The Three Amigos : The Transnational Filmmaking of Guillermo Del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Alfonso Cuarón

"This is the first academic book dedicated to the filmmaking of the Mexican born directors, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Alfonso Cuarón. The book examines the career trajectories of the directors and presents a detailed analysis of their most significant films. These include studies on del Toro's Cronos/Chronos, El laberinto del fauno/Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy II: The Golden Army; Inárritu's Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel; and Cuarón's Sólo con tu pareja/Love in the Time of Hysteria, Y tu mamá también, and Children of Men."--Page [4] of cover. 'This is the first academic book dedicated to the filmmaking of the Mexican born directors Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Alfonso Cuarón. The book examines the career trajectories of the directors and presents a detailed analysis of their most significant films. These include studies on del Toro's Cronos/Chronos, El laberinto del fauno/Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army; Iñárritu's Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel; and Cuarón's Sólo con tu pareja/Love in the Time of Hysteria, Y tu mamá también, and Children of Men. All three have worked in diverse industrial contexts, and between them they have made key films that have changed the nature of filmmaking in Mexico, Hollywood blockbusters, US independent films, 'European' art films, and films that defy easy classification. They have had unprecedented international success and have crossed linguistic, national and generic borders, cutting through traditional divisions created by film markets. As a result, this book challenges the ways both markets and critics have created clear-cut distinctions between mainstream commercial and independent art cinema, and the ways they have conceptualised US, Latin American and European cinema as discrete entities. The work of the three directors creates new hybrid formations and makes us rethink ways in which we have understood the auteur label. The main theoretical approaches applied in this book to analyse the directors' working practices and texts centre on new readings of auteurism and transnational film theories.This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of film studies and Hispanic studies, and general cinema enthusiasts who are interested in the films of the three directors' --Back cover This is the first academic book dedicated to the filmmaking of the three best known Mexican born directors, Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Alfonso Cuarón. Deborah Shaw examines the career trajectories of the directors and presents a detailed analysis of their most significant films with a focus on both the texts and the production contexts in which they were made. These include studies on del Toro's Cronos/ Chronos, El laberinto del fauno/Pan's Labyrinth, and Hellboy II: The Golden Army; Iñárritu's Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel; and Cuarón's Sólo con tu pareja/ Love in the Time of Hysteria, Y tu mamá también, and Children of Men. The Three Amigos will be of interest to all those who study Hispanic and Spanish Cinema in particular, and World and contemporary cinema in general. Front matter Dedication Contents List of figures Acknowledgements Introduction Part I Guillermo del Toro: the alchemist Cronos: introducing Guillermo del Toro Generating an authorial presence with Hellboy II: The Golden Army El laberinto del fauno: breaking through the barriers of filmmaking Part II Alejandro González Iñárritu: independentfilmmaker Crashing into the international film market with Amores perros 21 Grams: an American independent film made by Mexicans Babel and the global Hollywood gaze Part III Alfonso Cuarón: a study of auteurism in flux Alfonso Cuarón’s first films in Mexico and the USA Cuarón finds his own path: Y tu mamá también Children of Men: the limits of radicalism Conclusion Filmography Bibliography Index