Y Tu Mama Tambien

Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien was a coming of age story for two friends, and a story of a woman's acceptance of her imminent death. The film is Mexican, and shot mostly with hand-held camera. (Like Children of Men also by Cuaron).

The theme of this narrative, like we discussed in class, was the juxtaposition of life and death. There are several instances throughout that Cuaron establishes this cinematically through the elements of mise-en-scene. For instance at the begginning, when Julio and Tenoch are driving in the car, talking about their girlfriends and complaining about traffic, the camera and narrator points out a man on the ground who had been hit by a bus. Also, through the course of the road trip, when Julio, Tenoch, and Luisa are traveling to the beach, the crosses at gravesites are shown constantly. I was wondering about the signifigance of this until I found at the end that Luisa had died.

The cinematography and of this piece was typical to Cuaron (from at least what I've seen) The hand-held and lack of cuts made it seem very realistic, almost like a home movie, or like the camera was another character in the story. It drifted a lot. I also found it interesting at the end when Luisa is dancing on the beach and looks directly at the camera. It was almost like an aside to the audience because it is around that point, I percieve, that she becomes (like the boys are at the begginning but abandon toward the end) completely in the moment.