Abstract
This chapter analyzes the Mexican-Brazilian coproduction Sólo Dios sabe (Carlos Bolado, 2006). By mixing allusions to Garcilaso de la Vega’s eclogues, a pre-Raphaelite painting, and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet to create an unorthodox Catholicism, this film proposes to renovate some of the key elements underpinning traditional Mexicanness that seem to have left society without stable references as a result of the neoliberal transformation of Mexico: patriarchal masculinity, the nuclear family, and religion. Through cultural and ideological syncretism, this road film becomes the template for configuring a renewed Mexican identity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Work Cited
600 millas. 2014. Dir. Gabriel Ripstein. Lucia Films, DVD.
Aldama, Frederick Luis. 2013. Mex-Ciné. Mexican filmmaking, production, and consumption in the twenty-first century. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Print.
Amor xtremo. 2006. Dir. Chava Cartas. Gussi Artecinemas, DVD.
A tiro de piedra. 2010. Dir. Sebastián Hiriart. Galopando, 2010. DVD.
Babel. 2006. Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Warner Home Video, DVD.
Bajo California. El límite del tiempo. 1998. Dir. Carlos Bolado. Imcine, DVD.
Bienvenido paisano. 2006. Dir. Rafael Villaseñor. Galactica, DVD.
Bordwell, David. 2006. The way Hollywood tells it. Story and style in modern movies. Berkeley: University of California Press. Print.
Bordwell, David. 2011. Minding movies. Observations on the art, craft and business of filmmaking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Print.
Children of Men. 2006. Dir. Adolfo Cuarón. Universal Pictures, DVD.
Cidade de Deus. 2002. Dirs. Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Globo Filmes, DVD.
Corrigan, Timothy. 1991. A cinema without walls: Movies and culture after Vietnam. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. Print.
Easy rider. 1969. Dir. Dennis Hopper. Columbia Tristar, DVD.
Haro, Humberto. 2013. Nuestra Señora del Rayo. Pregunta santoral. August 18. Web. 1 Nov 2014. http://www.preguntasantoral.es/2013/08/virgen-del-rayo/
Kiefer, Carol Salomon. 2001. The myth and madness of Ophelia. Amherst: Mead Art Museum and Amherst College. Print.
Laderman, David. 2002. Driving visions. Exploring the road movie. Austin: University of Texas Press. Print.
Martín Gaite, Carmen. 1987. Desde la ventana. Enfoque femenino de la literatura española. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe. Print.
Monsiváis, Carlos. 2008. Pedro Infante. Las leyes del querer. Mexico: Santillana. Print.
Novo, Salvador. 1992. Nueva grandeza mexicana. Ensayo sobre la ciudad de México y sus alrededores en 1946, Prólogo Carlos Monsiváis. Mexico: CONACULTA. Print.
Orgeron, Devin. 2008. Road movies from Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Print.
Oropesa, Salvador. 2008. Proxemics, homogenization and diversity in Mexico’s road movies: Por la libre (2000), Sin dejar huella (2000) and Y tu mamá también (2001). In Latin American urban cultural production, ed. David William Foster, Hispanic Issues Online 3(5): 92-112.
Por la libre. 2000. Dir. Juan Carlos de Llaca. Twentieth Century Fox, DVD.
Road to Juárez. 2013. Dir. David de León. Mousetrap Films, DVD.
Sánchez Prado, Ignacio. 2014. Screening neoliberalism: Transforming Mexican cinema, 1988–2012. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
Shakespeare, William. 1982. Hamlet, ed. Harold Jenkins. London: Methuen. Print.
Seguir viviendo. 2014. Dir. Alejandra Sánchez. Imcine, DVD.
Sin dejar huella. 2000. Dir. María Novaro. Venevisión, DVD.
Sin Nombre. 2009. Dir. Cary Fukunaga. Canana Films & Primary Productions, DVD.
Soliño, María Elena. 2010. International cooperation or neo-colonialism?: Visions of the Spanish. Tourism industry in María Novaro’s Sin dejar huella. XX Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina Hispánica—University of Texas, Austin, October 14–16, 2010.
Sólo Dios sabe. 2006. Dir. Carlos Bolado. Mex-Br.: Sincronía Films & Dezenove Som e imagens, DVD.
Vasconcelos, José. 1925. La raza cósmica. Mexico: Jaén. Print.
Vete más lejos Alicia. 2010. Dir. Elisa Miller. Cinepantera, DVD.
Viaje redondo. 2009. Dir. Gerardo Tort. Cadereyta Films. DVD.
Viento aparte. 2014. Dir. Alejandro Gerber Bicecci. Imcine, DVD.
Voy a explotar. 2008. Dir. Gerardo Naranjo. Imcine, DVD.
Y tu mamá también. 2001. Dir. Alfonso Cuarón. Mexico: Producciones Anhelo, DVD.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oropesa, S. (2016). Lonely Souls in Sólo Dios Sabe by Carlos Bolado: Pastoralism and Syncretic Spirituality in Times of Crisis. In: Garibotto, V., Pérez, J. (eds) The Latin American Road Movie. Global Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58093-1_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58093-1_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-59035-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-58093-1
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)