Y Tu Mamá También

by Paul Julian Smith

Overview

Y Tu Mamá También (2001), an intelligent and sensual road movie directed by Alfonso Cuarón and co-written by him and his brother Carlos, is both an acclaimed feature by a director who would go on to win Oscars and a box office success abroad and in its native Mexico, where it was the biggest grossing local film of all time. Its teenage protagonists Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna went on to be major stars of global cinema.

Yet on its release the film was vilified by established Mexican critics as a coarse comedy and 'Penthouse fantasy' of youthful lust for an older woman. Paul Julian Smith's lucid study of the film argues that Y Tu Mamá También not only addresses with playful seriousness such major issues as gender, race, class, and space, which are yet more urgent now than they were on its release; but that the film's apparently casual aesthetic masks a sophisticated audiovisual style, one which brings together popular genre film and auteurist experiment.

Smith suggests Y Tu Mamá También remains an example for world cinema of how a very local film can connect with a global audience that is ignorant of such niceties. Combining production and distribution history, based on unexplored material held in Mexico City archives, with close textual analysis, Smith makes an argument for Cuarón's film as an enduring masterpiece that hides in plain sight as an ephemeral teen movie.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781839025204
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/20/2022
Series:	BFI Film Classics
Pages:	104
Product dimensions:	5.35(w) x 7.45(h) x 0.35(d)

About the Author

Paul Julian Smith is the Professor of Spanish at the University of Cambridge, UK and author of Contemporary Spanish Culture: TV, Fashion, Art and Film (2003). He is a regular contributor to Sight and Sound.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Still Charolastras
1. Pop Kills Poetry?
2. Alternative Routes
3. Sound and Vision
4. Sweat and Stardom
5. Afterlives
Notes
Credits

Editorial Reviews

[An] illuminating study.” —Miranda France, Times Literary Supplement

“Smith writes with the fluency of an award-winning journalist and the analytical sharpness of the leading academic that he is. This is an essential and highly readable book for anyone who wants to learn the story of Y tu mamá también and understand how it has become a classic film of Mexican and international cinema.” —Deborah Shaw, University of Portsmouth, UK

“Paul Julian Smith combines a breadth of knowledge of Mexican film with insights from online fan cultures in this broad ranging, distinctive, and highly readable book. It is a must for those studying both Y tu mama también and Mexican film culture.” —Niamh Thornton, Liverpool University, UK

“Paul Julian Smith has written the essential book on what I consider to be Mexico's best film of the century so far. With a deep knowledge of its production and circulation, this book provides readers not only with a comprehensive study of Y tu mamá también, but also with a model on how to write a book that is at the same time rigorous and readable.” —Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado, Washington University in St. Louis, USA.

“This BFI Film Classic is a useful text which offers fresh insight into a classic film. Its publication in 2023 marks the second year after the twentieth anniversary of the film and allows for a wider study of the director in relation to his discography post 'Y Tu Mamá También' ... [Smith's] research is meticulous. From examining the archive at Mexico City's Cineteca Nacional to exploring the most popular GIFs from the film, Smith has carried out a range of thought-provoking research which fills the text with authority.” —Miranda McDade, Media Education Journal

From the Publisher