Notes on a Monstrous City: El milusos and the Megalopolis

Abstract

This article is an attempt to understand the social and cultural dimensions of architecture and the city as seen in film. An analysis of the film El milusos (Roberto G. Rivera, 1981) allows us to approach the spatial complexity of Mexico City, which, over the past four decades, has seen uncontrolled urban sprawl. By considering urban film as a tool that, rather than representing a built landscape, instead explains situations connected to socio-structural changes, this article analyzes the visual construction of the megacity in the film in question.