Beauties of the Night

The horror is still visible on the face of the elderly Mexican showgirl as she recalls how one of her lovers handed his socks to her. Bemused, she asked, “Why do you give me your socks?” “To wash them,” replied the man. She didn’t make it to the nightclub that evening, she recalls. This is just one of the many striking anecdotes from an inspiring portrait of five Mexican showgirls who were big stars in the 1970s. They’re still running the show, and sometimes still wearing their makeup, feathers and glitter. Everything about the film reflects the determination of first-time director María José Cuevas to take her time (over the course of 10 years) to do full justice to the lives of these five pioneering women. Perhaps their strongest shared trait is resilience. Take for example the scene in which one of them, dressed in full regalia, places her handprint on the local Walk of Fame and then takes off her wig in front of the gathered crowd, revealing the few wispy hairs on her head that remain after chemotherapy. In , no taboo is sacred.