Cuarón began working on television in Mexico, first as a technician and then as a director. His television work led to assignments as an assistant director for several film productions including La Gran Fiesta (1985), Gaby: A True Story (1987) and Romero (1989). In 1991 he landed his first big-screen directorial assignment, Sólo con tu pareja, a sex comedy about a womanizing businessman (played by Daniel Giménez Cacho) who, after having sex with an attractive nurse, is fooled into believing he's contracted AIDS. In addition to writing, producing and directing, Cuarón co-edited the film with Luis Patlán.[8] The film, which also starred cabaret singer Astrid Hadad and model/actress Claudia Ramírez (with whom Cuarón was linked between 1989 and 1993) was a big hit in Mexico. After this success, director Sydney Pollack hired Cuarón to direct an episode of Fallen Angels, a series of neo-noir stories produced for the Showtime premium cable network in 1993; other directors who worked on the series included Steven Soderbergh, Jonathan Kaplan, Peter Bogdanovich, and Tom Hanks. The episode was entitled, "Murder, Obliquely" (1993) starring Laura Dern, Alan Rickman, and Diane Lane.[9]
In 1995, Cuarón released his first feature film produced in the United States, A Little Princess, an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic 1905 novel of the same name. The film received critical acclaim with Janet Maslin of The New York Times declaring, "[the film] is a bright, beautiful and enchantingly childlike vision", one that "draw[s] its audience into the wittily heightened reality of a fairy tale" and "takes enough liberties to re-invent rather than embalm Miss Burnett's assiduously beloved story".[10] The film went on to receive two Academy Award nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.[11] Cuarón's next feature was also a literary adaptation, a modernized version of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Robert De Niro. The film received mixed reviews to negative reviews.[12] Russell Smith of The Austin Chronicle did however praise the film writing, ". What's truly intriguing about this film, though, is the stylishness with which Cuaron (A Little Princess) reinvents Dickens' hoary, often-remade tale. This Great Expectations has a seductive, enchanting feel that has nothing to do with sweet, gauzy sentiments or calculatedly “magical” Hollywood imagery".[13]
2000–2009: Career breakthrough and success
Cuarón and Clive Owen, who worked together on Children of Men.
In 2001, Cuarón found himself returning to Mexico with a Spanish-speaking cast to film Y tu mamá también, starring Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Maribel Verdú. It was a provocative and controversial road comedy about two sexually obsessed teenagers who take an extended road trip with an attractive married woman who is much older than they. The film's open portrayal of sexuality and frequent rude humor, as well as the politically and socially relevant asides, made the film an international hit and a major success with critics.[14][15] The film was distributed through IFC in America allowing the film to collecte $13.8 million in the United States, unparalleled at the time for Latin American films.[16] Critic Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "It is clear Cuaron is a gifted director, and here he does his best work to date."[17] Cuarón shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay with co-writer and brother Carlos Cuarón.
In 2004, Cuarón directed the third film in the successful Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Cuarón faced criticism at the time from some Harry Potter fans for his approach to the film, notably its tendency to take more creative liberties with the source material than its predecessors.[18] However, author J. K. Rowling, who had seen and loved Cuarón's film Y tu mamá también, said that it was her personal favorite from the series so far.[19] Critically, the film was also better received than the first two installments, with some critics remarking its new tone and for being the first Harry Potter film to truly capture the essence of the novels.[20] It has been subsequently rated by audience polls and critics as the best of the movie franchise series.[21] The film earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Score for John Williams.[22]
He created the production and distribution company Esperanto Filmoj ("Esperanto Films", named because of his support for the international language Esperanto[23]), which has credits in the films Duck Season, Pan's Labyrinth, and Gravity. Cuarón also directed the controversial public service announcement I Am Autism (2009) for Autism Speaks that was criticized by disability rights groups for its negative portrayal of autism.[24]
In 2010, Cuarón began to develop the film Gravity, a drama set in space. He was joined by producer David Heyman, with whom Cuarón worked on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, the film opened the 70th Venice International Film Festival in August. The film was then released in America in October 2013.[25] The film became a financial success, earning 723.2 million at the box office against a budget of 130 million.[26] The film also received many awards nominations. For the film, he received the Golden Globe Award in the category of Best Director. The film received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Cuarón won for Best Directing, becoming the first Latin American to win the award,[27] while he and Mark Sanger received the award for Best Film Editing.[28]
Cuarón in 2013
In 2013, Cuarón created Believe, a science fiction/fantasy/adventure series that was broadcast as part of the 2013–14 United States network television schedule on NBC as a mid-season entry. The series was created by Cuarón for Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television. In 2014, Time placed him in its list of "100 Most Influential People in the World" – Pioneers.[29]
Cuaron's style is a mix of several mainstream Hollywood conventions while breaking from that dominant influence by taking an unorthodox approach that uses voiceover narration and by unconventionally lengthy shots. These longer cuts, narration, and often, moving cameras are more typical of documentary film.[37]
In his first feature film the average shot length is around six seconds, and ten years later for Y, Tu Mama Tambien the average increased to 19.6 seconds. The Prisoner of Azkaban had a more conventional average 5+1⁄2 seconds, then the subsequent Children of Men had an extraordinary average of 16 seconds between cuts. A typical Hollywood movie cuts every two seconds.[38] Cuarón work in Hollywood at points his career shows mainstream Hollywood influences, which has spilled over to less mainstream films mode outside of Hollywood. Children of Men was influenced by disaster and science fiction movie conventions. The Prisoner of Azkaban was a continuation of Cuarón's take on the coming-of-age genre after Y, Tu Mama Tambien.[39] That film is in the form of an American road movie, along with teen movie elements.[40] Voice-over narration adds to those genres a documentary feel. The narration, interjected by a non-diagetic voice not belonging to any character, highlights the socioeconomic state of the not only main characters, but also minor characters who otherwise seem irrelevant to the overall narrative.
Themes
As mentioned above, the voice-over narration in Y Tu Mama Tambien contains political messages. In the aforementioned film Cuarón tackles Mexican identity and sovereignty. With the backdrop of the 1990s and the advent of NAFTA and neoliberalism in Mexico, Cuarón critiques Mexico for the path they are heading towards a globalized economy and world.[41] Cuarón also addresses Mexican history such as colonialism and the long unfulfilled promises of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Using the same film as an example the narrator states that a new political party is in power, but hints that no real change will come about. This is also supported with one of the main characters, Julio, sharing a last name with the Mexican Revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, yet the name does not push Julio into action or in other words he lacks the initiative and interest in the country.[42] These same themes of identity and history, particularly of Mexico, were first addressed in his first feature film Solo con tu pareja. In both films Cuarón uses allegory that ties into a national identity and/or history. On top of these themes he also tackles class, but that can be considered a subcategory of economics or politics in which he already grapples with.
Personal life
Cuarón's first marriage was to Mariana Elizondo with whom he has a son, Jonás Cuarón, born in 1981. Jonás is also a film director, known for Year of the Nail and Desierto.[43] Alfonso's second marriage, from 2001 to 2008, was to Italian actress and freelance journalist Annalisa Bugliani, with whom he has two children.[43]
He has publicly shown his fascination for the Esperanto language and his support for the Esperanto movement.[44] He called his production company Esperanto Filmoj. In October 2023, Cuarón signed an open letter from artists to US President Joe Biden calling for a ceasefire of Israeli bombardment in Gaza.[45]
Cuarón is a vegetarian[37][46] and has been living in London since 2000.[47]
^Alvaray, Luisela. 2008. "National, Regional, and Global: New Waves of Latin American Cinema." Cinema Journal 47 (3): 48-65. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.0.0002.
^Udden, James. 2009. "Child of the Long Take: Alfonso Cuaron's Film Aesthetics in the Shadow of Globalization." Style (University Park,PA) 43 (1): 26-44.
^Baer, Hester, and Ryan Long. "Transnational Cinema and the Mexican State in Alfonso Cuarón's 'Y Tu Mamá También." South Central Review 21, no. 3 (2004): 150-68.
^Tierney, Dolores, "From Hollywood and Back: Alfonso Cuarón Adventures in Genre," in New Transnationalisms in Contemporary Latin America Cinemas (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), 76.
^Saldaña-Portillo, Maria Josefina. "In the Shadow of NAFTA: Y Tu Mamá También Revisits the National Allegory of Mexican Sovereignty." American Quarterly 57, no. 3 (2005): 751-77.
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