Sunday, October 6, 2013

the Directors: Alfonso Cuarón

If there was ever a career in which quality trumps quantity, then Alfonso Cuarón’s is surely it. Seven films in 15 years make up his oeuvre, yet they’re all completely different and important.

The beauty of Cuarón’s films is that although they vary drastically in subject matter, there’s no denying that an Alfonso Cuarón film is indeed just that. Much of this is thanks to Cuarón’s longtime friend and collaborator, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has shot all but one of Cuarón’s films. Their work together, matched with Cuarón’s audacious storytelling, have made for some of the finest films of recent years.

Sólo con tu pareja (1991)
The title of Cuarón’s debut feature film really says it all. Translated as A Tale of Love and Hysteria, the movie tells the story of Tomás Tomás (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a hot shit ad exec who enjoys the company of many, many women as often as possible. Tomás is Casanova without the charm, and after a while, one of his conquests grows tired of his game.

In an effort to teach Tomás a lesson, a nurse secretly changes his recent blood work to say it tests positive for AIDS. Naturally, the news sends Tomás into a panic, which includes serious thoughts of suicide.

So here’s the thing. First, it takes a filmmaker of incredible boldness to make a comedy about AIDS. In 1991, the AIDS epidemic was surging, and many could take Sólo con tu pareja as a slap in the face. Luckily, the film is handled with such confidence that it never crosses the line of going too far. But at the same time, I can’t say the film is an absolute success. The AIDS plot arc, for example, takes far too long to take hold. The film is 94 minutes, more than half of which is dominated by nothing more than Tomás’ philandering. So what starts as a character story about a modern day Don Juan slowly morphs into an AIDS-scare dramedy. Still, there’s no denying that Sólo con tu pareja is the work of a filmmaker who knows exactly what he wants. And the film wondrously gives hints of the greatness that was to follow. B-

A Little Princess (1995)
A little girl lives in the wonderment of her own mind, telling stories for all the world to enjoy. After her wealthy father drops her in a New York boarding school, young Sara quickly comes to understand the politics of the facility. She makes friends quickly, avoids the school bully, and does what she can to slowly break down the overbearing practices of Miss Minchin, the woman who runs the school.

But when tragedy strikes and the money runs dry, Miss Minchin makes Sara a servant and attempts to convince her that she isn’t the princess she believes herself to be. But, as the film so beautifully encapsulates, nothing can hinder the imagination of a child.

A Little Princess is not my kind of movie. In fact, I highly doubt I would’ve seen it were it not for its director. But having watched it for this post, I can tell you I enjoyed every minute of it. Hell, there’s even a nice little homage to Bertolucci’s The Conformist snuck in there. A smart and whimsical children’s film that is pleasantly enjoyable. B

Great Expectations (1998)
Adapting Charles Dickens is no easy feat, and following a cinematic bar set so high by David Lean certainly isn’t any simpler. But if Alfonso Cuarón’s Great Expectations works, it’s because of the unique mastery of the man who made it. Me personally, I have a confliction with the film as a whole. A film that starts off extremely strong, but then bogs itself down with an occasionally one-note romance. A film that looks absolutely stunning in every frame, but uses horribly mismatched songs to propel many of its scenes.

A major saving grace of the film are its three supporting performances, played by Anne Bancroft, Robert De Niro and Chris Cooper. Cooper, in particular, soars with the material he’s given, stealing all of his scenes and then some. Much of Great Expectations feels overdone, but much is wonderfully restrained, creating a needlessly conflicting juxtaposition. B-

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
After the flare of two studio films based on popular novels, Cuarón gathered a tiny cast and crew and shot the revelatory sexual odyssey Y Tu Mamá También. One of the best ways I can describe this film is that I have never seen anything like it. It’s so new and real and bold. So bold, in fact, that if you don’t find yourself appreciating its audacity, you’re likely to be repulsed by it.

With their girlfriends gone in Italy, best friends Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) decide to relieve their boredom by going on an impromptu road trip. After they convince the wife of Tonoch’s cousin, a kind and quiet woman named Luisa (Maribel Verdú), to come with them, they embark on a strange and wildly entertaining exploration of lust and love. During their trip, each of the guys sleeps with Luisa, but on her terms. And frankly, it’s rather difficult to put the entire film into context, until its very unexpected conclusion. This is as unique a movie about love and friendship as I’ve ever seen. A

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Specifically for this post, I sat down and did something I never do, which is watch a Harry Potter film. Nothing against the films themselves (or the people who adore them), but the Harry Potter films simply aren’t for me. I have seen each film once and figured it would take an act of God for me to watch one again. Considering I am devout in the faith of cinema, I suppose Alfonso Cuarón is one such deity. So watch this film I did.

Basing this brief review on how well Prisoner of Azkaban holds up to the other Harry Potter films is useless for me. I don’t remember them well enough. So this critique is based on something I feel most Harry Potter film reviews overlook: cinematic merit, and nothing else.

On that basis alone, I suppose Prisoner of Azkaban succeeds in some ways. Chiefly I respected the film’s mature tone, which is not something I recall from the two films that preceded Prisoner of Azkaban. Visually, the film is rather dark – washed in those deep greys and blues that Cuarón so loves. Material wise, no, I can’t say I had much of a clue what was going on, but my interest was more or less held throughout.

Curious that the film was one of the most critically revered films in the series, yet also the least financially successful, but oh well. I appreciated Cuarón’s vision wholeheartedly. B

Children of Men (2006)
In the fairly recent future, women can no longer give birth, which has divided the world into furious anarchists and those who contently accept that life will not go on. Theo (Clive Owen), a British man who doesn’t give a shit about anything, is soon tasked with transporting the only pregnant woman on Earth to a place of safe haven.

Now, if you’ve seen Children of Men, you know the plot, as adapted from P.D. James’ excellent source novel, isn’t nearly as impressive as the way in which it is realized on the screen. Frequently imploring very extended and very impressive camera shots, Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki engulf us in a world of utter despair. By holding a shot of such an extended period of time, we’re forced to witness horror as it happens. No confusion, no pretense, just the future in all its dread.

But beyond technical prowess, Children of Men is a film unafraid to reveal itself to us. As Theo’s own cynicism is broken down, the audience slowly opens itself up to the material, thereby creating a distinctly vulnerable experience. As is the case with the best of Cuarón’s work, Children of Men is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s a wholly original work of art that succeeds on every level imaginable. A+

Gravity (2013)
After creating Children of Men, a film of such massive scope, Cuarón set out to make a smaller, more intimate picture. He and his son, Jonás, wrote a simple film about a woman lost. They set it in space and thought they had something unique and personal. Turned out the world wasn’t ready for such a grand idea. In fact, Cuarón’s vision was so specific that he actually had to invent the technology it took to make Gravity come alive.

It took five years for Cuarón, Lubezki and a host of imaginative special effects technicians to deliver Gravity to the world, and what a sight it is to behold. The film tells the story of a rookie astronaut, Dr. Stone (Sandra Bullock) fighting to stay alive while literally lost in space. And, because of the ingenuity of the people behind the screen, there isn’t a second of Stone’s struggle that doesn’t feel absolutely real. The barren world Cuarón immerses us in is as terrifying as it is impressive. Gravity is currently dropping jaws around the world, as movie goers (wisely) pay an insane amount of money to watch the film unfold in IMAX 3D. But truthfully, no matter the time, place, or format, Gravity is a film that will stand the test of time and continue to impress. This film has singlehandedly set the bar for movies of its kind. A

In Summation
Masterful
Y Tu Mamá También
Children of Men

Great
Gravity

Good
Sólo con tu pareja
A Little Princess
Great Expectations
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Eh
None

Just Plain Bad
None



32 comments:

  1. I know you're no fan of Harry Potter, but the third HP film is my favorite (and the best one, in my opinion). I wasn't aware that he directed A Little Princess (considering I was a child when I first saw it), looks like it's time to revisit that work!

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    1. Most die hard fans I know of the HP series say Cuarón's is their favorite. I appreciated it, I just didn't have a clue what the hell was going on in it. That vernacular escapes me. (sigh).

      A Little Princess is such a sweet little film.

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  2. I liked how he made Harry Potter darker, but a combined effort between him, Steve Kloves and Emma Watson ruined Hermione for me from there on out. Plus giving Ron's like "If you want to kill Harry, you have to kill us too." to her? I almost lost my shit in the theater.

    Ok, end Harry Potter rant. He actually does have a really impressive filmography. I suddenly want to watch Y Tu Mamá También again. I'm not sure if Gravity will replace that as being his masterpiece or not?

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    1. I was hesitant to label Gravity as "Masterful" because a little more time needs to pass with that one. The sugar high from that film is very strong, so I'll be interested to see how it lives in the long run. Y Tu and Children of Men are both fantastic films, but if I had to pick a fave, I'd give the edge to Children. Either way, great stuff all around.

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  3. I just saw Gravity this evening as I'm nearly finished my review that I'm working on (that's going to be posted in a little bit). Right now, here is my list of Cuaron's work ranked so far.

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    1. Solid list, pretty much how I'd put mine as well. Look forward to your Gravity review!

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  4. Haven't seen Gravity yet, but I've heard really good things. It's weird that I've only seen three others from Cuaron. Children of Men is the best for me, and I'd even rate Prisoner of Azkaban higher too. I feel like he's just getting started, and hopefully Gravity will springboard him to greater heights.

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    1. Oh man, I think you are absolutely right. I really hope Gravity paves way for him to (easily) do whatever he wants from now on. Hope you have a chance to see the film soon - it's something else.

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  5. Being a fan of Potter and having seen all the movies and so on... the Azkaban is awesome! I actually liked it the best out of all the movies when it comes to the cinematography but in terms of the material, the first two movies lacked interest for me as well due to the fact that it was more simple. Cuaron kind of flipped the switch and brought it to a more mature level and the following movies continued this.

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    1. Honestly, the first two movies are responsible for my complete lack of interest in that series. I think they are a complete bore, and they do nothing for me. Cuarón's was a nice change of pace!

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  6. Children of Men and Y Tu are a pair of my all time faves. Great read!

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  7. I haven't seen his first nor his most recent film, but I've seen all the others. I'm in big agreement on Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien. The former is one of the best SF (not sci-fi) films ever made.

    I liked the Harry Potter film more than you. At the time it came out it was adapting the worst of the books yet it became the best, by far, of the movies until the final one was released.

    I agree A Little Princess wasn't something I normally would have watched, but it had been recommended to me by multiple people. The story of what happened with the lead girl actress afterwards is something, too.

    I just plain disliked Great Expectations, and I hadn't even seen the original version yet.

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    1. Yeah, of all his work, Great Expectations is the least successful to me. Parts of it are just plain boring. Cooper all but saves that film. He's so incredible there.

      Be interested to hear your thoughts on Gravity.

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    2. I finally saw Gravity the other day. I liked it quite a bit. My only complaint is that there were some errors that were distracting, unfortunately during what should have been during two of the most emotional scenes. This weakened the impact of them on me. I gave it four stars out of five. It probably would have been 4.5 stars if I hadn't been taken out of the movie during those key scenes.

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    3. I'm dying to know what those errors were. I'll look out for your review!

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    4. I won't be reviewing it until after the Oscar nominees are announced (assuming it gets nominated for Best Picture, which seems likely), so that's a ways off.

      BIG SPOILERS FOR GRAVITY. DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT

      The biggest one is the moment when Clooney unclips himself. Up until that point they'd done a good job representing the weightlessness of space and Newton's action/reaction law. The only thing that would have happened when Clooney unclipped himself is he'd still be floating there, just not clipped on. There's no force acting on him. There's no gravity. There's no centrifigal force. There's no momentum - that's been arrested by the lines around Bullock's leg. If anything, the two of them should be slightly rebounding back towards the station. Remember when Clooney first latched onto her and started to try to tow her and he kept bouncing back? Same thing. So...the whole tragic scene of him sacrificing himself, slowly falling away, just wouldn't have happened. And again there's no force acting on either of them so all they had to do was pull their way back to the station - both of them. That's both the biggest emotional scene and the biggest error, at least that I noticed.

      And the scene where they're trying to make their way to the station and Bullock is running out of air? Clooney gets her talking to take her mind off of things? Well, talking uses oxygen at a far quicker rate than staying quiet - something she was already doing. Any astronaut would know that. Hell, they even got that right in Spacecamp (1986). Yes, it's intended to be a touching moment, showing how he cares, but I'm just sitting there thinking to myself, "Shut up! You're killing her!"

      Other things: the shrapnel wouldn't be coming around every 90 minutes. If it's on the same orbital plane as the station to begin with it would no longer be there soon because it's moving faster. More speed means more force pulling it away from Earth, means a higher orbit than the station. And if it's in a different orbit than the station to begin with, say the station is on the Equator and the shrapnel is pole to pole, then it still would be encountered at very irregular times and would be very unlikely to ever intersect again (because the Earth is not a perfect sphere - depending on where you orbit, a single circuit around the planet takes different amounts of time) The point is, it would only happen once, and even if it did happen more often you couldn't set a timer for it.

      And when Bullock is first sent tumbling attached to the Shuttle's arm she's told to detach because it's carrying her too far away. Detaching wouldn't do anything, though. There's no wind drag to slow her down. Objects "fall" at the same rate of speed in a vacuum regardless of their size, even in a gravity environment, let alone a weightless one. She would still have all the momentum of the arm, just now be a lot smaller and harder to find. She'd have had to detach herself before Clooney could latch onto her, but at least he could have seen her sooner and gotten to her quicker.

      I just want to note that the very large majority of the film got it right. It's just that the few things that were very noticeable to me coincided with the times they were trying to generate the biggest emotional punch. In a way it almost makes those moments stand out more than if they'd simply not tried to be accurate at all. Picture the "quiet scene" from Children of Men. Now imagine if when Owen walks out of the building the lines of soldiers on either side were holding crossbows, not automatic weapons. What would that have done to the impact of the scene? It would have been distracting - more for some people, less for others.

      Anyway, long story, well, long, four stars out of five is a very good score from me, so it's got far more going for it than against it.

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    5. All very fair points. I’ve read about most of those from various astronauts and experts commenting on the film. But like you said, far more going for it than against it. The biggest one for me was definitely having her speak when she needed to conserve her oxygen. You’re so right, I wanted to yell: “Shut the hell up, you’re killing her!”

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  8. I'm going to have to wait forever to watch Gravity, but this is a cool post. I think Cuaron's adaptation of Great Expectations is the first one I saw, but that's also the reason why I barely remember it.
    Love Y Tu Mama Tambien, Prisoner of Azkaban (yaaay!) and Children of Men. The latter is my favourite dystopian movie along with A Clockwork Orange.

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    1. Children of Men and A Clockwork Orange make an amazing double feature, great call there! One of my assignments in a cinema class in college was making a list of worthy double features, and those were definitely on mine. Perfect dystopian flicks.

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  9. Great stuff man. Glad you sat through Prisoner of Azkaban again. I rewatched Great Expectations before I posted my '98 ballot, and I was surprised at how much I loved it. The only major flaw for me is the screenplay, but just about everything else works for me. I'd currently rank his films like this: (not seen his first film yet)

    1. Children of Men
    2. Gravity
    3. Great Expectations
    4. Y Tu Mama Tambien
    5. Harry Potter
    6. A Little Princess

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    1. Solid list. I was pleasantly surprised how well Y Tu Mama has held up. I think it's as thrilling now as it was then. An incredible film.

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  10. I feel indebted to watch all of his films after how amazing Gravity was. I have been publicly shamed for not seeing Children of Men yet. Ugh I wanted to see it so badly when I saw the trailer but at the time (junior year of high school) no one else seemed interested. The only other film I have seen on this list is the Harry Potter one but that was always my favorite one.

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    1. Well, as I imagine you've heard many times by now, I HIGHLY recommend you see Children of Men asap. I really think you'll enjoy it!

      Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

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  11. Great director, very versatile.
    I haven't seen Gravity yet, its not out in the UK yet :(

    I hold a special place for A Little Princess. It's so charming and has such a big heart.

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    1. Hope Gravity comes your way soon - it's a doozy.

      I was very surprised by A Little Princess. Had no idea I'd like it as much as I did.

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  12. I haven't seen his 90s work, but Y Tu Mama Tambien and Children of Men are terrific, the former of which is one of the highlights from my current project. I can't wait to finally see Gravity this weekend.

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    1. Love those two flicks. Was so happy that Y Tu Mama held up so well on my most recent viewing. A great film.

      Enjoy Gravity!

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  13. Just watched Y Tu Mamá También (2001) and loved it. More than Gravity, honestly. Great list, as usual.

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    1. Nice! I rewatched it for this post and had forgotten how much a loved it. A great film.

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  14. Remarkable recap of the career of Alfonso Cuaron. A film maker that deserves every bit of praise and attention that he seems to be finally getting after the success of Gravity.

    Frankly, I was surprised by the strong returns the film has been posting, but when you factor in Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and a very strong word of mouth, then things can only be the way they turned out to be. I'm happy that it is doing so well so that the director has more freedom and wiggle room when he ventures into his next project.

    No one can deny the quality of Gravity. There will be some who might argue against the performance of Sandra Bullock, or about the accuracy of the science, or even about the story itself. Going against the craftsmanship and the beauty of the shots would be ridiculous though. Cuaron has made the impossible look effortless.

    In terms of the list, I've seen the last five and I would rank them the same, even if I would be inclined to give "Y Tu Mama Tambien" a B or B+ and not an A. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I have a little more insight on how it was delivered considering my first language is Spanish. Even though I have some minor issues with it, I still think it's a film that sticks with you, which is only achieved by the better films (or the absolutely horrible ones).
    Cuaron's best work is in these last two movies. No question in my mind that Children of Men is the best, and one of my personal favorites.

    Great list!

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    1. Hey man, thanks for the kind words here. Really glad you dug the list. Children of Men is definitely tops for me as well. I enjoyed hearing your perspective on Y Tu Mama. I love hearing stuff like that from people who speak the language, you know? I always wonder what little things I'm missing out on.

      I'm thrilled Gravity is doing so well. Really hope it leads Cuarón to make more movies more often.

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