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“I have a lot of hope for the future”: Alfonso Cuarón On DISCLAIMER What Cinema Is All About

Berenice Andrade

Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón held a press conference at the 22nd Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) to talk about his latest project, Disclaimer, which will close this year's festival.

Based on the book of the same name by Renée Knight and written and directed by Cuarón, Disclaimer is a gripping psychological thriller starring Academy Award® winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline.

Acclaimed journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) built her reputation by revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel by an unknown author, she is horrified to realize that she is now the protagonist of a story that brings her darkest secrets to light. As Catherine races to discover the writer's true identity, she is forced to confront her past before it destroys her life and her relationship with her husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) and son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee).

At the press conference moderated by Daniela Michel, founder and general director of FICM, Alfonso Cuarón talked about how many years ago he read the book by Renée Knight and flirted with the idea of making a film, but found himself intrigued with producing the story in a long format.

“Neither [Emmanuel Lubezki] El Chivo, nor I know how to do television, so the methodology was film. You work very fast in television.It's a medium in which you have to make quick solutions, film very fast. It took us a long time to film each scene, it was a very long process of shooting and post-production,” he confessed about his approach to making a series.

“Something that gets lost is that in series, the directors are interchangeable, and I do believe that in the cinematic you need a single director,” he added about the differences with film. “[When there is a single director] you immediately notice a point of view when there are cinematic decisions, not just narrative.”

In this regard, he explained how Disclaimer allowed him to explore his curiosity for the creation and development of narratives: “It allowed me to also create a reflection on narrative, how we perceive it and how we create it. It has existed universally since the beginning of humanity, knowledge has been transmitted through narratives. Nations and people create their identity from narratives."

In this sense, he explained that Disclaimer is built from four basic narratives, proposed in their own cinematographic languages, which is why there was the need for the photography to be done not just by Emmanuel Lubezki.

“Clearly we are living a paradigm shift,” he explained about the new ways of watching cinema, ”the different formats of how to enjoy cinema and television will continue to exist. Television and movie theaters will continue to exist, and I think there will be more compatibility between them."

On whether he will continue to work with streaming platforms, he said: “Now the big companies are the ones that have taken more risks because film producers are entrenched in their big productions. The platforms have already given certain filmmakers the opportunity to develop projects that don't necessarily fit in the studios of their platforms. I think we are living in a moment where diversity is coming back. Now most platforms are open to having their films screened in theaters before. I'm very hopeful about the future.”

On the use of artificial intelligence in film production and specifically in his work, he stated that he uses "a lot of his own stupidity, but no artificial intelligence."

"There is another very clear and concrete fact: no artificial intelligence, no algorithm, has imagination; that belongs to human beings and cannot be substituted. The problem is when they want to replace imagination with artificial intelligence."

During a conversation with journalists, he also addressed the issue of writing with the audience in mind: “I can't think about the audience when I create something. I have to look at it from the point of view that makes sense to me with the confidence - or faith - that if it interests me, it might interest someone else. The most important thing is that people feel a need to connect creatively, and that doesn't depend on formulas.”

When he delved deeper into the subject, he accepted that what he does find in contemporary audiences is the change in the perception of time, which influences the attention they pay to things. “A movie, even from the 1970s, already seems slow,” he added, ”with the bombardment of immediate information, people tend to have a shorter attention span. There is an addiction to narratives. We need to be plugged into a narrative all the time, and because there is an addiction, they are very short narratives. But that is information, not knowledge. The addiction to narrative is what kills reflection."

Concluding, when he heard that Francis Ford Coppola mentioned him as one of the directors to follow, he said: “I am very grateful to the master Coppola for bringing these things up, he is very generous. I met him when I was 19 years old and he gave me all the time in the world. But what he said is a cebollazo (slang for exaggerated praise),” he added with a laugh, "he is in Mexico, he is very skilful and knows what to say."