Alfonso Arau
Better recognized as an actor by American moviegoers for essaying funny, vaguely menacing, sometimes self-aware Latino stereotypes, Alfonso Arau crafted an even more auspicious body of work as one of Mexico's most laurel-laden film directors. Starting as a film actor in the 1950s and breaking into television in revolutionary Cuba in the early 1960s, Arau re-immersed himself in the cinema of his native land in the 1970s, collaborating with Mexican film greats Alberto Isaac and Alejandro Jodorowsky and taking up the auteur mantle himself with the comedy "El águila descalza" (1971). He drew greater acclaim for the 1974 subversive comedy "Inspector Calzonzin." The 1980s saw him don some memorable comedic supporting roles in U.S. films, notably an amiable jefe of a drug gang in "Romancing the Stone" (1984) and a hyperbolic desperado in "Three Amigos!" (1986). He established himself in the upper echelon of directors with the multiple-award-winning "Like Water for Chocolate" (1992), based on the novel by his wife Laura Esquivel. The success garnered him work in the U.S. helming the period romance "A Walk in the Clouds" (1995), the oddball ensemble comedy "Picking Up the Pieces" (2000) and the ambitious TV miniseries remake of the "The Magnificent Ambersons" (A&E, 2002). Back in his native country, Arau would helm the surreal, would-be epic "Zapata" (2004) to a storm of controversy. Building a legacy of iconoclastic and mystically-tinged movies, Arau would be credited as a prime catalyst in the re-establishment of a distinctive identity for Mexican film.
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Alfonso Arau
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Malacopa | Ernesto Pino (Character) | - | 2018 |
97% |
|
Coco | Papá Julio (Voice) | $210.5M | 2017 |
No Score Yet |
|
I Heart Shakey | Raoul (Character) | - | 2012 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Trick in the Sheet | Director | - | 2009 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ni muy, muy... ni tan, tan... simplemente tin tan | Unknown (Character) | - | 2005 |
No Score Yet |
|
Zapata, el sueño del héroe |
Director, Writer |
- | 2004 |
No Score Yet |
|
A Painted House | Director | - | 2003 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Magnificent Ambersons | Director | - | 2002 |
43% |
|
Committed | Grampy (Character) | $31.8K | 2000 |
No Score Yet |
|
Picking Up the Pieces |
Dr. Amado (Character), Director, Producer |
- | 2000 |
46% |
|
A Walk in the Clouds | Director | $48.0M | 1995 |
88% |
|
Like Water for Chocolate |
Director, Producer |
$14.0M | 1992 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Stones for Ibarra | Chuy Santos (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Where the Hell's That Gold? | Indian (Character) | - | 1988 |
47% |
|
Walker | Raousset (Character) | $216.1K | 1987 |
45% |
|
Three Amigos! | El Guapo (Character) | $36.2M | 1986 |
86% |
|
Romancing the Stone | Juan (Character) | - | 1984 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Mojado Power |
Nato Solís (Character), Director, Writer |
- | 1981 |
77% |
|
Used Cars | Manuel (Character) | - | 1980 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Tivoli | Unknown (Character) | - | 1975 |
67% |
|
Posse | Pepe (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Calzonzín Inspector | Calzonzin Inspector (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Nest of Virgins | Lucas Lucatero (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Run, Cougar, Run | Etio (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | El jardín de la tía Isabel | Unknown (Character) | - | 1972 |
20% | No Score Yet | Scandalous John | Paco (Character) | - | 1971 |
80% |
|
El topo | Bandido 1 (Character) | $80.3K | 1971 |
91% |
|
The Wild Bunch | Lt. Herrera (Character) | - | 1969 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | El aviso inoportuno | Cliente señorito del sastre (Character) | - | 1969 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Barefoot Eagle |
Poncho/ Director |
- | 1969 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Pedro Páramo | Saltaperico (Character) | - | 1967 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Cien muchachas | Unknown (Character) | - | 1955 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | El casto Susano | Unknown (Character) | - | 1954 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | 227 | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1988 |
71% | 89% | Miami Vice | Jorge Cruz (Guest Star) | 1987 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Bonanza | Unknown (Guest Star) | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Gunsmoke | Mando (Guest Star) | 1972 |