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Alfonso Cuarón

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Alfonso Cuarón
Born
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco
Years active1983 -
Height6'
Spouse(s)Mariana Elizondo (1980 - 1993)
Annalisa Bugliani (2001 - )

Alfonso Cuarón Orozco (born November 28, 1961 in Mexico City) is an Academy Award-nominated Mexican film director, screenwriter and producer. He is the son of Alfredo Cuarón, a cardiologist who worked for the United Nations' IAEA sector for many years. He has three siblings, Alfredo, Carlos and Cristina; and two half sisters, Christina and Elisa.

Biography

Cuarón studied philosophy at the "UNAM" National Autonomous University of Mexico and filmmaking at CUEC (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos) part of the same University. After graduating, he began working in television in Mexico, first as a technician and then as a director. Cuarón's television work led to assignments as an assistant director for several Latin American film productions (including Gaby: A True Story and Romero), and in 1991, he landed his first big-screen directorial assignment.

Sólo con tu pareja was a sex comedy about a womanizing businessman (played by Daniel Giménez Cacho), who after spurning a hot nurse, is fooled into believing he's contracted HIV; the film, which also starred Cabaret singer Astrid Hadad and model/actress Claudia Ramírez -- who Cuarón was linked to between 1989 and 1993 -- was a big hit in Mexico, and was enthusiastically received around the world. Director Sydney Pollack was so impressed with Sólo con tu pareja that he hired Cuaron 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.

In 1995, Cuarón released his first feature film produced in the United States, A Little Princess, an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic novel. 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.

Cuarón's next project found him returning to Mexico with a Spanish-speaking cast to film Y tu mamá también, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. It was a provocative and controversial road comedy about two sexually obsessed teenagers who take an extended road trip with an attractive married woman in her late twenties. 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. Cuarón shared an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay with co-writer and brother Carlos Cuarón.

In 2003, Cuarón directed the third film in the successful Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Cuarón faced criticism from some of the more purist Potter fans for his approach to the film. Given that the first two installments, helmed by Chris Columbus, had adhered stringently to the books, Cuarón's rather more aggressive adaptation (with a darker tone, costume changes, omitted subplots and other changes to the accepted continuity) came as something of a shock to many fans.[citation needed] At the time of the movie's release, however, author J.K. Rowling said that it was her personal favorite from the series so far.[1] Critically, the film was also better received than the first two installments, with some critics remarking that it was the first Potter film to truly capture the essence of the novels.

Cuarón's newest feature, Children of Men, an adaptation of the P. D. James novel starring Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine, has received wide critical acclaim, including three Academy Award nominations. Cuarón himself received two nominations for his work on the film in both Editing and Adapted Screenplay.

He created the production and distribution company Esperanto Films, which has credits on the films Duck Season and Pan's Labyrinth Esperanto is currently in discussions to adapt the book "Tear" into a film with author and playwright Jeff Smeenge, a long time friend of Cuarón.

Awards & Nominations

Filmography

Feature Films

Short Films

  • Who's He Anyway (1983)
  • Vengeance Is Mine (1983) Co-director
  • Cuarteto para el fin del tiempo (1983)
  • Paris, je t'aime (2006) (segment "Parc Monceau")

Documentary Films

  • The Possibility of Hope (2007) Short

TV

  • Hora Marcada (1986) (episodes "Ángel Pérez", "El taxi", "Zangamanga", "No estoy jugando", "A veces regresa")
  • Fallen Angels (1993) (episode "Murder, Obliquely")


References

  1. ^ J.K. Rowling Accessed 17 January 2007.
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