You were talking about young people.  You’ve had experience with making films that are about young people that aren’t just appealing to young people.  With this film, it’s the same film:  there are three teenagers, and it’s not condescending, but they’re still very much kids.

I love the way you said that – the “not condescending” thing.  That is something I respect, and that is the generosity of Fernando with his characters.  He never makes fun at the expense of his characters.  He can be very detached and ironic about the whole thing, but he is not going for a lazy joke with his characters.  And that’s one of the things I fully enjoyed with [Duck Season].  But I think that the same approach that he took with young people he also took with audiences.  He’s just trusting that people are going to be as smart as he is.  And, also, he’s not trying to show off how smart he is.  He’s a very generous soul in that sense.  But this is a film where I’ve seen a ten-year-old enjoy it as much as a sixty-year-old – both with a frozen smile on their face – and, at the end of the film, both talking about the film, but from completely different standpoints.  That’s the beauty [of the film].  Fernando is throwing out things, and you pick them up.  And the ten-year-old is picking up more about the rites-of-passage, while the grownup is talking about the effect that adults’ actions have on children. 

Actually, I am appalled, I am so amazingly shocked that this film received an R-rating.  I’m shocked.  I don’t know, maybe it’s a weapon of mass destruction or something.  What I don’t understand is what is the fear of these politicians like Tony Blair?  They are so afraid of young people seeing films in which young people are portrayed as they really are.  They’re okay with ridicule them and humiliate them and show them a different reality that can be even grosser, but there’s a big fear about young people seeing themselves reflected on the big screen.  And young people are not scared; the old people are scared.

Well, it threatens them, doesn’t it?

But I just find this movie... an R-rated film?  Come on!

Five years ago, you had Y tu mamá también and [Alejandro González Iñárritu’s] Amores Perros was also doing very well.  Now, here we are with two Mexican cinematographers nominated for Oscars, you’re in a position to—

One of them [Emmanuel Lubezki], it’s his third nomination.  So, it’s nothing very new there.

Yes, but it seems as if it’s getting to be more and more.  And now you’re in a position to help get Duck Season released.  Do you feel like there is a great push right now from Mexican cinema?

I wish, except one of the cinematographers you’re talking about, it’s his third nomination, and the other one they took so long to nominate him.  He’s been doing genius work forever.  And you’re talking about Alejandro and then people talk about Guillermo [del Toro]… I have to say I wish there were new people coming out of there.  The only two filmmakers that have come out since Alejandro with films that matter – and I mean coming out with films that matter worldwide – are Fernando and Carlos Reygadas with Battle in Heaven.  Unfortunately, it’s not as happy as it seems the whole thing with Mexican cinema.  There’s more a perception that is based on the same names than a reality, and by that I mean a system or a movement.  Nevertheless, I believe in individuals.  There’s not a wave; there are individuals.  And what happens is that we happen just to bond and become friends.  Like with this film, supporting this movie, being [at the premiere] and calling people to come to the premiere, like Alejandro, Guillermo and Salma Hayek.  This time, I did happen to be on the poster because I brokered the whole thing, but, at the end of the day, it’s not me.  It’s not even a community.  It’s just a group of filmmakers that are supporting other filmmakers.

Now that you’ve done Harry Potter [and the Prisoner of Azkaban], why did you want to do The Children of Men?

Because I wrote it before Harry Potter.  I wrote it right after Y tu mamá también.  But they didn’t like it as much until after Harry Potter.  (Laughter) 

What was it they didn’t like about The Children of Men?

We’ll meet in September and talk about this film.

Did Duck Season connect with mainstream audiences in Mexico?

It connected with mainstream audiences.  It was not released as widely as Amores Perros or Y tu mamá también.  This is what happens in Mexico.  Fernando and his collaborator just set up to do a film that they liked.  They weren’t expecting to be invited to Cannes or anything.  So pretty much the movie was released [after everyone reacted strongly to it], and the international success of the film happened after it was released in Mexico.  It became hotter later on.  [In Mexico], it was not in theaters anymore; it was on video.  And then it started going to all of these festivals, so that makes me very happy.  I’m in London, and I go to my video store, and they have Duck Season in front as a highly recommended title.  Things are good.  But, seriously, go and tell people to go and see this film.  I didn’t do it, so I’m not embarrassed to say that it is an amazing film.  (Laughter)

Duck Season is indeed quite the charmer.  It opens March 10^th in New York and Los Angeles, and will expand depending on how many of y’all heed Alfonso’s advice.  You won’t be disappointed.