Potter mania is at an all time high, fans can’t get enough of the Boy who lived and the Prisoner of Azkaban movie is a few weeks away from having a successful and well deserved day view. That is why I want everyone to know a little more about my fellow country man and director Alfonso Cuaron.

Alfonso Cuaron was born in Mexico City in 1961, he has had a very bright and diverse career as a director. Some of his most acclaimed films are:

• Y tu mama tambien
• Great Expectations
• A little princess

Cuaron has characterized his work by using an old literary technique that had a huge impact in Latin America called Magical Realism. Some great Nobel winner masterpieces like “One hundred years of solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez exemplify this wonderful way of telling a story. Magical Realism takes an ordinary story in the real world and adds the undeniable power of the magical-imaginary fantasy world and melts them together making the story extraordinary. Twists and turns in a path designed by love and family in which every step has a kid that is half pig half human, and a woman so beautiful that she rose to the heavens and never came back. If love is in the air, magic is all around…

To understand the Magical Realism behind Cuaron’s work you have to take a look at the artistic history that precedes him. He is not a product of improvisation and luck, he is the result of centuries of artists crossing lines, laughing at taboos, painting murals, writing poems, speaking their minds, finding magic around every corner and using that magic to show the world as it is.

That is why Alfonso Cuaron is such a perfect fit for the Harry Potter series, he is an ambassador of magic, he understands and portrays teenage life without masks or disguises, he explores the darker side, he has the artistic heritage that makes it easy for him to understand the beauty of the plot, he has respect for the books but is not afraid to give us something to talk about… and that’s only the personality he will inject on the film. He has said he decided to eliminate the close ups so we get the chance to explore the magical world that surrounds the characters, the difference between him and the last director is that Cuaron gets that the thing that makes us love this boy and his adventures is not a town, a train or a school but the magic that, like in Magical Realism, makes all those things extraordinary.

So next time you find yourself wondering what to do before the next Harry Potter book comes out, just grab One Hundred Years of Solitude and….ENJOY!

5/24/04