“Emilia Pérez”, a movie about the transgender Mexican leader of a cartel that reconciles with his past, enters the Academy Award on Sunday 13 nominationsMost of any movie this year. It is also the most nod for any movie that is not English. The film has already won several awards, including the best comedy or musical at the Golden Globe awards.
In Mexico, the reception was just the opposite.
It has been widely criticized for its depiction of the country, the minimization of cartel violence that has devastated so many and several Mexicans involved in its production.
Comments About Spanish, director, Jacques Audiard, who some considered to be killed by language, and according to his leadership, Karla Sofía Gascón, about Islam and George Floyd, used dissatisfaction in Mexico in Mexico worse things.
“Emilia Pérez” was not published in Mexican theaters only on January 23 – five months after his debut in France and two months after his release in the United States. In Mexico, theaters showing the film is mostly empty. Some unfortunate filmmakers even demanded a refund.
An online Mexican short film that parodied the French roots “Emilia Pérez”, on the other hand, was a hit. “Emilia Pérez” was the food of many memory memory. And the families in Mexico denied families of victims of violence.
“It has become a real disaster,” said Francisco Peredo Castro, film expert and history and communication professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
The main criticism of “Emilia Pérez” is to trivialize Mexican constant struggle with organized crime. It was More than 460,000 killings Since 2006, when the president then announced a war with cartels. The movie is a musical, with glittering numbers of song and dance, including texts on bodies delayed in acid.
“We should keep things in perspective and say,” We will not sing or dance on this topic, “said Artemis Belmonte, 41, who became an activist after her mother, three uncles and cousins disappeared in 2011 in Chihuahu, a region that was strongly affected by the drug war. 100,000 people are gone In Mexico since 2006, according to government data.
Mrs. Belmonte wondered if Hollywood or the European Cinema Cinema Industry would dare to make musicals on terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
During a press conference before the movie published in Mexico, Mr. Audiard said that told If he managed the sensitive theme “Too Light”. In another interview, he said that “the cinema does not give answers; it only asks questions, but perhaps questions in ‘Emilia Pérez’ are incorrect.” (There are and said that he did not study Mexico much before making the movie.)
Netflix, who bought US Distribution Rights for “Emilia Pérez” at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival refused to comment. Recently, in the next four years, he announced an investment in the amount of one billion dollars to produce series and films in Mexico.
David Chelminsky, a winter director Enterinment, who distributed the film in Mexico, said in an interview that he never had a movie in his career creates such hatred in the country.
“All criticism is worth it, but there was a very virulent, very aggressive criticism that left no room for other opinions,” he said. “So, the people who liked the movie or who wanted to see it would rather remain a little aside because there were constant attacks against anyone who came out to say,” I liked it. “
He suggested that there are shades of xenophobia and transphobia in some criticism.
Not all Mexicans condemned the movie. Guillermo del Toro, a triple winner of Oscar, said That Mr. Audiard was “one of the most religious filmmakers who is alive” and that his view of Mexico was “hypnotic and beautiful”. Elisa Miller, another famous Mexican filmmaker, said It was “nice” to serve as an advisor in Mexican things for Mr. Audiard.
After a recent show at the Mexico City Theater, Alberto Muñoz, 37, a visual designer, said he understood the concern about the film, but also appreciated his technical qualities. “It’s a fun movie,” he said.
But Mrs. Belmonte, whose cousin disappeared into Chihuahua, said she was so disturbed by the movie after being aired when she was in California for Christmas that she created Internet petition In January, he calls for a reward stop and his edition in Mexico.
“The movie was successful with people who did not experience disappearances,” Mrs. Belmonte said.
Although she understood the defense of Mr. Audiard that the film was fiction, Mrs. Belmonte was also upset in the way the character Emilia Pérez switched from the infamous cartel leader to the missing champion.
Critics also led to a problem with a lack of Mexican talent in front and behind the camera. “Emilia Pérez” was largely shot in French sound scenes because, Mr. Audiard saidHe preferred a controlled environment.
Adriana Paz is the only Mexican performer who plays the leading character. Mexicans felt lightly when the caste director said That the crew members sought actors in Mexico and other Latin American countries, they decided to start with the best options, even if they were not Mexican.
Mr. Audiard said That the stars wanted a bigger name so they could fund the movie.
The Mexicans also pointed out the accents of the main actresses: Zoe Saldaña, an American of Dominican origin who won awards for her performance and prepared for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; Mrs. Gascón, who was from Spain and lived and acted in Mexico; and Selena Gomez, an American of Mexican origin who worked on the return Her Spanish fluid for the movie. (Mrs. Gascón is the first open transgender actress nominated for an Oscar.)
After Eugenia Derbez, a well -known Mexican actor and filmmaker, invited Mrs. Gomez’s pronunciation “unburdened,” she apologized, saying “I did the best I could with the time I got.”
In Mexico City, some audience members laughed during a recent screening when the characters of Mrs. Saldaña and Mrs. Gascón used Mexican colloquialization.
“The dialogues are completely inorganic – what the characters say do not make sense,” said Héctor Guillén, 26, Mexican screenwriter and producer. (Mrs. Gascón said she was “more Mexican than cactus.”)
With respect to polemics Around the movie, he said, “In a few years, this movie will be one of the biggest shame of a European film.”
But Mr. Peredo Castro, Professor, questioned why the return against “Emilia Pérez” was so strong, claiming that there were 120 years of valuable representation of Mexicans to “insensitive” and “offensive” ways.
Pointed not only to Movies “Fathers” In the early 1900s in which the Mexicans were like villains but recently music genres, telenovela and shows (script and reality) who celebrated the Narko trade. And he said that the larger American and European film industries often watched Mexico through the lens of misery.
Mr. Peredo Castro said that “Emilia Pérez” was released at the time of a twist under President Trump, who has repeatedly Targets The largest trade partner of the United States due to fental and migration. Criticisms, he said, “worsened the sensitivity of Mexico because he was in the spotlight for violence, drugs and corruption.
In response to “Emilia Pérez”, Camila Aurora, the creator of Mexican trans content, made a brief film parody, “Johanne Sacrebl. “Shot on the streets of Mexico City with Mexican performers who used the wiped French accents and stereotypical clothing, received 3.2 million views on YouTube in a month and was published in some theaters.
“Emilia Pérez”, on the other hand, drew the awful audience numbers. From his debut in Mexico and over the weekend, he made $ 832,000 with about $ 210,000, according to data from the Mexican National Chamber of the Film Industry.
For comparison, “Captain America: a brave new world”, which came out three weeks later, sold 2.9 million tickets over last weekend.
On Sunday, Mrs. Belmonte, who created an internet petition against the movie, said she was not planning to watch an Oscar, although she considers him her super Bowl, a necessary annual event. This time she said, “I lost my wish.”
