November 29, 2016 (XXXIII: 14) Afonso Arrau: LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (1992), 105 min. (The online version of this handout has color images and hot url links.) Romancing the Stone (1984) and a hyperbolic desperado in Three Amigos! (1986). He established himself in the upper echelon of directors with the multiple-award-winning Like Water for Chocolate (1992), based on the novel by his wife Laura Esquivel. The success garnered him work in the U.S. helming the period romance A Walk in the Clouds (1995), the oddball ensemble comedy Picking Up the Pieces (2000) and the ambitious TV miniseries remake of the The Magnificent Ambersons" (A&E, 2002). Back in his native country, Arau would helm the surreal, would-be epic Zapata- El sueño del héroe (2004) to a storm of controversy. Building a legacy of iconoclastic and mystically-tinged movies, Arau would be Directed by Alfonso Arau credited as a prime catalyst in the re-establishment of a Written by Laura Esquivel (novel & screenplay) distinctive identity for Mexican film. Some of his additional 13 Produced by Alfonso Arau directorial credits are L'imbroglio nel lenzuolo (2010), A Music Leo Brouwer Painted House (2003, TV Movie), The Magnificent Ambersons Cinematography Steven Bernstein & Emmanuel Lubezki (2002, TV Movie), Picking Up the Pieces (2000), Like Water (director of photography) for Chocolate (1992), Chido Guan, el tacos de oro (1986), Film Editing Carlos Bolado & Francisco Chiu Mojado Power (1981) and Caribe, estrella y aguila (1976, Documentary). His acting credits include I Heart Shakey (2012), Cast The Dead One (2007), Picking Up the Pieces (2000), Committed Marco Leonardi…Pedro Muzquiz (2000), Polvora en la piel (1992), Walker (1987), Used Cars Lumi Cavazos…Tita (1980), Tívoli (1975), Posse (1975), Inspector Calzonzin (1974), Regina Torné…Mamá Elena Mario Iván Martínez…Doctor John Brown Ada Carrasco…Nacha Yareli Arizmendi…Rosaura Claudette Maillé…Gertrudis Pilar Aranda…Chencha Farnesio de Bernal…Cura Joaquín Garrido…Sargento Treviño Rodolfo Arias…Juan Alejándrez Margarita Isabel…Paquita Lobo Sandra Arau…Esperanza Muzquiz ALFONSO ARAU (b. January 11, 1932 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico) is better recognized as an actor by American moviegoers for essaying funny, vaguely menacing, sometimes self-aware Latino stereotypes, Alfonso Arau crafted an even more auspicious body of work as one of Mexico’s most laurel- laden film directors. He was a drama disciple of Seki Sano—a Japanese teacher, classmate of Lee Strasberg with Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia—and traveled the world from 1964 to 1968 with his one-man show, "Pantomime Happy Madness", after studying with Etienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq in Paris. One of his first roles was performing on Mexican TV with partner Sergio Corona, as half of the dancing / singing comedy duo "Corona y Arau". Arau re-immersed himself in the cinema of his native land in the 1970s, collaborating with Mexican film greats Alberto Isaac and Alejandro Jodorowsky and taking up the “auteur” mantle himself with the comedy El águila descalza (1971). He drew greater acclaim for the 1974 subversive comedy Inspector Calzonzin. However, it was his comedic work in the 1980s that would be most memorable for U.S. audiences, notably an amiable jefe of a drug gang in Arrau—LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE—2 Bonanza (1972, TV Series), later works veer towards a Gunsmoke (1972, TV Series), El more minimalist style. His Topo (1970), Tres amigos (1970), passion for the guitar has The Wild Bunch (1969), There remained and he is perhaps Are No Thieves in This Village best known for his Etudes (1965), Trip to the Moon (1958), Simples, a group of 20 studies Cien muchachas (1957), La for the classical guitar where locura del rock and roll (1957) technique and musicality and Looks that Kill (1954). He function as one. Brouwer has also has 8 writing credits. also explored the possibilities of large-scale works for the LAURA ESQUIVEL (b. September guitar, particularly in a piece 30, 1950 in Mexico City, Mexico) written for the 1979 Esztergom began writing while working as a Guitar Competition in kindergarten teacher. She wrote Hungary. For the event, plays for her students and Alfonso Arrau Brouwer composed a piece utilizing then went on to write an orchestra comprised of 200 children's television programs during the 1970s and 1980s. guitarists. Beyond his compositional output, he has conducted Esquivel often explores the relationship between men and some of the world's leading orchestras including the women in Mexico in her work. In 1986, she wrote and starred in Philharmonic Orchestra of Berlin, BBC Concert Orchestra, Chido Guan, el tacos de oro, however, she is best known for Orchestra Nouvelle Philharmonic de Paris, and the Symphonic Like Water for Chocolate (1990), an imaginative and Orchestra of Madrid. In addition, Brouwer retains duties as compelling combination of novel and cookbook. After the principal conductor of the Cordoba Symphony in Spain, artistic release of the film version in 1992, the novel became director of the Havana Symphony and a member of the internationally known and loved. The book has sold more than International Council of Music. Brouwer has also participated as 4.5 million copies. Esquivel has continued to show her creative a guitarist and composer in the festivals of Aldeburgh, Avignon, flair and lyrical style in her later work. Accompanied by a Edinburgh, Spoleto, Berlin, Toronto, Martinique, and Rome, collection of music, her second novel The Law of Love (1996) among others. In 2003, won an honorary lifetime achievement combined romance and science fiction. Between the Fires award at the Havana Film Festival. In 1987 he was selected, (2000) featured essays on life, love, and food. Her novel, along with Isaac Stern and Alan Danielou, to be an honorable Malinche (2006), explores the life of a near mythic figure in member of UNESCO in recognition for his music career, an Mexican history-the woman who served as Spanish honor that he shares with Menuhin, Shankar, Karajan, conquistador Hernán Cortés's interpreter and mistress. Once Sutherland and other musical luminaries. In addition to tonight’s married to director Alfonso Arau, Esquivel is divorced and lives film, his cinematic composition credits include Kill Me Over in Mexico City, Mexico. She has been a member of Mexico’s and Over (1998), Tiempo de morir (1985), Alsino and the Chamber of Deputies since 2012. Condor (1982), No hay sábado sin sol (1980), La viuda de Montiel (1979), Los sobrevivientes (1979), The Recourse to the LEO BROUWER (b. March 1, 1939 in Havana, Cuba) was Method (1978), The Last Supper (1976), The Strange Case of encouraged musically by his father, an amateur guitarist, and Rachel K (1973), A Cuban Fight Against Demons (1972), Lucía began playing the guitar when he was 13. He then became a (1968), The Adventures of Juan Quin Quin (1967), Vaqueros del descendant in an important guitar lineage: Isaac Nicola, his first cauto (1967, Documentary short), Death of a Bureaucrat real instructor, had studied under Emilio Pujol, who himself had (1966), The Young Rebel (1961), Stories of the Revolution been a student of Francisco Tárrega. Brouwer gave his first (1960) performance at 17 and soon was composing music as well. His Prelude was written in 1956 followed by Fugue in 1959. He STEVEN BERNSTEIN (b. date unknown, Buffalo, New York) had furthered his musical education in America, studying this to say about his winding career path: “I wanted to be a composition at the Juilliard School and at Hart College in writer, but like Pooh Bear I thought too much and wrote too Hartford. He became director of the Music Department of the little. That is too say I was more a reader then a writer, more Cinema Institute of Cuba in 1961 as well as professor of academician then poet. I got very interested in semiology and composition in the Music Conservatory and musical advisor to structuralism [the study of how language encodes ideas]. the National Radio and Television Chair of Havana. He was also Initially I studied how the spoken and written language worked, named director of the experimental department of the Cuban but then became more interested in how codes worked in other Institute of Cinema Arts and Industry, where he continued his languages, like the language of film. My interest in film own work as composer. Brouwer was the first Cuban composer language led me in a rather convoluted way to cinematography. to use aleatory forms in his compositions. His varied output I suppose I became more serious about film as a practical rather includes many works for guitar; percussion; prepared and non- then theoretical occupation, around 1976, when London, where I prepared piano; a ballet; a chorus of 12 members, three children, was living, had a lot of independent film production companies. and harp; and several orchestral pieces. He has also written There was a building in North London called the Co-op, where music for more than 100 films. Brouwer's early compositions you could edit your films for a few pounds. I think they had a reflect a Cuban influence and are strongly rhythmic while his couple of Bolex cameras available. I put an ad up offering my Arrau—LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE—3 services as a cinematographer. It was a fortuitous choice as Cinematography, winning three, for Gravity (2013), Birdman or everyone else wanted to be a director. I got hired. The first film (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), and The Revenant I did was about the Druids of Stonehenge. It led to other (2015). He is the first cinematographer in history to win three independent projects. About this time a producer named John consecutive Academy Awards.