The Chameleon Director Trivia Quiz

Answer: Philosophy

Cuarón was born Alfonso Cuarón Orozco in Mexico City in 1961. After school, he tried to enter the CCC (Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica), but couldn't study there at the time because he was too young. By the early 1980s, however, he was studying philosophy at the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), while also attending the CUEC (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos) to satisfy his passion about cinema.

During that period Cuarón met and befriended several people, including director Carlos Marcovich and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, with whom he would collaborate several times in the future. In his personal life, Alfonso married actress and writer Mariana Elizondo in 1980, and their son Jonás was born a year later. The couple stayed married until 1993. After their divorce, both Alfonso and Mariana remarried and had other children.

Answer: Sólo con tu Pareja

"Sólo con tu Pareja" (1991) is a comedy about Tomas (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a womanizer who is tricked into thinking he has contracted AIDS after he scorns a nurse called Silvia (Dobrina Liubomirova). While he's looking for a quick way to end things, Tomas falls for Clarisa (Claudia Ramírez), a stewardess whose boyfriend is cheating on her. "Sólo con tu Pareja" (literally "Only with Your Partner") is also known in English as "Love in the Time of Hysteria".

"Vengeance Is Mine" (1983) is Cuarón's first short film, which he co-directed with Carlos Marcovich. Shortly after, he directed two more short films, "Who's He Anyway" and "Cuarteto para el Fin del Tiempo" ("Quartet for the End of Time"). "A Little Princess" is the name of a movie directed by Cuarón in 1995, which is the adaptation of the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Answer: Great Expectations

"Great Expectations" (1998) is an adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens set in New York in modern times. It starred Robert De Niro, Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow and Anne Bancroft. Finn Bell is a ten-year-old boy who meets Estella, the niece of a rich woman named Ms. Nora Dinsmoor (Bancroft).

As the years pass, Finn (Hawke) falls in love with Estella (Paltrow) only to have his heart broken again and again. Cuarón was initially reluctant to direct the film, but eventually accepted. In "Great Expectations", Cuarón collaborated once again with his long-time friend, Emmanuel Lubezki.

Answer: True

While Cuarón is mostly known for being a director, he is often involved in projects from different positions. He was a writer and an editor, as well as a director, for "Sólo con tu Pareja" (1991), "Y Tu Mamá También" (2001), "Children of Men" (2006) and "Gravity" (2013). Cuarón has also often acted as a producer, most notably in "Pan's Labyrinth" by Guillermo del Toro.

Answer: Fallen Angels

In 1993, Sydney Pollack was an executive producer in "Fallen Angels", a neo-noir show set in Los Angeles after World War II. Pollack, who already knew of Cuarón, asked him to direct an episode. Cuarón eventually directed the episode "Murder, Obliquely".

Some other notable directors who worked on "Fallen Angels" are Peter Bogdanovich, Tom Hanks and Steven Soderbergh. "Fallen Angels" wasn't Cuarón's first television experience, as he had already directed several episodes for the Mexican TV show "La Hora Marcada" between 1989-1990.

Answer: His brother Carlos and his son Jonás

Alfonso's father Alfredo Cuarón had no relation to cinema, as he was a nuclear physicist. His brother Carlos is also a director, while his other brother Alfredo is a biologist. Alfonso's son Jonás is a director as well. Alfonso has collaborated on various occasions with his son, with whom he co-wrote "Gravity" (2013), as well his brother with whom he received a nomination for Best Original Screenplay Academy Award for "Y Tu Mamá También".

Answer: Best Director & Best Film Editing

"Gravity" (2013) is a drama starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. In the film, Dr. Ryan Stone (Bullock) is an engineer on her first mission on a space shuttle, while astronaut Matt Kowalski (Clooney) is the commander of the shuttle crew. After a missile strike on an old satellite has caused dangerous debris to move their way, Stone and Kowalski are ordered to return with the shuttle to Earth. "Gravity" was nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Picture, but lost to "12 Years a Slave". "Gravity" was also quite popular in the British Academy Film (BAFTA) Awards, where it was nominated in five categories. Cuarón's work in "Gravity" was highly acclaimed, as he won Best Director in the Academy, BAFTA, Golden Globe and Empire Awards!

Answer: True

While he was in Venice for the promotion of "Y Tu Mamá También" (2001), a provocative movie about two teenagers on a road trip with an older, married woman, Cuarón met Italian actress and journalist Annalisa Bugliani. The two of them married in 2001 and had a daughter (Tess Bu Cuarón) in 2003 and a son (Olmo Teodoro Cuarón) in 2005, who was later diagnosed with autism. Cuarón and Bugliani eventually divorced in 2008.

Answer: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004) is the third installment in the "Harry Potter" series. Alfonso Cuarón took over from Chris Columbus, who had directed the first two movies. In the "Prisoner of Azkaban", Harry Potter returns to his school for the third year, and he finds a new professor named Lupin (David Thewlis), while being hunted by the dangerous criminal Sirius Black (Gary Oldman).

Although opinions between "Harry Potter" fans and critics are too varied to give an objective estimation about the quality of the film, Cuarón arguably brought a darker tone to the series, which set the mood for the "Harry Potter" films that would follow. Cuarón was replaced by Mike Newell for the next film, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire".

Answer: Bo

"Believe" is a science fiction/adventure TV series, in which Bo Adams (Johnny Sequoyah) is a young girl with telekinetic and other psychic powers. After her foster parents are murdered, the only person who can protect Bo from being treated as a military weapon is Dr. Milton Winter (Delroy Mundo), while Dr. Roman Skouras (Kyle MacLachlan) pursues her. Cuarón created "Believe" with Markus Friedman and he directed the pilot episode, which was the first time he directed in television for over 20 years.