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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