Y Tu Mama Tambien

Production

Development

After working on Great Expectations and A Little Princess, Alfonso Cuarón envisioned a film that was not influenced by production techniques used in Hollywood cinema. Cuarón wanted to reject commercial production techniques he had used in his previous films, like dollies, close-ups, and dissolves. Instead he embraced a documentary-realist style of filmmaking for Y tu mamá también.[13] Before making the film, Cuarón had worked for some time in Hollywood, prior to return to his roots in Mexican cinema.[15] In an interview, Cuarón said: "I wanted to make the film I was going to make before I went to film school, ...a film in Spanish, and a road movie involving a journey to the beach."[15]

Additionally, Cuarón has cited Adieu Philippine, a 1962 French New Wave film, as a crucial inspiration for Y tu mamá también. Overlaps include a road trip featuring a love triangle, wide shots of a car curving down a road, an omniscient narrator, and a character dancing while staring into the camera.

Road movie

In Y tu mamá también, Alfonso Cuarón reimagined the American road movie genre to depict Mexico's geography, politics, people, and culture.[13] Cuarón wanted to use the road-film genre to challenge mid-20th century Latin-American Cinema movements that rejected the pleasure and entertainment typical of Hollywood commercial cinema created by using fictional characters and story.[16] Cuarón aimed to only borrow the pleasure and entertainment of Hollywood cinema to synthesize with political and cultural exploration of Mexico.[16] Using fictional characters and a story within the documentary-realist style, Cuarón was able to explore Mexico's geographical, cultural, and political landscapes.[16]

Filming and production

The director and screenwriter were not afraid of developing Y tu mamá también during the production process.[15] Cuarón's script was minimal and unelaborate so the actors could contribute to its development during the rehearsal process.[15] Throughout the film the actors improvised.[16] Instead of using high-tech equipment, the entire film was shot with a handheld camera to create a documentary-realist look that mimicked candid footage. In an interview, Cuarón said it all went "back to our original idea of 15 years ago, in which we would do a low-budget road movie that would allow us to go with some young actors and semi-improvise scenes and have a bare storyline but not be afraid of adding things as we went."[15]

Locations

The beach scenes in the film were shot near the resort Bahías de Huatulco in Oaxaca.[17]


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