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Rodrigo Prieto was on double duty at Camerimage.
This year the veteran Camerimage Golden Frog winner sat on the international competition jury alongside Cate Blanchett. Away from official jury duties, however, Prieto was around town screening and promoting Pedro Páramo, the thrilling and elusive film he has directed for Netflix.
Pedro Páramo is Prieto’s directorial feature debut. Born and raised in Mexico, Prieto is best known as the DoP who lensed a series of now-celebrated features that shaped the early 2000’s renaissance of Mexican cinema like Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, 21 Grams, and Amores Perros. Prieto is now widely considered one of contemporary Hollywood’s most trusted and in-demand cinematographers. In fact, much of the prep on Pedro Páramo took place while Prieto was photographing two of last year’s biggest movies, Greta Gerwig’s existential hit Barbie and Martin Scorsese’s Osage epic Killers Of The Flower Moon.
“I was shooting Barbie at the time, so I’d be in production on that film while I was constantly re-reading the novel [Pedro Páramo] and essays written about it,” Prieto told us of the balancing act he had to perfect to get Pedro Páramo over the line.
Pedro Páramo is an adaptation of the seminal novel of the same name by the revered Mexican novelist Juan Rulfo. The story follows the tale of Juan Preciado, a young man who upon his mother’s death goes to the remote village where he was born in search of his father, Pedro Páramo. But upon arriving in Comala, the place where he was told he lived, he finds only the violent memories of a town subjugated for decades by Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo).
After a debut screening at TIFF, Pedro Páramo landed on Netflix on November 6. Below, Prieto speaks with us about the challenges of adapting Rulfo’s novel and how exactly he managed to prep the film while shooting Barbie and Killers. Prieto, a Mexico City native, also digs into what he described as the offensive and “completely inauthentic” expeirence he encountered watching Jacques Audiard’s latest feature Emilia Perez, which is set in the city. The film was also in competition at Camerimage.
DEADLINE: Rodrigo, how are you?
RODRIGO PRIETO: I’m happy to be here. It’s a new experience for me. I’ve been on juries before at Morelia and in Venice. But I’ve never solely judged cinematography. And, of course, my movie is here.
DEADLINE: Yes, this is one of the more unique juries. I guess you’re watching these films and just discussing the cinematography?
PRIETO: Yes, but not always. I try to focus in that direction because that’s our task. But naturally, everybody starts talking about the film, and sometimes it’s heartbreaking because if there’s a film that maybe the other jurors don’t appreciate it can drag the cinematography down with it. It works in the opposite direction too. It’s a tricky thing because the success of a film is so intimately linked to the success of its cinematography.
DEADLINE: Congrats on your film ‘Pedro Páramo’. I was so taken by the story. I read that children read that book in Mexico. Is that true?
PRIETO: Well, you read it in high school and sometimes in junior high school. The funny thing about that is, I was offered this film. It wasn’t something that I was looking for. I was actually in Oklahoma on Killers Of The Flower Moon. I got a call from a producer friend of mine who said Netflix bought the rights for ‘Pedro Páramo’ and asked if I wanted to direct it. I foolishly accepted. Foolishly because, as you see, it’s a very complex story and difficult to adapt. During the process of negotiating with Netflix, they wanted me to make it a PG-13 movie. I said to them, guys, I can’t make a PG13 movie. It has to be R-rated. Their argument was that people read the original book in high school. But all I could say was have you actually read the book? Have you actually paid attention? All these themes of incest, murder, nudity. It all has to be in the film. Fortunately, they relented and let me do it R-rated.
DEADLINE: So you read a version of this same screenplay also written by Mateo Gil many years ago, but that film fell apart? What happened? Was it just the usual complexities of film financing?
PRIETO: Yes, that’s what happened. I read that script. And yeah, the film just ran out of money. They started prepping it and it’s an expensive film to make not only because it’s a complex story structurally and emotionally but the story occurs in different decades. The same town has to look completely different. So it’s very complicated and expensive. I was fortunate that Netflix wanted to do it.
DEADLINE: Yes, the story is so complex. There’s a lot of time hopping, which makes the film quite elusive. It’s also quite an ambitious film in terms of historical scope. Can you talk a little about how you approached the adaptation and built this production?
PRIETO: It was very challenging. I was working with Mateo Gil on re-adapting the script. He had his vision of it. But I wanted to bring my own perspective to things, which meant taking out some scenes and adding others. That was a big negotiation. He was such an expert on the story. I was shooting Barbie at the time, so I’d be in production on that film while I was constantly re-reading the novel and essays written about it. And then I began working closely with the production designers Eugenio Caballero and Carlos Y. Jacques trying to figure out what each part of the film would look like and how to achieve it technically. The schedule and budget were tight. I don’t even know how much it was in the end. But I remember that we constantly needed more to work with but somehow the team made it possible.
DEADLINE: You share the cinematography credit on this film with Nico Aguilar. Why did you decide to work with another DoP?
PRIETO: Yeah I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do everything and that’s why I asked Nico to help me because again it’s such a complex story with so many characters. As the director, you’re paying so much attention to the storyline and emotional moments. I thought it was best to prep the film with Nico and figure out how to solve any issues. But when we started shooting, I realized I was working with the actors, blocking the scenes, and then would look over for the DP and think let’s go. And then I’d remember wait, I am the DP. That meant I never stopped. I didn’t have time for anything at all. Directors can usually block the scene and then go off to do other things. It was very intense, but I loved every second of it.
DEADLINE: I found ‘Pedro Páramo’ terrifying in parts. And I think its because of how natural and ‘real’ it looks. The terrifying things we see could happen to us. Was this naturalistic visual style a considered choice?
PRIETO: Exactly. I remember on ‘Amores Perros’ I had discussions with a special effects crew member who wanted me to shoot a car crash scene in slow motion. And I kept saying why? The terrifying thing about accidents is how they just happen. On this film, it began for me with the novel because if you read it the characters themselves believe everything is normal until it’s not. Juan Preciado, for example, encounters these people who he thinks are just regular people. He doesn’t realize that they’re already dead. And some of those people don’t know they’re dead either. So I wanted to have the audience experience it that way. I tried to make it as naturalistic as possible until it started getting increasingly surreal for the characters. That’s when I allowed myself to tap into the weirder things.
DEADLINE: You’ve mentioned a few times during this discussion that you were working on ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ and ‘Barbie’ at the same you were prepping ‘Pedro Páramo’ . How did you manage to balance that work load?
PRIETO: My wife is great at multitasking. I’m terrible at it. I just can’t do it. What I can do is focus. I think what happens is that I focus intently. So I’d be shooting Barbie during the week, for instance. But on the weekend, I focused on working with Mateo Gil on the screenplay. And I can separate the two well.
DEADLINE: Are you not tired?
PRIETO: I am. I think I’m gonna need a vacation.
DEADLINE: When I arrive here in Poland a colleague told me that you were at a panel for ‘Emilia Perez’ and had eloquently expressed some issues with the film’s depiction of Mexican culture. What about the film did you take issue with?
PRIETO: First of all, I’m unhappy that the film was not shot in Mexico. Secondly, why wouldn’t you include more Mexican people to participate in the production? Not even just as actors. We do have Adriana Paz in the film and she’s great. I think she’s great. It was a breath of fresh air when I saw her in the movie. She feels Mexican to me in an authentic way. Everything else in the movie feels inauthentic and it really bugs me. Especially when the subject matter is so important to us Mexicans. It’s also a very sensitive subject. The whole thing is completely inauthentic. I’m not talking about the musical side of it, which I think is great. That’s a great idea. But why not hire a Mexican production designer, costume designer, or at least some consultants? Yes, they had dialogue coaches but I was offended that such a story was portrayed in a way that felt so inauthentic. It was just the details for me. You would never have a jail sign that read ‘Cárcel’ it would be ‘Penitenciaria’. It’s just the details, and that shows me that nobody that knew was involved. And it didn’t even matter. That was very troubling to me.
I’m not against non-Mexicans making films in Mexico but the details are important. Look at Ang Lee. He’s from Taiwan and made Brokeback Mountain. But he focuses on the details. Even me with Pedro Páramo. I’m not from the Mexican countryside but I went and spoke with people to learn how best to depict the culture. It’s about the details.
