Cuarón, Alfonso

Film director, screenwriter, and film producer

B ornAlfonso Cuarón Orozco, November 28, 1961, in Mexico City, Mexico; son of Alfredo Cuarón (a cardiologist); married Mariana Elizondo (an actress), 1980-93 (divorced); married Annalisa Bu-gliani, 2001; children: three. Education: Attended the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematograficos.

Addresses: Contact—Cha Cha Cha, c/o Universal Pictures, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal Studios, CA 91608. Home—London and Italy.

Career

D irector of films, including: Cuarteto para el fin del tiempo (also writer), 1983; Sólo con tu pareja (also writer and producer), 1991; A Little Princess, 1995; Great Expectations, 1998; Y tu mamá también (also writer and producer), 2001; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004; Children of Men (also writer), 2006; The Shock Doctrine (also writer and producer), 2007; The Possibility of Hope (also producer), 2007. Producer of films, including El La-berinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth), 2006. Director of television series, including Hora Marcada, 1988-90; and Fallen Angels, 1993.

Awards: Silver Ariel Award for best original story, for Sólo con tu pareja, 1992; CableACE Award for best directing in a drama series, for the “Murder, Obliquely” episode of Fallen Angels, 1993; Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s New Generation Award, for A Little Princess, 1995; Jury Award for best foreign language film, Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, for Y tu mamá también, 2001; FIPRESCI Prize, Havana Film Festival, for Y tu mamá también, 2001; Premios ACE Award for best director-cinema, for Y tu mamá también, 2001; best screenplay, Venice Film Festival, for Y tu mamá tam-bién, 2001; Luminaria Award for best Latino film, Santa Fe Film Festival, for Y tu mamá también, 2001; MTV north feed favorite film, MTV Movie Awards-Latin America, for Y tu mamá también, 2002; Golden Slipper Award for best youth feature film, Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth, for Y tu mamá también, 2002; Aurora Award, Tromso International Film Festival, for Y tu mamá también, 2002; Glitter Awards, Best Feature—International Gay Film Festivals and Best Feature U.S. Film Festivals, for Y tu mamá también, 2003; Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film, for Y tu mamá también, 2003; BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards) Children’s Award for best feature film, for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004; Laterna Magica Prize, Venice Film Festival, for Children of Men, 2006; best adapted screenplay and best director, Austin Film Critics Association, for Children of Men, 2007; BAFTA Film Award for best film not in the English language, for El Laberinto del fauno, or Pan’s Labyrinth, 2007; best adapted screenplay, Online Film Critics Society, for Children of Men, 2007; ShoWest Award for international achievement in filmmaking, 2007; USC Scripter Award, for Chil-dren of Men, 2007; best director, Vancouver Film Critics Circle, for Children of Men, 2007.

Sidelights

M exican-born filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón jumped into the spotlight in 2001 with a raun-chy, teen road-trip comedy, Y tu mamá también, which translates as “And Your Mother, Too.” The Spanish-language movie smashed box-office records in Mexico and racked up awards at film festivals around the globe. Cuarón received so much attention that Warner Bros. asked him to direct the third installment of the big-budget Harry Potter series— 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In 2007, Cuarón received two Academy Award nomi-nations for Children of Men, which he directed and co-wrote. Though Cuarón did not win, the nomina-tions illustrate the magnitude of his influence.

“What I admire in Alfonso is that he doesn’t play it safe, in anything,” writer-director Guillermo del Toro told the Sacramento Bee’s Dixie Reid. “This guy has a sex-road movie (Y tu mamá también), a beautiful childhood movie (A Little Princess), a fantasy movie (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and a bleak, dystopian film like Children of Men. He is reinventing himself with every movie.”

Cuarón was born on November 28, 1961, in Mexico City, Mexico. His cardiologist father, Alfredo, was employed by the United Nations. Around the time Cuarón turned 12, he received a camera and began taking snapshots. In time, he traded the still-frames for video, creating his own home movies. Obsessed with films, Cuarón spent his high school years at the local movie houses studying the films of the day. He attended the Centro Universitario de Estu-dios Cinematograficos, where he studied philosophy and filmmaking.

Cuarón’s first jobs involved Mexican television. From 1988 to 1990, he worked as a writer, cinema-tographer, and director for the Latin American soap opera Hora Marcada. He also began dabbling in the film industry, working on full-length English-language films that were being shot in Latin America. Cuarón was an assistant director for 1987’s Gaby—A Love Story and 1989’s Romero, the story of El Salvador’s outspoken archbishop Oscar Romero, as portrayed by Raul Julia.

Cuarón gained attention in his homeland for the film Sólo con tu pareja, a romantic comedy that deals with AIDS. The title translates to “Only with Your Partner,” a government safe-sex slogan. Cuarón co-wrote the screenplay with his younger brother, Carlos. The film follows the exploits of Tomas, a bed-hopping playboy, played by Daniel Gimenez Cacho, and the scorned lover who gets back at him by falsifying his medical report to make him think he has AIDS.

Sólo con tu pareja became Mexico’s highest-grossing film of 1992. Writing in the New York Times, film critic A. O. Scott was mostly positive in his review, though he noted that Cuarón failed to adeptly mix the film’s light humor with its darker underpinnings. Scott conceded, “Still it is hard not to admire the younger man’s cheeky self-confidence, and hard not to enjoy the dexterity of his camera movements and the flair with which he attempts both low comedy and high melodrama.” Sólo con tu pareja won a 1992 Ariel Award for Best Original Story; the Ariels are the most prestigious film awards given in Mexico.

After Sólo con tu pareja, Cuarón was invited to Hollywood to work on the Showtime series Fallen Angels. The series, mimicking the downbeat Hollywood crime dramas of the 1940s and ’50s, was set in post-World War II Los Angeles. Cuarón directed one 1993 episode, for which he earned a CableACE Award for best direction.

Cuarón made his U.S. film-directing debut with 1995’s A Little Princess, which won the L.A. Film Critics New Generation Award. A Little Princess tells the story of a privileged, precocious girl living in India at the turn of the 20th century. When her British army captain father goes off to fight in World War I, she is shipped off to a New York City boarding school. There, she captures the hearts of the other girls—much to the annoyance of the stern headmistress—by telling magical tales of life in India. The father ends up missing in action, leaving the girl stranded at the boarding school and forced into the role of servant to the headmistress who despises her.

Cuarón followed with 1998’s Great Expectations. In this modern adaptation of the classic Dickens novel, the orphan Pip has been replaced by an orphan painter named Finn, played by Ethan Hawke. Finn is obsessed with Estella, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. While the story received a huge makeover from the original novel—it is set in Florida and New York instead of Victorian England—Cuarón remained true to the poor-boy-pursues-wealthier-girl storyline set out by Dickens. In the end, the movie did little to boost Cuarón’s stature as an up-and coming star, though it generated some positive words. Writing in Newsweek, David Ansen said the movie, “while not a total success, produces its own share of memorably enchanted moments.”

After Great Expectations, Cuarón returned to Mexico to begin work on Y tu mamá también, which he co-wrote with his brother. This twisted, coming-of-age story features teen protagonists—Tenoch, the son of a corrupt politician, and his pal Julio, the son of a single, working-class mom. Diego Luna portrayed Tenoch and Gael Garcia Bernal played the part of Julio. With their girlfriends away on vacation, the boys set off for an elusive beach with an older woman, Luisa, played by Maribel Verdu. Luisa is married to Tenoch’s cousin and is running away because he has cheated on her.

The threesome sets out in a borrowed station wagon across Mexico’s back roads on an adventure that is ripe with heartbreaking confessions, lewd sex, drinking, and pot-smoking. While the trio’s escapades often involve hilarity, it is clear there are darker elements behind the facade, driving the later sober revelations. One of the film’s themes is the search for identity. Cuarón uses the characters’ coming-of-age stories as a metaphor for Mexico, itself. Cuarón believes Mexico, as a country, is moving from adolescence to maturity. He used the film as a vehicle for commenting on that transformation.

Two-time Oscar nominee and camera master Emmanuel Lubezki shot the film, using long, unbroken takes. Lubezki has shot all of Cuarón’s films. Before Lubezki got behind the camera, though, Cuarón brought in Bernal and Luna and had them run through a series of improvisations. Bernal and Luna met their film companion, Verdu, only once before the cameras rolled because Cuarón wanted the actors to develop their relationships on the road, just like their characters. Using the road-trip technique to tell the characters’ stories allowed Cuarón to tell stories about Mexico as well. The station wagon drives past military checkpoints and shanty towns, quietly revealing the poor peasants the Mexican economy has left behind.

Cuarón had trouble getting Y tu mamá también released in Mexico. The government gave the film a rating that allowed only those over 18 to see it, though neighboring nations set lower age limits. When officials refused to give Cuarón a definition for the rating, he sued because he believed the rating had more to do with censorship than content. “They were shocked, because nobody has ever complained to them,” Cuarón told New York Times writer Karen Durbin, noting that officials harassed moviegoers. “For the first time ever they sent inspectors to the theaters. It was amazing. They would demand ID’s from everyone, even people in their 30’s and 40’s. And if you could not show proof of your age, you couldn’t go in.”

The government’s attempt to limit moviegoers back-fired as crowds gathered to watch the controversial film. Many sex educators and parent associations came out in favor of the movie, saying teens should be allowed to see it to facilitate a dialogue about sex and drugs. One group of high school students gained admittance by threatening to take off their clothes outside the movie theater if they were not allowed inside. Y tu mamá también was released in the United States without a rating and received countless awards, including a best screenplay award at the 2001 Venice Film Festival.

With the success of Y tu mamá también, Cuarón became a hot property. As a result, he was asked to direct 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Chris Columbus had directed the first two Potter films but declined the third. Cuarón was shocked by the invitation. “I was a little surprised at the beginning, a little suspicious about the whole thing,” he told Cinema Confidential. “I knew that there was a movie and the huge success of Harry Potter but I never read the books and I hadn’t seen the films. So when I read the script, immediately I wanted to read the book and when I read the book, I said I had to do this movie. It’s just the material. The material is so great.”

On first glance, Cuarón seemed an unlikely candidate to direct a Potter film, given the adult material he explored in his previous films. However, Warner Bros. was looking for someone to delve into the darker sides of Harry’s journey into puberty. The third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, is much darker than its predecessors. The characters are older. Harry is 13, on the brink of adolescence and wrestling with inner turmoil and confusion. The book also introduces darker, spine-chilling characters—such as the evil Dementors who have the ability to suck people’s souls from their bodies.

Like Y tu mamá también, Cuarón said Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is a movie about identity. Speaking to the New York Times’ Sarah Lyall, Cuarón described the film this way: “It’s about a kid trying to come to terms with being a teenager, with being 13 and having an awareness of things. It’s the moment when you realize that the monster is not under the bed or in the closet, but inside you—and the only weapon to fight that monster also resides inside you.”

Cuarón shifted the focus of the movie from special effects to the characters. Before filming began, Cuarón required the main actors—Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter, Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger, and Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley—to write autobiographical essays from their character’s point of view. In 2004, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban grossed $795.5 million worldwide, placing second to Shrek 2.

Cuarón followed with 2006’s Children of Men, a science-fiction flick based loosely on a novel by P. D. James. Cuarón co-wrote the screenplay and directed. Set in England in 2027, the film offers a bleak perspective of the future. Mass infertility has spread around the globe, leaving humanity on the brink of extinction. The world’s youngest person, 18, is killed by a mob for refusing to sign an autograph and all hope seems lost. Terrorism runs rampant; many nations have collapsed. Immigrants seek refuge in England because the government is still functioning, but officials lock them up in cages alongside the streets. Amid the despair and warring factions, there is a glimmer of hope when a young African refugee turns up pregnant. A disillusioned bureaucrat, Theo Faron, played by Clive Owen, is given the task of finding a safe haven for the woman to ensure the baby is born.

The film is unique in that Cuarón used many lengthy, sustained shots with few close-ups. He wanted the dystopian environment to be one of the film’s characters and felt that close-ups would favor the actors over the environment. In addition, Cuarón offers viewers minimal explanations for what is happening. As Cuarón told Combustible Celluloid’s Jeffrey M. Anderson: “I cannot stand explanation in movies. I cannot stand exposition. I prefer participation. You set up a situation and audiences have to make their own conclusions. I was not interested in explaining infertility, because if you start explaining, it becomes about that.”

Cuarón went on to say that he believes too many directors are hand-feeding moviegoers. “Cinema has become a medium that you can watch with your eyes closed. You go to a movie theater, you close your eyes and you follow the whole thing. They tell you what they are doing, and you hear dialogue. It is losing its meaning as cinema, a cinema that has its own language.” Cuarón hopes viewers do not understand everything in his films so they go home and think about them.

As for the future, it is safe to say Cuarón will be making pictures for years to come. In 2007, he joined forces with two other Mexican directors—del Toro and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu—to form a production label, Cha Cha Cha. The trio inked a five-picture package worth $100 million with Universal Pictures. Universal will fully finance the films and share ownership with the directors. Cuarón is slated to direct one of the five features.

Sources

Periodicals

Daily News of Los Angeles, March 14, 2002, p. U4.

Hollywood Reporter, March 12, 2007, p. 28.

Latino Leaders, September-October 2007, p. 24.

Newsweek, February 2, 1998, p. 61.

New York Times, March 17, 2002, p. AR17; May 9, 2004, p. 4 (Arts & Leisure); September 20, 2006, p. E5. Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL), June 6, 2004.

Sacramento Bee, December 31, 2006, p. TK8.

San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2002, p. 27 (Sunday Datebook).

Online

“Interview: Children of Men Director Alfonso Cuarón,” Cinematical,http://www.cinematical.com/2006/12/25/interview-children-ofmen-director-alfonso-cuaron/ (October 5, 2007).

“Interview: Director Alfonso Cuarón on Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban,” Cinema Confidential,http://www.cinecon.com/news.php?id=0406011 (October 5, 2007).

“Interview with Alfonso Cuarón,” Combustible Cellu-loid,http://www.combustiblecelluloid.com/interviews/alfonsocuaron/shtml (October 5, 2007).

“Mexico’s 3 Amigos do the Cha Cha Cha with Universal,” Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN21274537.tif20070521.tif (November 11, 2007).

—Lisa Frick