistadors seek to enslave the Indians, and Cabeza de Vaca must confront his own people and his past.
Cabeza de Vaca
1991 · 37 votes
Movie5.6ComedyCrimeA cop sets out to find a man who has been delivering too much of a good thing in this offbeat comedy. Police detective Martinez (Jesus Ochoa) has been handed a most unusual case -- a number of local prostitutes have been murdered, and it's up to Martinez to bring in the killer. What makes the case truly unusual, though, is the manner of death; it seems the hookers all died as a result of having orgasms so powerful they were literally fatal. Teaming up with cultural anthropologist Onofre (Daniel Giménez Cacho), Martinez hits the streets looking for clues, and eventually gets some unexpected help from Father Gorkisolo (Santiago Segura), a priest with a unusually deep knowledge of sexual matters. Asesino en Serio was the first feature film from director Antonio Urrutia; noted Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro served as executive producer.
Movie4.8DramaA Romanian aristocrat retreats to a desert isle with his wife and servants on the eve of World War II.
Foxtrot
1976 · 18 votes
Movie5.1ActionAdventureIn 1916, a group of prisoners plot their escape from the notorious fortress located in French Guiana.
I Escaped from Devil's Island
1973 · 25 votes
Movie5.6DramaHistoryChronicle of the repression that a foreign company exerts on the miners of a small nitrate town in Chile, whose workers decide to claim their most essential rights. A reflection of the historic union struggles in the northern Chile that ended with terrible repressive acts.
Movie7.7ComedyDramaA fairy tale about the political and socioeconomic realities of Mexico.
Movie6.0DramaHistoryPresident Juárez fights against the conservatives, who have ordered an emperor to be brought from France to govern Mexico
Movie5.3ComedyThe husbands of a charismatic nurse devise a plan to free her from prison when she is arrested for being a polygamist.
Movie5.7On a whim, a retired gentleman decides to track down an old girlfriend from decades back.
Luces de la noche
1998 · 3 votes
Movie6.0ComedyViva San Isidro!
1995 · 11 votes
Movie5.8ComedyA Mexican family, wanting to grant their Grandmother her last wish, embarks on a make believe trip to a small town in Italy ... in Mexico!
El Viaje de la Nonna
2008 · 5 votes
Movie5.5DramaFantasyOn an island across the sea lies a village full of romance, wonder and mystery; a timeless place where people carry strong beliefs that can fulfill the heart's deepest desires. A beautiful ...
Sea of Dreams
2006 · 11 votes
Movie6.0DramaWarA dramatization of John Reed's newspaper accounts of the Mexican Revolution. Considered the first real film in Mexican cinema to be made on the Mexican Revolution.
Movie5.6DramaComedyDolores is a mature and kind woman whose husband abandons her because he can't stand her uncanny generosity. Desperate to get her husband back, she devotes her life to works of charity, which is to go to bed with the other men of the town. Dolores, now "Lolita", becomes so famous that all men seek out her help now. It is through her compassionate sex that she brings back the colour and the happiness to a town that was immersed in sadness. Written by HoMordomo.
Movie7.1DramaComedyJose learns that Nora, the woman he was married to for 30 years and from whom divorced, has committed suicide. The rabbi explains Joseph that due to the celebrations this time of the year, if Nora is not buried that same day, they should wait at least 5 days for the funeral. Nora had planned before his death, a Machiavellian plan in order that Joseph was the one who has to take care of his funeral. But Nora forgot a small detail, a mysterious photograph stored under her bed, that will remind Joseph that the greatest love stories, sometimes are hidden in the smallest places.
Movie5.5HistoryAdventureA ship carrying Conquistadors is wrecked and the survivors are thrown ashore to struggle through the Yucatan jungle.
Movie6.6ComedyFive elderly men form a music group and run away from the nursing home where they are interns with the hope of playing for an audience. They confront th city, the nursing home authorities, the police and all those who wish to destroy their dream which finally comes true when they are contracted to serve as musical background for strippers of a second class cabaret. In case i never see you again, is a movie about life, death, melancholy and the quest for happiness.
Movie6.8DramaThrillerChildhood trauma and religious repression causes a little boy to grow up into a murderer.
Movie6.6ComedyAfter Moishe's death, family and friends sit Shiva in Mexico City. During seven days, secrets will be disclosed.
Movie6.5CrimeDramaIn Mexico City's infamous Lecumberri prison, three drug-addicted convicts celebrate getting drugs from one of their the mothers. They are found out and locked up in the "apando," the dreaded punishment cell. Protests over the treatment of those held in the cell lead to a bloody confrontation.
Movie6.7Mexican feature film
Macho y hembras
1987 · 3 votes
Movie4.8HorrorThe inmates of an insane asylum take over the institution, imprison the doctors and staff, and then put into play their own ideas of how the place should be run.