Su Excelencia

Su excelencia

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Miguel M. Delgado
Produced by Jacques Gelman
Screenplay by Carlos León
Story by Marco A. Almazán
Cantinflas
Starring Cantinflas
Sonia Infante
Guillermo Zetina
Music by Sergio Guerrero
Cinematography Rosalío Solano
Edited by Jorge Bustos
Production
company
Posa Films
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • May 3, 1967 (1967-05-03) (Mexico)
  • December 28, 1968 (1968-12-28) (Spain)
Running time
133 minutes
Country Mexico
Language Spanish

Su excelencia (English: Your Excellency) is a 1967 Mexican political satire film directed by Miguel M. Delgado and starring Cantinflas, Sonia Infante, and Guillermo Zetina. The film is set in a fictional dystopia where "Red" and "Green" countries are the political equivalents of the socialist and capitalist countries of the Cold War, which the film satirizes. Cantinflas portrays Lopitos, a chancellor stationed in his country's (Republica de Los Cocos) embassy in the communist country of Pepeslavia who later ascends to the role of ambassador and has to decide the pivotal vote of joining the "Reds" or the "Greens", therefore deciding the fate of one hundred nations.

Su excelencia, the fourth Cantinflas film distributed by Columbia Pictures, boasted box-office success and is among Cantinflas' most successful films.[1][2]

Plot

Lopez (known affectionately as "Lopitos" to the Ambassador's secretary), a bureaucrat from the Latin American "Republica De Los Cocos" (a play on the term "banana republic") who is stationed in the embassy of the Communist bloc country "Pepeslavia" (a play on words of Joseph Stalin, the nickname for Joseph in Spanish (José) is "Pepe", and the inflection "-slavia" of Slavic peoples under the rule of the USSR).

Lopitos, who is horribly inefficient but quick-witted, is invited (because of the current ambassador's superstition about 13 sitting down to a meal) to a banquet attended by the ambassadors of both superpowers. After the news of a series of coups d'état in Los Cocos arrives throughout the meal, Lopitos becomes the official ambassador.

At a summit of world leaders, the representatives of the two world superpowers, "Dolaronia" (a play on words of the dollar, the currency of USA) and "Pepeslavia", court the allegiances of third-world diplomats to tilt the balance of global power in their favor. The last diplomat to remain unaligned, Lopitos instead harangues the superpowers for infringing on the rights of developing countries to self determination, talking to them with his point of view as a citizen not as ambassador because he arranged his demise as ambassador one day before his speech.

Cast

References

  1. Moreno, Mario (1969). Su Excelencia. Gráficas Menhir.
  2. Hoy, Issues 363-375. Araucaria Ltda. 1984.

External links

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