Alfonso Curaon in NYT (& other issues)

vincentjh vincentjh at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 9 21:05:18 UTC 2003


Tyler Hewitt:
This Sunday's New York Times has magazine supplement titled "Men's 
fashions of the Times". In it, there's a photo spread of young, 
independant film directors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/magazine/magazinespecial/MFDIRECT.ht
ml

(edit)
Here's the caption under his photo:
"ALFONSO CUARON: When he was offered the third ''Harry Potter'' film, 
Cuaron, 41, thought the Warner Brothers suits were ''on acid.'' But 
the idea made sense. His coming-of-age sex romp, ''Y Tu Mama 
Tambien,'' wasn't so far removed from Hogwarts. ''I didn't know much 
about the 'Potter' universe, but I got excited when I read the 
material,'' he says. ''It was coming on the heels of a film about 
teenagers trying to forge their identities as adults. Here was 
something about a child searching for his identity as a teenager.'' "

Me: 

Thanks, Tyler. It was a good read.

I found the quote from Cuaron quite interesting. Seems to me that he 
understands one of the major themes in HP is growing up. Hopefully, 
this means that we'll see more of Harry's struggles in PoA and less 
of a "superhero" Harry.

Now, on the a more or less related issue:

Amanda wrote-
Yes that is a wonderful attitiude to have about it! Why try to change 
anything? We should all just sit back and have our lives run for us I 
suppose. While we are at it, maybe we should just get rid of our 
government and adopt a dictatorship so that we will assuredly have no 
say in anything. I know this is getting a little far fetched but you 
touched a nerve here. What are we if not a people who can voice or 
ideas and complaints freely. I do not appreciate when someone tells 
me my opinion doesn't matter. My personal complaint might not make 
even the slightest dent in the opinions of the people at warner 
brothers, but at least i can have the pride in saying I said my piece 
about something I dont't agree with.

Me:
Although I do value the right to voice our opinions and want them to 
be heard, when it comes to artistic creations, I don't think the 
audience or anyone should interfere with the artists. There's 
something called a director's vision. And I, for one, believe that 
this is the single most important thing that should be respected in 
the making of every film. Sadly enough, it's also often sacrificed in 
Hollywood productions. (This one of the reasons Cuaron went back to 
Mexico to make Y Tu Mama Tambien.) 

It's hard enough that a director has to be constantly under 
constraint by the executives. If every film was to be made with such 
a "democratic" approach by listening to the audience's requests, then 
I really doubt the future of film making as an art form. 

I'd criticize a film as much as I want *after* it's done. But before 
then, I honestly don't think it's my *right* to say anything, 
especially when there's not enough information to tell me what the 
final product would be like.

Just a thought.

VJH






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