Alfonso Cuarón - Did Children of Men Predict Populism Today? | Screenwriter's Lecture

in all your films the environment is as important as the characters and never more so than in children of men let's talk a bit about that film and how that development process differed from each of mama tambien I know that obviously for a start it's a PD James novel so it's an adaptation rather than public domain or personal how was the experience of developing that screenplay different from e to mama tambien for you as a writer it was not that different because I never read PD James book right you heard it here first yeah and what I read was a synopsis that was sent to me one page yes I need trigger No and I found it the whole thing brilliant yes and it triggered this idea I was very intrigued about what was it was mm I'm here mm and I was very intrigued about the themes that were going to shape the new century yeah and when I read that and it was very serendipitous because he it happened at the same time when I read that I said wow this is an amazing opportunity to talk about this and immediately a movie came in my head and I start like the mental process and of of drafting how would it go yeah and so I start working with Tim sexton a collaborator writer collaborator and and and Tim said should we read the book and says I don't want to read the book because I don't want to the tool from this idea yeah he says but you read it and maybe if you say that think that there's something relevant let me know and and and he said you know there's another screenplay was written says I'm not interested but you read it if you want so here with the stuff and says okay shows as well there's the book that is absolutely brilliant is really good but has nothing to do with what we're doing right you know is the character of Julianne Moore is the one who's burning the baby right different there are no immigrants yeah is it's about you know it's more about this authoritarian society you know more like like a leader more kind of a well yin leader that is rolling the whole thing and I was interesting about making a democratic society that is going to de Burgh you know to the edge of things yeah it's a little bit like today yes and and the and about immigration and all these sort of games and the scribbler was just like straight adaptation of the novel of the novel's is not even good so let's just stick to the plan and from then on it was just about it was as a similar process because the process was about how we were going to form all these other themes you know because I was doing a lot of research about what what was shaping you were really me crying and John Gray Jean Grey and yeah the good misanthropist yes fresh John graden great the very nihilistic John Gray is brilliant yes neoneun yeah and people like Toto da Vinci se caen yeah and such as a skin and a lot of thinkers and a and that started to inform yes the whole background the whole thing also the certain we wanted a lot of this stuff just be you know like no I don't know if it's symbolic or of metaphorical elements because there was a lot of also it'll be the Foucault and yes and and and an echoing day right in the process so the and as we were doing that the as we were doing it it was about engaging the two stories you know the foreground the back foreground background story so making one understand yeah I believe you and your cinematographers agreed that you wanted to try and make London as much like Mexico City as possible and I'm sure it's no joy to you to discover how clairvoyant that film was because here we are 12 years later and you know the immigration crisis and the climate chaos that we now have right around us was there in that film yeah but there were people were warning about that for decades yeah but very few people were listening yeah yeah but it was no cat it was another topic trend fakers yes and the the what is amazing is that now everybody even people sending children of men oh look at them you know I was just these people were talking about that like two decades ago and now it's happening they all of this thing that we're living work completely was completely predicted to they could say immigration environment a this whole thing of the electorate the populism and alternative authoritarian state I mean this is reality really no no it is no there are no no news you know now it's not new [Music] [Music]

Channel: BAFTA Guru

Views: 16,052

Keywords: BAFTA, BAFTA Guru, British Academy Of Film And Television Arts (Award Presenting Organization), creative, career, film making, TV, gaming, actor, advice, movie, movies, movie making, children of men, clive owen, Alfonso Cuaron, Populism, Politics, screenplay, screenwriting, screenwriter, alfonso cuaron interview, alfonso cuaron interview children of men, dystopia

Id: dh1EGsetbJE

Length: 5min 56sec (356 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2019