Alfonso Cuaron on the Approach to “Duck Season’s” Younger Characters: The tone of this film and Cuaron’s own “And Your Mother Too” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is never condescending toward the pre-teen and teenaged characters. “That is so much respect, that is the generosity of Fernando with his characters. He never makes fun at the expense of his characters. He can be very detached and ironic about the whole thing, but he’s not going for the easy joke with his characters and that’s one of the things I fully enjoyed with the whole thing.
I think that the same approach that he took with young people, he took with audiences. That respect, he’s just trusting that people are going to be as smart as he is, and also because he’s not trying to show off how smart he is. He’s a very generous soul in that sense. …He doesn’t look down to the characters, to these young people.
It’s a film that I’ve seen a 10-year-old enjoying as much as a 60-year-old, both with a frozen smile on their face. At the end of the film, both are talking about the film but from completely different standpoints. And it’s the beauty of that, that Fernando is throwing the themes and you pick them up. Then the 10-year-old’s picking up more the rites of passage of young teenage kids, while the grown-up is talking about the affect that the actions of adults have in children.”
Alfonso Cuaron on the Film’s R Rating: “Actually, I’m appalled. I’m so amazingly shocked that it received an R rating. I’m shocked. Maybe it’s a weapon of mass destruction or something. I’m shocked that this is an R-rated film. What I don’t understand is what is the fear of these politicians, like Tony Blair and stuff? Because here there is the equivalent. They are so afraid of young people seeing films in which young people are portrayed the way they really are. They’re okay for them to ridicule them, to humiliate them and to show a different reality that can be even grosser - and they are fine with it. There’s a big fear about young people seeing themselves reflected on the big screen. I think young people are not scared, it’s the older people that are scared about it. I just find this movie, R rated film? Come on!”
Alfonso Cuaron on Supporting New Filmmakers: “I don’t feel any responsibility about that. For me, it’s a complete selfish act. It’s selfishness, pure selfishness. I’m at an age, I’m reaching an age in which… Since I remember, I’ve been following the masters, the big masters, the old masters. I’m trying to emulate the masters. But at the same time, studying the filmography of masters and you get to see that most of them, even the great masters, they have amazing windows of 10 years in which they made the best movies ever. But then after, things happen. Then you see other filmmakers that they happen to have a longer spread of life, and they happen to be filmmakers that don’t only look forward but they look back to the new trends, to how people are perceiving things.
For me, right now it’s as important as looking forward to the great old masters, to look back to the young masters that are going to push you and question and come with new ways of doing things. So I think it’s just for me about keeping myself relevant. But it’s not unlike politicians. Tony Blair has his rant against young people because young people don’t have respect for older people. You always see that when politicians start talking about and attacking young people, you know that something’s going really wrong with them. It’s the first thing always. In a way, I think that probably that happens with some filmmakers. There’s a moment in which they feel these young people don’t have enough respect for me that I’ve done all these movies. The truth of the matter is just because they are not in the book doesn’t mean that a lot of these filmmakers aren’t absolutely amazing. They are doing as innovative things as a lot of those masters that we admire so much.”
