Interview with PoA director

  March 23, 2003 at 11:11 PM ET
      TheSnitch.co.uk
 


An interview with Cuaron from the New York Times

Altering the Script
Interview by LYNN HIRSCHBERG

"Y Tu Mamá También,'' the movie that you directed and wrote with your brother, is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. It was a surprising nominee: it's in Spanish and, because of its sex scenes, was released without a rating.

''Y Tu Mamá También'' is one of the first unrated movies to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. But many video stores won't take a movie that's not rated, so I had to make the movie an R.

How much did you have to cut?

I cut a bunch of penises. I castrated my movie. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous that teenagers can see a violent movie like ''Hannibal'' and not my film.

In Mexico, the movie was temporarily banned for certain audiences.

It was more than banned in Mexico; it was censored. The government forbade kids under 18 to see the film. It was so hypocritical -- you cannot show a film about a 17-year-old kid to a 17-year-old kid. I had to sue the Mexican government over its rating system.

Is that sort of censorship why you no longer live in Mexico?

I left after my first film, ''Love in the Time of Hysteria,'' in 1991. I live in New York now, but America is not my country. I left Mexico for artistic survival. If I had stayed, I would have been forced by the government, who control the movie business, to direct TV shows or commercials or infomercials for the government.

Has America been liberating artistically?

It's a cliche, but Americans are puritanical. In their movies, they are scared of sex, but they overindulge in violence. I could have cut a G-rated version of ''Y Tu Mamá También'' that would have pleased the American ratings board, but it would have been five minutes long.

After ''Y Tu Mamá También,'' you must have been surprised when you were approached by Warner Brothers to direct the third Harry Potter film.

I was shocked. I had just made this sexy, scandalous movie, and I didn't understand why they were sending me the script. I was unfamiliar with the Harry Potter universe, but I read the books, and I saw the potential. Thematically, it's actually very close to ''Y Tu Mamá También.'' Harry Potter is about finding your own identity, and so is ''Y Tu Mamá.''

But ''Y Tu Mamá'' deals with class and homosexuality. Doesn't Harry Potter have fewer political overtones?

No. Harry Potter deals with class, with race, with power. I see this book as a metaphor for our times. The evil Voldemort is very similar to Saddam Hussein. Or George Bush. They're really the same. I believe George Bush and Saddam Hussein should go to a desert island together and relax. It would be a love affair, like in ''Y Tu Mamá También.'' And then there would be no war.

You're currently filming Harry Potter in London. Has the anti-America feeling in Europe spilled over into other areas? For instance, is there a negative reaction to American movies?

No. People here distinguish between American government and America. I love America, but I don't want war. That doesn't mean I feel any less passionately about American films and pop culture. It doesn't change Miles Davis's music or F. Scott Fitzgerald's novels or Martin Scorsese's movies. It's sad. After Sept. 11, the world embraced America, and that goodwill has evaporated. But American pop culture is still revered. I don't see that changing.

Is that why you're now making a big studio movie like Harry Potter as opposed to an independent foreign-language film like ''Y Tu Mamá También''?

I'm just trying to do good work. It's important to separate art from politics. I'm against how the Mexican government operates, but I'm not anti-Mexican, just as I love America and disagree with the U.S. government. I tried to show that dichotomy in ''Y Tu Mamá.''
The movie is an observation of teenagers coming of age, and it's an observation of a country coming of age. There's a lot of coming in the movie. I tried to show it all.

^aggie^
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