"IT'S A LIFE-AFFIRMING JOYRIDE"
UNCUT

"RAMBUNCTIOUSLY ENERGETIC"
SIGHT AND SOUND

Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN
(AND YOUR MOTHER TOO)

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Screenplay by
Alfonso Cuarón & Carlos Cuarón

ABOUT THE PLOT

The lives of Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal, Amores Perros, Dreaming of Julia) and Tenoch (Diego Luna, Vampires, Before Night Falls), like those of most seventeen-year-old boys, are controlled by their hormones, their friendship and by their headlong rush into adulthood.

During a festive afternoon with their families, they meet Luisa (Maribel Verdú, Amantes, Belle Epoch) a twenty-eight year old Spaniard, and flirt with her with all the style and grace seventeen-year-old boys are known for. As a joke, they invite her to accompany them on a road trip to a beach called Boca del Cielo (Heaven's Mouth), neglecting to mention that they wouldn't know where to find it, even if it did actually exist. Luisa humours the boys, they go their separate ways and the incident is quickly forgotten.

Luisa, however, receives some heartbreaking news, and in need of a change in her environment, tracks down the boys and accepts their offer. The three hit the road together, their destination not so much Boca del Cielo, but that strange, elusive place in our lives where innocence, sexuality and friendship collide, and adulthood lies in wait to pick up the pieces.

INTERVIEW WITH ALFONSO AND CARLOS CUARON

Alfonso: "In the beginning there was Zappa. Carlos and I sat in my garden listening to Watermelon in Easter Hay in an endless loop, while we bounced ideas back and forth. And the loop kept on running until we finished the script, and later until we had the final cut of the film. The tone of that song is the mood we were aiming for. We owe so much to Zappa."
Carlos: "The original idea was maybe 10 years old or more and it was shelved for along time. We tried to make it a few times, but the project never really came together. We could never convey all the elements that we wanted to, until last year, when the idea came up of putting it into an erotic context. That's how the whole project came alive. Putting together these three characters, with a little sex and a little fun. And of course there was the Zappa song."

Alfonso: "What I really felt like doing was a movie that was completely different form what I've been doing, something that came form a more realistic reference point. So I decided to change my point of view on everything - from the way the story is told to the way it should look. I'd been talking to 'el Chivo' [cinematographer and long-time collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki] about making something like this ever since we finished shooting Great Expectations. In terms of the sex, we wanted to make a 'sexual' movie that didn't hide anything. We just wanted to be honest with the characters and simply see sexual situations the way they actually are.

I always wanted to shoot in Mexico and in Spanish - in Chilango [Mexico City slang.] With Y Tu Mamá También, we tried to observe the social context in as much detail as the observation of the characters' behaviour. This is an interesting moment in Mexican cinema, with new filmmakers, diverse and new means of financing, new cinemas and a new audience that has given a vote of faith to Mexican production. Now it is up to us, the filmmakers."

Carlos: "We had the idea that we wanted to make a movie that would be like a novel in its portrayal of characters. Tenoch is the son of a politician, and his mother is very spiritual or mystical, Tenoch being an Aztec name. He wants to be a writer, a good writer. And he struggles with that.

Julio is a much more humble character. He comes from group housing. He was born in Mexico. His mother is just a regular secretary. His sister is a civil rights activist, fighting different causes through the university, very involved in Mexican movements."

Carlos: " Alfonso and I drew on our own experiences when writing the script, but not entirely. I believe that the story comes from a lot of things, including our imaginations. I'm not actually interested in doing some of the things our characters do, but I can imagine them, and imagine them within the context of a film. There are some similarities with our lives, but not necessarily the obvious ones. I'm not Julio, Alfonso's not Tenoch. It deals more with personal aspects, about things we, at times unfortunately, know about. But in the main, this is a work of fantasy."

WEB LINKS

http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0245574
http://worldfilm.about.com/library/weekly/aa100401d.htm
http://www.ytumamatambien.com

DIRECTOR'S INFORMATION

Born in Mexico City, Alfonso Cuarón studied cinema and philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He worked as assistant director in several films and directed TV shows before making his movie debut with Solo Con Tu Pareja. This dark comedy about a man who believes he has been infected with the HIV virus, which starred Daniel Gimenez Cacho and Claudia Ramirez, was Mexico's biggest box office hit of 1992.

Cuarón directed Murder Obliquely, an episode of the Fallen Angels series on Showtime, starring Laura Dern and Alan Rickman, which won him the 1993 Cable ACE award for best director.

His next project, A Little Princess, took him to Hollywood, and brought him, among many other plaudits, the L.A. Film Critics New Generation Award. This was followed by his third full-length film, a contemporary adaptation of Great Expectations starring Robert DeNiro, Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Although he now lives in New York, with Y Tu Mama También (which was co-scripted with his brother Carlos) Cuarón returned to film in Mexico. This is his first Spanish-speaking film in 10 years. He is now developing several projects through his Warner Bros.-based movie company, Besame Mucho, founded in 1995, as well as Producciones Anhelo, in which he is partnered with producer Jorge Vergera.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

"With their girlfriends gone on an Italian vacation, Tenoch and Julio spend their summer like Beavis and Butthead would. Their level of discourse, subtitled or not, peaks with 'Left-wing chicks are hot, dude.' Y Tu Mamá También is a bit like Tenoch and Julio's Excellent Adventure - if Keanu Reeves had gotten naked and that film had been littered with poetic asides about politics, history, and the human condition….Y Tu Mamá También combines the heartbreaking with the lewd, death with desire, and fearlessly points out that the best we have is also generally quite embarrassing, but dammit, it's all we have."
Jurgen Fauth, World/Independent Film

"At this moment, we understand that this seamlessly structured narrative, so alive with feeling and so simple to follow, will also contain hints, whispers and echoes of completely resonant information that will deepen our knowledge of the characters. It's here we realise the full scope of what the film is doing; we know that what we're watching is not just enjoyable or imaginative or accomplished (director Alfonso Cuarón has already shown himself to be a visual stylist of some distinction with his last movie, Great Expectations) but full-blown great."
Jose Arroyo, SIGHT AND SOUND

"Raunchy, smart, ebullient, melancholy, insightful, surprising, funny, frank and sexy as all get-out."
Marc Caro, Chicago Tribune

CAST LIST

Notes Compiled by:
	Tyneside Cinema 10 Pilgrim Street Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6QG Tel: (0191) 232 8289 - 10am - 8pm (Box Office and Administration) (voice plus minicom 5), (0191) 232 1507 (recorded information line). Tyneside Cinema website address: http://www.tynecine.org

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