Culture tambien

  "Y Tu Mamá También," the tale of a
sexually-charged road trip, stars Gael Garcia
Bernal and Maribel Verdu, shown above,
and opens nationwide on Friday.

By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Reporter

Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón’s new film is a
teenage sex romp. Yet unlike the Hollywood variety, Cuarón
manages to infuse it with observations of Mexico’s politics
and culture, not to mention a lot of sex. What emerges is a candid
look at Mexico without the mariachis.

“Y Tu Mamá También” opens nationwide on
April 5. Part of a resurgence of Mexican films, beginning with last
year’s Oscar contender “Amores Perros,” “Y
Tu Mamá También” (“And Your Mom, Too”)
is intended to raise more than a few eyebrows with its observations
about life in a rapidly developing country.

Taking place before the ousting of the 71-year PRI regime, two
young men (Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal) persuade a sexy
housewife (Maribel Verdú) to go on a trip with them to an
imaginary beach, Heaven’s Mouth. Along the way, we see the
Mexican military harassing farmers, upper class extravagance,
drug-inspection road blocks, and, of course, the beautiful
untouched beaches of Mexico’s coast. None of it looks like
the Hollywood gringo version of Mexico we’ve seen (think
“The Mexican” or “Traffic”), but in a way
that’s the point.

  Photos from IFC Films Maribel Verdu, Diego
Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal star in
Alfonso Cuarón’s "Y Tu Mamá También."

“This movie is an observation of a country, which in our
opinion is a teenage country seeking its identity as a grown-up
country,” said Cuarón, who wrote the script with his
brother Carlos.

Sometimes the observations became so intense that it verged on
documentary, as in the case of a scene in which a character looks
for his sister at a protest rally. The demonstration was not staged
and, in fact, was one of a series that occurred after police
invaded Mexico City’s National University and arrested
hundreds of students ““ 150,000 people protested the action
and became part of the film.

Other scenes show the various road blocks and military presence
that dot Mexico’s rural areas. Many of these were also
real.

“The road blocks, you’re not supposed to shoot those
things,” Cuarón said. “We stole those shots. After
the second or third time we crossed the road block, they started to
become suspicious.”

  Gael Garcia Bernal, Maribel Verdu and
Diego Luna take audiences through a realistic
visual observation of Mexico as they go on a road trip to the
fictional Heaven’s Mouth beach in "Y Tu Mamá
También."

Perhaps the most realistic aspect of the film, the sex between
hormonal teenagers, has also drawn the most fire from conservative
groups wanting to restrict children from seeing the film. In
Mexico, all films are rated by a government institution (RTC, or
the Radio, Televisión y Cinematografía), essentially
giving the government the power to censor unfavorable films.
Cuarón sued the government for its “C” rating,
comparable to an NC-17-rating, because of a lack of definition of
what exactly the rating means. The government, even under the
Vicente Fox regime, responded with hostility.

“We sued the government, and they punished us by sending
inspectors into the theaters, not letting you through unless you
can prove you’re over 18, even if you look like you’re
45,” Cuarón said.

The sexual honesty of the film reflects the reality of Mexican
life unlike pornography, which is by definition dishonest about
sex. Instead, the tone of the film is more humorous and playful,
making it feel more like “Road Trip” than “Deep
Throat.”

“This film is for kids, I think,” said Bernal, who
plays Julio. Noting that countries like Spain and Chile allowed
children as young as 12 and 13 to see the film, Bernal said,
“Are those kids more developed than Mexican or American
kids?”

Indeed, the Motion Picture Association of America,
Hollywood’s rating institution, refused to give an R rating,
forcing the film to be released unrated to avoid cuts. Even with
puritanical forces against it, the film broke box office records in
Mexico, suggesting that people are responding to the relevance of
the film’s issues. Meanwhile, Cuarón continues his
litigation for a fairer ratings system.

“Part of our plea was to let the kids go if accompanied by
their parents,” Cuarón said. “They said no,
because the bureaucrats know what’s better for your kids than
the parents. We want to bring responsibility in education back to
the parents, not the bureaucrats.”

Behind the ratings squabble is a real cultural war going on
between the politicians and the artists. Cuarón (who directed
the high-profile flop “Great Expectations”) along with
his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Oscar-nominated for
“Sleepy Hollow”) and director Guillermo del Toro
(“Blade 2″) are just some of the expatriates forced to
leave Mexico for Hollywood. As a result, Mexican films have
suffered until Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Amores
Perros” last year proved that filmmaking conditions in Mexico
were improving.

While Vicente Fox represents a relaxation of governmental
patronizing, the regime is still largely conservative and
emphasizes athletics over the arts. The two young stars of “Y
Tu Mamᔝ want to change that.

“Films are the ambassadors of a country,” Bernal
said.

“If Mexico is known in the world, it’s because of
its cultural movement, its music, paintings and movies,” said
Luna, who plays Tenoch in the film. “This is the first movie
that I have the chance to show the whole world. The world is
waiting for us, so we have to take the chance and do it on our
own.”