Alfonso Cuarón’s vision of women
 

Posted on 17.10.2024

The Mexican filmmaker, a regular presence at the festival, is back this year to screen his limited series, Disclaimer.

© Apple TV+ - Anonymous Content - Esperanto Filmoj

Catherine is a star journalist who has been recognised for the high moral quality of her work. When one day she receives a novel recounting an episode from her past as a young woman, it plunges her life into the anguish of the unimaginable fallout. Alfonso Cuarón's Disclaimer is a limited series of seven chapters, providing just as many variations on the life of one woman. With his very singular way of looking at the human condition, between great cowardice, bleakness, real courage and immense emotion, Cuarón constructs two narratives that constantly collide with the grace of chaos.

King of illumination of the reveal, the filmmaker unfolds his story in the fluid clarity of summer, contrasted against the cold, dark hues of winter. And Cuarón, in the end indecipherable, depicts a luminous summer that hides everything, and a sombre winter that reveals all. Cinematographers Bruno Delbonnel and Emmanuel Lubezki perfect an image whose intense definition seems to trap the heroine wherever she goes.

© Apple TV+ - Anonymous Content - Esperanto Filmoj

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Renée Knight, Disclaimer is searingly relevant. Cate Blanchett, who plays Catherine in the present, has perfectly understood the importance of this story, which asks the question: how does society judge (with alarming speed) talented and beautiful women who are suddenly under attack? With her reinvented vitality, the Australian actress, tracked by Cuarón's camera, must struggle against violence as much as intelligence. The Mexican filmmaker pits her younger, shadier fantasy double (the ‘former’ Catherine played by the sensational Leila George) against her. In choosing this narrative, Cuarón re-demonstrates the finesse of his visual talent, but even more so, his impeccably subversive magnanimity that makes you want to thank him. 

V.A.

Screenings:

Disclaimer  by Alfonso Cuarón  (A miniseries in 7 chapters, 2024, 5h29)

UGC Part-Dieu Thu 17 4pm ( episodes 1-4) | 8:30pm (episodes 5-7)