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| Alfonso Cuarón, Otto Kylmälä, Timo Malmi. The morning discussion at the School, 15 June 2024. Photo: Hilma Toivonen. Please do click on the photo to expand it. |
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| Alfonso Cuarón |
The School, Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), 15 June 2024
Lauri Timonen (MSFF Catalogue 2024): " Alfonso Cuarón was born in Mexico City to a doctor father and a biochemist mother, studied philosophy at university before moving on to film studies, and earned his professional spurs in the 1980s with TV work and short films. His feature-length screen debut, the unabashed sex and frantic antics comedy Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991), tells the story of a woman who jumps from one bed to the next and is led to believe by one of her partners that she has contracted AIDS. Executed true to the traditional spirit of Hollywood screwball buffoonery, staggering from room to room – and window to window – in the fashion of Chaplin’s A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), recalling Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) in its grim hysterics, the film became a major national hit that also attracted the attention of Sydney Pollack. "
" Cuarón’s conquest of America began with A Little Princess (1995), a remake of the beloved Shirley Temple classic containing stunning visual fantasies, based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1905). His next directorial effort, Great Expectations (1998), a modernised adaptation of the Charles Dickens (1860-1861) novel now set in the waters of Florida and the New York art world, received a more mixed reception, was overshadowed in media attention of Titanic (1997) using similar storylines, and evidently does not figure among Cuarón’s own favourites either, although the film, more reminiscent of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925) instead of Dickens, features not only Gwyneth Paltrow’s innate charm but also the commanding supporting performances of Anne Bancroft and Robert De Niro. "
" Cuarón returned to the region of his birth and rediscovered himself with the raunchy and stealthily wise road movie Y tu mamá también (2001), which sealed his international breakthrough. Its success secured him a place as the director of the third part of the international wizard franchise, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), a film perfectly suited to the magical touches Cuarón had already displayed in the past. The subsequent succession has been a dizzying soaring flight, and the trophy and awards cabinet of the director-writer-producer-cinematographer-editor approaching a renaissance figure in terms of the versatility of his craftsmanship now probably resembles a medium-sized Ice Hall, as it has accumulated several hundred international trophies and nominations. For example, there are Oscar nominations for producer, writer and editor, and no fewer than four wins: Best Director and Editor (Gravity, 2013), Best Director and Cinematography (Roma, 2018). As a producer, Cuarón’s credits include Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Biutiful (2010), and Alice Rohrwacher’s short film The Pupils (2022), with music by the festival’s perennial favourite band Cleaning Women. Such has been the impact of the work of Cuarón, del Toro, Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki, who won three Best Cinematography Oscars in a row between 2013 and 2015, that it’s fair to say that Mexico is undergoing a new revolution. "
" The essential thing about Cuarón’s art, however, is not his external merits, but the deep essence of cinema and the love of the genre that shines through his work. All his feature films are, as if recalling Louis Malle’s choices, completely different from one another; Children of Men (2006), which at times mimics the brutal front-line images of news broadcasts, is a dark dystopia and an angsty Christian allegory; the lofty, and expansive Gravity living up to its title as a frenetic, gravity-defying gem of modern filmmaking, marked by a camera relishing its infinite directions, ingenious sound design and thriller-like staccato beats; the soulful, black-and-white Roma, stripped of all extraneous flamboyance, an intimate return to the sources of more traditional filmmaking and the director’s childhood memories. "
" We warmly welcome the Mexican master! " Lauri Timonen (MSFF Catalogue 2024)
MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024: " Meksikolaiselle Alfonso Cuarónille oli pienestä asti selvää, että hän halusi tehdä elokuvia. Hänellä on ollut aina hyvä mielikuvitus, mutta se täytyi piilottaa, sillä se tuntui hänestä nololta. Lauantain aamukeskustelussa Cuarón kertoi, ettei lapsena ymmärtänyt eroa kuvittelun ja elokuvan välillä. ”Sitten opin, että elokuvassa on ohjaaja.”
Cuarónin nuoruudessa 70-luvun Meksikossa elettiin erilaisten elokuvaklubien aikaa. Parasta klubia pyöritti paikallinen jesuiitta, joka näytti joka kuukausi Ingmar Bergmania, Federico Felliniä ja muita mestariohjaajien töitä. Kulttuuri-instituutit taas näyttivät omien maidensa klassikoita, joten Cuarón sai nuorena aimo annoksen vanhaa neuvostoliittolaista, puolalaista, unkarilaista ja tšekkiläistä ja japanilaistakin elokuvaa. Vanhemmilleen hän sanoi käyvänsä jalkapalloharjoituksissa, ja nämä kustansivat mielellään pojan terveellisen urheiluharrastuksen.
”Mutta noissa klubeissa ei ollut kyse vain elokuvista, vaan yhteisöstä”, Cuarón sanoi. Nuoret eivät välttämättä kokoontuneet klubeille elokuvien takia vaan siksi, että niiden jälkeen oli juhlat. Samalla tuli kuitenkin katsottua elokuva jos toinenkin. ”Ihmiset eivät tavoita loistavien elokuvien pointtia, jos fokus ei ole yhteisössä”, Cuarón sanoo.
Katsellessaan Bergmania teini-ikäinen Cuarón ajatteli tämän kertovan elokuvissaan absktrakteista asioista. Hän ajatteli niiden olevan jonkinlaisia filosofisia argumentteja. Sitten hän tajusi niiden kertovan yleisemmin elämästä.
Cuarónin kertoi hiippailleensa sisään kodin lähellä sijainneisiin mainosstudioihin, ja viettäneensä siellä enemmän ja enemmän aikaa. Pikkuhiljaa pieniä töitä alkoi ilmaantua, hanttihommia siellä täällä studion työryhmässä. Siten hän oppi miten televisiota tehdään. Sitten joku kysyi häneltä, mitä seuraavaksi, aiotko työllistyä telenoveloiden kirjoittajana. ”Pelästyin. Se ei ollut minun tieni, joten pakotin itseni kirjoittamaan ensimmäisen käsikirjoitukseni.”
Vuonna 1991 Cuarón sai ulos ensimmäisen pitkän elokuvansa, Love in the Time of Hysteria, mutta kesti vielä jonkin aikaa, tarkemmin kymmenen vuotta, ennen kun Cuarón ymmärsi, mistä elokuvien tekemisessä on kyse. Kyse ei ole niinkään lopputuloksesta, valmiista elokuvasta, vaan siitä mitä hän oppii seuraavaa elokuvaansa varten.
Hän asui tuolloin New Yorkissa ja oli jumissa. Jossain näillä main tarinaa ranskalaisohjaaja Leos Caraxilla on pieni mutta merkittävä sivurooli, kuten sivuroolit parhaimmillaan ovat. Kerran Cuarón istui Caraxin kanssa 7–8 tuntia panssaroidussa, ilmastoimattomassa autossa ja Carax poltti ketjussa kahta savuketta samaan aikaan. ”Ajattelin, että voisihan sitä olla myös tuollainen.”
Cuarón päätti mennä videovuokraamoon ja vuokrasi sieltä 30–35 elokuvaa, vaikka lainausraja oli vain viisi. Hän meni kotiin, katsoi ne kaikki ja huomasi, miten kauas oli tullut siitä mitä todella halusi. ”Olin kadottamassa oman tieni. Se teki minut surulliseksi.”
Leffamaratonin jälkeen Cuarón soitti veljelleen ja kysyi, haluaisiko hän kirjoittaa jotain yhdessä. Paria päivää myöhemmin veli laskeutui New Yorkiin ja alkoi Ja äitiäs kans -elokuvan käsikirjoittaminen. Cuarónin sanottua, että haluaa elokuvaan kertojaäänen taustaselostuksen, veli uhkasi lentää saman tien takaisin Meksikoon. Mutta kun Cuarón näytti Jean-Luc Godardin Maskuliini feminiinin (1966), kertojaääni sai jäädä.
Taustaselostuksen avulla Cuarón halusi tehdä tarinan, jossa tärkeämpää on taka-ala kuin etuala, where background is more important than the foreground. Tarinan taustakangas on Meksikon voimakas ja tukahduttavaa ilmapiiriä luova luokkajako. Toinen pojista on rikkaan perheen lapsi, toinen asuu kerrostaloasunnossa ja on alempaa keskiluokkaa. Jännitettä etualan ja taustan välillä luotiin esimerkiksi laajoilla kuvakulmilla. ”Kaksi poikaa luovat tavallaan tekosyyn kertoa taustalla vaikuttavan tarinan.”
Kun Cuarón viimeisteli Ja äitiäs kans -elokuvaa, hän tarjosi jo seuraavaa käsikirjoitusta eteenpäin, mutta kukaan ei kiinnostunut siitä. Noihin aikoihin hän kertoi puhelimessa ystävälleen, meksikolaiselle elokuvaohjaaja Guillermo del Torolle, että Warner Bros. oli soittanut ja tarjonnut kolmatta Harry Potter -elokuvaa ohjattavaksi. Cuarón ei innostunut ideasta, sillä hän ei ollut lukenut yhtäkään Harry Potter-kirjaa.
”You are a fucking arrogant brick”, del Toro totesi ja käski hänen lukea ensimmäisen kirjan heti. Del Toro soittaisi kahden päivän päästä uudelleen. Yllättäen Harry Potter vaikuttikin hauskalta. Cuarón ajatteli, että jos hän keksii, miten ratkaisee tämän tarinan, hän keksii myös miten ratkaisee myöhemmin Children of Men -elokuvan ongelmat. Jotkut teokset ovat matkoja seuraavan luo. Ne tehdään, jotta jotain muuta voisi syntyä myöhemmin.
Cuarónin mukaan on mahdotonta tehdä elokuvia, jotka eivät käsittelisi elämää. Elämällä hän tarkoittaa sitä, mitä todellisessa maailmassa tapahtuu. Ja äitiäs kans -elokuvassa maailma vilahtelee onnettomuuksina taka-alalla, kotinsa menettäneinä kävelemässä kadulla, Children of Men taas kävi Cuarónin mukaan jollain tapaa toteen jo vuonna 2008, ei vuonna 2027 kuten elokuva ehdottaa.
”Loppujen lopuksi olen toiveikas tulevaisuuden suhteen. Minulla on tapana olla pessimistinen nykyhetkestä mutta optimistinen tulevaisuudesta.”
Samoin kuin Cuarónin elokuvissa, myös hänen urassaan elämällä on ratkaiseva rooli. Children of Menin jälkeen oli jälleen taloudellisesti tiukkaa, ja piti keksiä jokin potentiaalinen myyntihitti. Syntyi Gravity. Ja Gravityn menestyksen pohjalta Roma saattoi syntyä. ”Elämä keksii elämän”, life with a big L invents the little one of my own, Cuarón sanoo.
Roma oli Cuarónin sukellus omaan lapsuuteensa ja paluu Ja äitiäs kans –elokuvasta alkaneeseen meksikolaisen luokkayhteiskunnan kuvaukseen. Hänelle oli tärkeää luoda tilkitty kupla, jossa elokuva voisi syntyä. Se tarkoitti rekvisiitan ja miljöön valmistelua kahden vuoden ajan: hän halusi rakennuksiin tietyt tiilet, huoneeseen tietyn sohvan ja laatikoihin tietyt esineet. Näyttelijät ja muu työryhmä eivät saaneet käsikirjoitusta luettavaksi etukäteen, vaan ymmärrys ja hahmot rakentuivat kuvauksissa.
Kokemus oli intensiivinen, eikä Cuarón yrittäisi vastaavaa projektia enää uudelleen.
“En suosittele sitä kenellekään.” " MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024
Kuva: Hilma Toivonen
MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024: " It was always clear to Mexican Alfonso Cuarón that he wanted to make movies. He had a vivid imagination that he had to hide, because he was embarrassed of it. In Saturday’s morning discussion he told, that as a child, he could not make a difference between make-believe and movies. “Then I learned that [in the movies] there is a director.”
In Cuarón’s youth in the 70s Mexico was a time of different film clubs. The best club was run by a local Jesuit who screened works by Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini and other master directors. Cultural institutes programmed classics from their countries, so from an early age Cuarón had a chance to watch old Soviet, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and even Japanese films. To his parents he claimed that he went to football practice, and they gladly paid for a healthy, active hobby.
”But those clubs were not only about movies, but community,” Cuarón said. Some of the youth gathered at the clubs for the parties after the screenings. However, they would end up seeing a film or two by coming. Cuarón stated: “People miss the point of great films, if the focus is not community.”
Watching Bergman as a teenager, Cuarón thought that his films were about abstract things. He thought that they were some sort of philosophical arguments, until he realised that they were about life.
Cuarón told that he sneaked into advertisement studios near his home, spending more and more time there. Steadily he started doing small tasks, helping the studio’s crew here and there. Then he learned how television was made, and someone asked him what was next and if he planned to write telenovelas. “I got scared. That wasn’t my way and I forced myself to write my first script.”
In 1991 Cuarón released his first film Love in the Time of Hysteria but it took a decade before Cuarón understood what filmmaking was really about. It is not for the result, but what you learn for the next film.
At the time he lived in New York and was stuck. Around that time French director Leos Carax played a small but significant supporting role on Cuarón’s journey. One time Cuarón sat with Carax in an armoured car without air conditioning for seven to eight hours, while Carax kept on smoking two cigarettes simultaneously. “I thought that I could also be like that.”
Cuarón decided to go to a video rental and rented some 30 to 35 movies, even though the limit was just five. He went home, watched them all and realised how far he had gone from what he had really wanted. I was losing my way. It made me sad.”
After the movie marathon Cuarón called his brother and asked if he would like to write something together. A couple of days later the brother landed in New York, and they started writing Y tu mamá también. When Cuarón said he wanted an audio narration in the film, his brother threatened to fly right back to Mexico. But whenCuarón showed him Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin Féminin (1966), the narration could stay.
With the narration Cuarón wanted to create a story where background is more important than the foreground. The backdrop of the story is based on the atmosphere caused by the strong and suffocating class differences in Mexico. In the film, the other boy comes from a rich family whilst the other one is lower middle class and lives in an apartment building. The tension between the foreground and background was achieved for example with wide camera angles. “Those kids are the excuse to tell the story in the background.”
While finishing Y tu mamá también, Cuarón pitched his next screenplay but without results. Around that time he told his friend and fellow Mexican director Guillermo del Toro that Warner Bros. had called with an offer to direct the third Harry Potter film. Cuarón was not convinced as he had never read the books.
”You are a fucking arrogant prick,” del Toro stated and ordered Cuarón to read the first book immediately. Del Toro would call again in two days, and Harry Potter seemed fun after all. Cuarón thought that if he could solve this story, he would find resolutions for the problems in Children of Men (2006). According to him, some stories are paths to others, and they are made to create something else later.
In Cuaróns view it is impossible to make movies that are not about life. By life he means the events of the real world. In Y tu mamá también the world is seen in flashes of mishaps in the background with the homeless on the streets. On the other hand, Cuarón believes that in some ways, Children of Men came true in some ways already in 2008, and not in 2027 as the timeline within the movie.
“In the end I’m hopeful of reality. I tend to be pessimistic about the present but optimistic about the future.”
Like in his movies, life plays a significant role in Cuarón’s career. After Children of Men his financial situation was not great, and he had to come up with a potential hit. That is how Gravity (2013) came to be. Because of Gravity’s success, he was able to make Roma (2018). “Life invents life – Life, with a big L, invents the little one of my own,” Cuarón muses.
For Cuarón Roma was a deep dive into his childhood and a return to a study of the Mexican class society that he had begun with Y tu mamá también. It was important for him to create a tight bubble in which the movie could emerge. The props and set were built during a two-year period. He wanted certain tiles for the buildings, a specific sofa and items in drawers inside. The cast and crew were not given the script beforehand, so that the understanding of the story and characters grew throughout the shoot.
The experience was intense, and Cuarón said that he would not do a project like that again. “I would not recommend anyone to do it.” " MSFF Press Release 15 June 2024
AA: Added notes:
Q: WHAT WAS THE FIRST FILM YOU SAW?
A: The Sword in the Stone.
Q: THE CINEMAS?
A: There were the big cinemas of the boulevards. Then there were second-run cinemas and non stop screenings.
Q: FAMILY?
A: Very middle-class. Staff at home - indigenous. Disparity. That unfortunately still goes on. Low income family help. Catholic oppression.
Q: RELIGION?
A: Father, mother - not. Grandmother - very. Tamales. Comic books. Me and my brother could not care less about religion.
Q: READING BOOKS?
A: My father was not the best pedagogue. To him, TV was bad, damaging imagination.
Ray Bradbury was my entry to books. I started in sci-fi. Isaac Asimov. Later, Philip K. Dick.
Then European, American 20th century literature.
Q: SCHOOL?
A: Hated it. I was pretty bad in most everything. Never worst, never shining. No sport.
Films were highly censored. Costa-Gavras: L'Aveu. Clandestine screening. Hearts and Minds.
Since a kid I wanted to make films, make-believe.
No difference between reality and make-believe.
Sergio Leone, Butch Cassidy, Terence Hill.
Working already during high school, odd jobs.
At the university, philosophy in the afternoon. Then film school in the morning.
Q: YOU KNEW EARLY?
A: That it was the film.
Discovered European, Japanese films at 8, 9.
A lot I would not understand, then watch them again.
Older, I started to get it.
Bergman, bored. Teenager, not bored anymore. Now again I don't understand anything. An abstraction of life. Philosophical argument, not a life argument.
A golden age of film societies.
Cultural institutes (France, Germany), New German cinema
Nouvelle vague: Vivre sa vie was my favourite.
A Jesuit film club - Bergman, Fellini - US 1970s - Pasolini, Visconti - [C.U.C. - Catholic Union of Cinema?] - the Jesuit film club was a point of departure to the party - my cinematographer I met at the [C.U.C.?]. The focus was the community - the films led to the community - the community led to the films. Mexico had access to Eastern bloc cinema - Soviet Union - Czechoslovakia - Poland. We explored world cinema. The real school for me.
Q: AMATEUR?
A: The school was a mess, politicized, a group dictating doing a documentary, they had the power. I was a still photographer. His first super-8 film - Emmanuel Lubezki.
I had a school as a young man.
In 12 films assistant camera, foreign productions shot in Mexico.
The old guard was supportive.
Pedro Armendariz, Felipe Casals very supportive to young generations.
Telenovelas.
I forced myself to write my first film.
Q: SOLO CON TU PAREJA.
A: A comedy - Lubitsch, Hawks, Blake Edwards.
I burned my bridges.
Antagonized administration.
Ambition European.
My anxiety to pay the rent.
I never live in L.A.
In my second film: one scene is ok.
The next time: the film is ok.
Only later, cinema.
Learning curve.
Q: HOLLYWOOD
A: Fallen Angels, an anthology of noir stories directed also by Soderbergh, Cruise, Hanks, Joanou, Kaplan, Bogdanovich, Dahl, Gordon, Holland, Hunter, Lehmann, McBride, Sutherland.
A tough experience.
Little Princess: an incredible experience, a joyful time.
I never see my film when I finish.
Q: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
A: Terrible. I did not know what I was doing.
Don't tell anyone you are a writer.
I was 35. Not able to pay the rent.
Reader of very bad scripts.
I came to Europe watching films, seeing friends.
Met Leos Carax. In an armored car. No ventilation. Smoke all over.
Robert De Niro. Star struck. Never understood what the film was about.
Not going back to that.
Losing my way living in Europe. Son with me. In video shops I got 30-35 VHS cassettes.
How far I was drifting from what I was really like.
CLIP: Y tu mamá también (MX 2001).
Q: YOU AND YOUR BROTHER?
A: The dialogue is us.
The characters are the actors. They are still the same.
Stories about camping on the beach.
Masculin - féminin.
Q: FOREGROUND - BACKGROUND.
A: The film we would have done before film school.
Wide angle.
It took us one day. Steadicam - sent it back.
Limitations are super important.
Q: A SENSE OF CLASS REALITY.
A: It is impossible to ignore even now.
Rich kid, apartment kid vs. lower middle class kid. A dynamics.
Q: A NEW LEVEL OF COMEDY.
A: I wish I had mastered that art of business.
Children of Men - nobody wanted to do that.
Harry Potter - I had never read the books. Guillermo del Toro convinced me to direct the Harry Potter film. I saw it like a film noir. And it is also about two boys and a girl like Y tu mamá también. And Harry Potter solved the problem of Children of Men.
I got to collaborate with incredible people. J. K. Rowling was very generous. Chris Columbus had established the cast and the design. Old school knowhow. I pretended to catch up. I am photochemical. I don't understand digital. It took a year. There was a school for the children in the cast. Michael Seresin was the cinematographer, had worked with Alan Parker, came with a darker, more subdued look. For the costume design we had to fight. To Daniel Radcliffe I showed The 400 Blows.
The worst to a child is to direct him like a child.
Q: CHILDREN OF MEN.
A: You know what you are doing. Misery. Atrocities.
CLIP: Children of Men (GB/US/JP 2006). The long take with a plan-sequence approach of the escape car assaulted on a forest road. The driver shoots the policemen.
Q: ICONIC EXAMPLE OF A LONG TAKE.
A: An attempt in real time. Pretty much designed like that. Long shot, wide angle, foreground and background. References: Sarajevo, Bosnia. End of the 1990s, after 11 September. No prophecy. Already happening. I don't like making-of. Now social media exists. I'm hopeful about humanity. Pessimist about today, optimist about the future.
Q: GENRE.
A: I don't have one.
I don't think I'm a fan of genre.
I don't know the rules.
Genre: it's not my interest.
Q: BRESSON AND GRAVITY.
A: Thanks to Gravity, can make Roma.
Life invents my life - big L, small l.
A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé).
The quietness.
The best prison escape.
Gravity: A man escapes in space.
Gravity came to save my life.
We were told you could not do it.
Cameron - 700 million.
Fincher - 7 years.
I'm a photochemical person.
We did not know what we were doing.
Everything could be out of synch.
Five years in edit.
Q: THE IMPOSTOR SYNDROME.
A: Roma: I want to do a short foreign movie.
You look around: I'm not as bad as all that.
You look up: I'm not up there.
Q: YOU ARE ONE OF THE BEST CINEMATOGRAPHERS.
A: A light alchemist.
Lab - it's not a technical - but creative process.
In the 1990s pushing Kodak - to reduce grain - to solidify blacks - Roger Deakins.
Digital solves - black - white - grain. In that regard superior to film.
Not one way or the other. There are tools.
VFX digital - James Cameron - a film of VFX.
I love 35 mm, 16 mm.
Roma: I insisted wide - I insisted b&w.
With whom can I collaborate in Spanish.
Without him a different film, not necessarily better, but mine.
Awards - important mostly to put my next film together.
At the end, only time will tell.
Time rules.
Q: ROMA.
A: Not about me.
I wanted to follow this character, very important in my life, even now.
A certain oppression.
The Olympic massacre, 200 students killed by the paramilitary of the government.
Soon after the World Cup, another massacre.
A big push towards democratic reforms.
Youth disenchanted.
Guerrilla, dirty war, genocides of several groups.
You could feel that atmosphere-
Domestically, completely different sotry.
The house is genuine.
1960s romanticized. Very few privileged.
For us, 1960s happy times.
In Mexico, end of the 1990s.
Rock concerts were forbidden. Very clandestine to go to.
Radio: conventional music.
Nobody read the screenplay.
I had to finance myself. "Never do this". Shot in continuity. Two years.
Special tile. Special sofa. Special drawers. Obsessed in recreation. Identical cars. Identical cast.
I was very angry all the time. The street where I grew up. How many people have that opportunity? The scene where my father leaves my family. A weird thing, exercise of an obsession, not healthy.
Q: FAVOURITE DIRECTORS?
A: I always refuse to answer. Swimming in the ocean of endlessness. Alain Tanner was a teenage favourite.
Q: WHICH FILM WOULD YOU TAKE TO THE DESERT ISLAND?
A: I don't bring any film. Except maybe "How to Survive on a Desert Island".
[After repeated persuasion, hesitating between Ordet and Sunrise:]
Sunrise.
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