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Alfonso Cuarón talks about the influence of movies on his career at the Sodankylä film festival.
Cuaron’s breakthrough film Ja maimääs kans tells about the adventure of two late teenagers from Mexico City to the paradise shores of the Atlantic.
According to the director, the political background story is the lifeblood of his films.
Cuarón’s next script and directorial work is coming to the world premiere in the fall.
Finally the time was right. The Mexican director who stood at the top of cinema for more than two decades Alfonso Cuaron happily peels an orange next to the Sodankylä film festival – a party that he has wanted to attend for a long time.
Posted by the four-time Oscar winner Sandra Bullockin into space, Emma Watson’s back in time and brought his childhood Mexico City to life.
Still, the idea goes back to the time before the breakthrough, before the comedy about the lust of young men And your mother too (2001).
Cuarón had already tried his hand at American productions in the 1990s, but had lost his way.
“My love for cinema faded. I was unhappy. Like I’m losing my soul. I felt like I was doing something I wasn’t meant to do. I was living in New York at the time, and I went to a VHS rental store to rent 30 movies.”
The maximum number was announced as five, but in the end Cuarón got the renter to convert and take the films with him.
“First I looked Vittorio De Sican Bicycle thief. It made me fall in love with film at the age of seven and now rethink what film is about.”
Then by Robert Bresson Balthazar (1966), then Andrei Tarkovskin Mirror (1975), then Jean-Luc Godardin Live your life (1962).
“Then Godard Male Femaleof which And your mother too took shape,” says Cuarón.
And mother came out in 2001.
Cuaron was almost forty when he wrote his breakthrough film, but the ardor of youth feels endearingly real.
Directorial debut Only with your partner (1991) is a comedy about a female magnet who thinks she has AIDS. And your mother too starts with a sex scene without music. Later in the movie Gael García Bernalin and Diego Lunan characters masturbate on diving boards next to the pool.
In the end, it’s about everything but sex. And your mother too tells about the joint adventure of two late teenagers (Bernal and Luna) and a Spanish girl looking for the adventure of a lifetime from Cuarón’s hometown Mexico City to the paradise shores of the Atlantic.
“The initial idea was to make the kind of film we would have wanted to make before we went to film school. The characters are based on real life. We wanted to portray Mexican inequality, especially the contrast between the different middle classes. The film’s characters live in a bubble, in a country whose inhabitants are strangers to them.”
A breakthrough after, the state grant flows stopped, and the director felt it necessary to move again across the border to big Hollywood.
Cuarón’s directorial debut on the US side, Sons of man (2006), is an exceptional Hollywood film for its time, starring Clive Owen and dystopian London. There’s a lot going on in the background of the picture all the time.
“In Hollywood, they often try so hard to explain the story that you can watch the movie blindfolded and still stay on track. I got the actors of my dreams in the film. Owen quickly understood that he is being used in the film as a tool to show the world bursting around him.”
Cuarón and director friend Alice Rohrwacher hugged at the end of the interviews.
Political background story is the lifeblood of Cuarón’s films. An exception in the later production will be the number one favorite of many Potterists Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) as well as a big budget space drama Gravity (2013).
After Gravity, Cuarón returned to his roots in his hometown of Mexico City, in the Roma district. A critically acclaimed film about class differences and family was born Roma (2018).
“My career is full of decisions dictated by necessity. Mexico City, where I grew up, was of course very different. I am happy that the new generations get to live in the vibrant city that Mexico City is becoming.”
Cuarón’s next script and directorial work will have its world premiere in the fall. The man seems enthusiastic and happy, so he probably got a familiar political level embedded in the seven-hour series.
Roma won three Oscar statues at the 2019 gala. Cuarón won the award for best director at the time.
Sodankylän film festivals make Cuarón smile. He is one of the most respected creators of contemporary cinema, but in the interview it becomes clear that the man is first and foremost a film fan.
“This is a rare film festival in the sense that the film is in the lead role. Often in similar events, people from the industry rotate with each other, instead of films, the focus is on the red carpet and glamour,” says Cuarón.
The director maestro has not directed anything for this party, but he has produced a friend he admires Alice Rohrwacher Pupils– a short film.
Several of Cuarón’s own films are shown. He doesn’t look at them.
“I haven’t watched a single one of my own films since making them. Yesterday I surprised myself by watching the end credits And your mother too – after the show. In the end credits, it plays Frank Zappawhich I do admire, so the moment was quite enjoyable.”