Post by Neverending on Feb 28, 2015 21:20:53 GMT -5
www.vice.com/read/the-80s-mexican-sci-fi-show-that-spawned-hollywoods-best-filmmakers
The 2015 Academy Awards marked the second year in a row that Mexican filmmakers have taken home the Oscar for Best Director and Best Cinematography.
On Sunday, Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu took home this year's Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards. Last year Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director for his work on Gravity. To top it all off, the director of photography on both Birdman and Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki, scored two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.
Iñárritu, Cuarón, and Lubezki, along with fellow Oscar nominees Guillermo Del Toro (Pacific Rim), Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth), and Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain) are all part of a generation of Mexican-born auteurs who have managed to make their mark on Hollywood.
The origins of these gifted Mexican filmmakers can be traced back to 1988, with the premiere of La Hora Marcada (The Marked Hour), a Mexican television anthology series devoted to tackling experimental horror, science fiction, and urban legends from Latin America. Think of it as the Mexican answer to The Twilight Zone and a predecessor to Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker's episodic sci-fi sensation.
La Hora Marcada had only one recurring character: a "woman in black" with a large hat and veil who wouldn't seem out of place on today's American Horror Story.
On Sunday, Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu took home this year's Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards. Last year Alfonso Cuarón won Best Director for his work on Gravity. To top it all off, the director of photography on both Birdman and Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki, scored two consecutive Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.
Iñárritu, Cuarón, and Lubezki, along with fellow Oscar nominees Guillermo Del Toro (Pacific Rim), Guillermo Navarro (Pan's Labyrinth), and Rodrigo Prieto (Brokeback Mountain) are all part of a generation of Mexican-born auteurs who have managed to make their mark on Hollywood.
The origins of these gifted Mexican filmmakers can be traced back to 1988, with the premiere of La Hora Marcada (The Marked Hour), a Mexican television anthology series devoted to tackling experimental horror, science fiction, and urban legends from Latin America. Think of it as the Mexican answer to The Twilight Zone and a predecessor to Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker's episodic sci-fi sensation.
La Hora Marcada had only one recurring character: a "woman in black" with a large hat and veil who wouldn't seem out of place on today's American Horror Story.
Cuarón started as an assistant director on the TV show, and Del Toro worked in special effects and makeup. The two young filmmakers bonded quickly over their creative differences after Cuarón directed his first episode for the series based on a Stephen King short story.
La Hora Marcada was canceled in 1990, but not before Cuarón got the chance to write and direct six episodes. Some of Cuarón's most memorable Hora Marcada storylines involved an amusement park haunted by the ghosts of children and a young man who switches bodies with a serial killer.
As for Del Toro, he ended up writing five episodes and directing six. His episodes tended to go more for a mind fuck rather than a straight-up horror story. One episode of La Hora Marcada shared Del Toro's take on a Soylent Green-inspired restaurant serving human meat, a time machine used for colonization, zombies meeting up at a fast food restaurant, and an alien invasion. Another of Del Toro's episodes tells the story of a seemingly friendly ogre who rescues a young girl from her abusive father only to bring her down to the sewer to eat her alive. The episode in particular has many parallels with Del Toro's Academy Award-nominated film Pan's Labyrith, about a girl who discovers nightmarish creatures while confronting the real-life horrors following the Spanish Civil War.
Lubezki was responsible for the cinematography in the ogre episode and seven more Hora Marcada episodes, most of which were written and directed by Cuarón or Del Toro.
As for Del Toro, he ended up writing five episodes and directing six. His episodes tended to go more for a mind fuck rather than a straight-up horror story. One episode of La Hora Marcada shared Del Toro's take on a Soylent Green-inspired restaurant serving human meat, a time machine used for colonization, zombies meeting up at a fast food restaurant, and an alien invasion. Another of Del Toro's episodes tells the story of a seemingly friendly ogre who rescues a young girl from her abusive father only to bring her down to the sewer to eat her alive. The episode in particular has many parallels with Del Toro's Academy Award-nominated film Pan's Labyrith, about a girl who discovers nightmarish creatures while confronting the real-life horrors following the Spanish Civil War.
Lubezki was responsible for the cinematography in the ogre episode and seven more Hora Marcada episodes, most of which were written and directed by Cuarón or Del Toro.
It was around this time that Lubezki introduced Cuarón and Del Toro to Iñárritu, who was working as a prominent rock radio DJ and had composed the score to four Mexican feature films. It wasn't until Iñárritu released Amores Perros, a gritty film that premiered to a standing ovation at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, that he cemented his place as a Mexican auteur to watch.
