Arturo Ripstein y Rosen (born December 13, 1943) is a Mexican film director and screenwriter. Considered the "Godfather of independent Mexican cinema", Ripstein's work is generally characterized by "somber, slow-paced, macabre melodramas tackling existential loneliness", often with a grotesque-like edge.[1]
Ripstein was born in Mexico City on 13 December 1943, to producer Alfredo Ripstein[2] and Frida Rosen. He is of Polish Jewish descent. He developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age due to his family's proximity, and made short films as a teenager. He met Luis Buñuel after seeing Nazarín, and they developed a close mentor-student relationship that lasted until Bunuel's death.
Some of Ripstein's films, especially the earlier ones, "highlighted characters beset by futile compulsions to escape [their] destinies".[5] Many of his films are shot in tawdry interiors, with bleak brown color schemes, and seedy pathetic characters who manage to achieve a hint of pathos and dignity. Así es la vida, according to Jonathan Crow, "boldly reworks the ancient Greek drama Medea, employing a dizzying array of flashbacks and Brechtian devices".[6]Deep Crimson, according to the New York Times,[7] is "a ferociously anti-romantic portrait of an obese nurse and a seedy small-time gigolo whose bungling scheme to swindle a succession of lonely women out of their life savings turns into a killing spree."
Ripstein is married to screenwriter Paz Alicia Garciadiego, with whom he has two children. In 2003, the two received honorary Spanish citizenship.[citation needed]
