Cha Cha Chá Films: Three Mexicans with a Global Scope Come Together

Biutiful (2010), a contender for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, brings together three eminent film directors: Alejandro González Iñarritu as the director, co-producer and scriptwriter and Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro as co-producers. Starring Javier Bardem and filmed in Barcelona, Biutiful is a late sequel of Iñarritu’s Death Trilogy, which comprises of Amores Perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). And it is also a continuation of his aesthetic, an aesthetic of accidental violence that unites and disrupts the lives of seemingly perfect strangers. The story centers on Uxbal, a lonely drug dealer who is trying to clean up his act and maintain his sanity, as he struggles to ensure the future of his children and make it in a poverty stricken neighborhood. His life, however, becomes even more complicated when he is confronted by an old friend from childhood, who is now a policeman.

But Biutiful is not the first collaboration between Iñarritu, Alfonso Cuarón and del Toro, who jointly own the production company Cha Cha Chá Films and who have been friends for decades. Although their interests are rather different, Cha Cha Chá has committed to produce at least five films in both Spanish and English, as part of its contract with Universal Pictures and Focus Features. The first one of the series was released in December 2008 and it was a comedy. Rudo y Cursi , directed by Alfonso’s brother, Carlos Cuarón, deals with the Mexican professional soccer league. Two brothers from a poor Mexican village, who are played by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, fight one another to be selected as professional soccer players in Mexico City. The film is a crowd pleaser, but also a bitter satire about the lives of the rich and famous and a sad reflection on the war between two brothers, which obviously has deeper meanings in the context in which it was produced. Although I personally did not dislike it and it did make me laugh, I am expecting much more from the three amigos, particularly from their third film.

Their third joint effort, called Saturn and the End of Days, is expected to be released in 2011. Details about the movie are not out yet. However, online sources (www.beyondhollywood.com, www.slashfilm.com ) cite del Toro, who revealed the storyline at the 2008 New York Comic-Con. This “ perhaps final, little movie about childhood and horror” of del Toro’s will focus on a boy named Saturn, who watches a movie about the end of the world while walking to and coming back from the supermarket. An unexpected theme again, which is not surprising of del Toro.
“It’s like, what would happen if the Apocalypse was viewed by you [while] doing errands. You go back and forth and nothing big happens except the entire world is being sucked into a vortex of fire. ” The director went on to say: ” In small movies you have much more control. If I say this is the design of the fawn and the girl is going to do this or do that, that’s me. In Big Hollywood movies, you get a 50-page memo. It’s horrible. Independent film making is like drawing a comic book, the Hollywood movie is like having five hands holding your hand while you’re drawing the comic book.”

Del Toro’s remarks about Hollywood and independent film making bring me to my main question. Where exactly do these three immensely talented directors fit in? On the one hand, some of their films were blockbusters, and were widely acclaimed by Film academics and critics. On the other hand, their unique interests and means of expression set them apart from the rest of Hollywood, but no longer grant them a place among obscure and unheard-of indie directors. Third, but not least, they are all Mexicans who deal with universal themes: violence, selfishness, childhood, horror, war, accidents, the psychological limits of human beings. When they do place their films in a specific time and place, it’s almost never Mexico or not only Mexico. And it often times is the US, for that matter.

We tend to categorize movies and directors, but under what category should these three names be mentioned? Mexican directors, Hollywood big names, special interest indies who were ”corrupted” by Hollywood? And should we even try to categorize them at all, given the scope of their work? One thing to bare in mind, though, is that, in spite of their success and with a few exceptions, all three have remained true to their original interests and themes. Iñarritu is still making films about the interconnectedness of a violent world that is fraught with accidents. Guillermo del Toro is still the horror genius, making films inspired from the comics that he himself draws. And Cuarón, who shares a bit of Iñarritu’s and del Toro’s themes, goes back and forth between sex and violence, childhood and violence and sci-fi. The above description of their themes is by no means complete, nor am I trying to be reductive. Rather, I want to underline the fact that they adhered to their original themes, which goes to show that truly talented directors who are honestly passionate about certain topics can make it in Hollywood without having to ”fit in” thematically. And that categorizing these three directors is an impossible feat, just like rejecting them for being too popular and too acclaimed is absurd. They are simply brilliant. Period.

We shall see what the future brings for Cha Cha Chá Films and for the three amigos. I was not impressed by Rudo y Cursi, but Biutiful and Saturn.. sound promising. And what is even more promising is the collaboration between these giants of Mexican and International Film, who have such different approaches to form and content. There is a slight chance that the result of their collaboration could be a disaster, a clash of very powerful and well defined styles. However, I don’t think that will happen. And I expect at least another film as brilliant as Amores Perros to come out of Cha Cha Chá Films.