“Emilia Pérez,” the film a couple of transgender Mexican cartel chief whoreconciles along with her previous, enters the Academy Awards on Sunday with 13 nominations, probably the most of any movie this 12 months. It’s also probably the most nods ever for any non-English language movie. The movie has already gained a number of accolades, together with greatest comedy or musical on the Golden Globe Awards.
In Mexico, the reception has been precisely the other.
It has been extensively criticized for its depiction of the nation, the minimization of the cartel violence that has ravaged so many and the few Mexicans concerned in its manufacturing.
Comments about Spanish by its French writer-director, Jacques Audiard, which some noticed as denigrating the language, and by its lead, Karla Sofía Gascón, about Islam and George Floyd, stoked the discontent in Mexico and made matters worse.
“Emilia Pérez” wasn’t launched in Mexican theaters till Jan. 23 — 5 months after its debut in France and two months after its U.S. launch. In Mexico, theaters exhibiting the movie have been largely empty. Some sad moviegoers have even demanded refunds.
A web-based Mexican quick movie parodying the French roots of “Emilia Pérez,” alternatively, was successful. “Emilia Pérez” has been the fodder of many social media memes. And it has been denounced by the households of victims of violence in Mexico.
“It has change into an actual catastrophe,” mentioned Francisco Peredo Castro, a movie knowledgeable and a historical past and communications professor on the Nationwide Autonomous College of Mexico.
A principal critique of “Emilia Pérez” is that it trivializes Mexico’s ongoing battle with organized crime. There have been more than 460,000 homicides since 2006, when the president then declared battle on the cartels. The film is a musical, with glitzy song-and-dance numbers, together with lyrics about our bodies disposed of in acid.
“We should always hold issues in perspective and say, ‘We’re not going to sing or dance about this topic,’” mentioned Artemisa Belmonte, 41, who grew to become an activist after her mom, three uncles and a cousin disappeared in 2011 in Chihuahua state, a area hit laborious by the drug battle. Greater than 100,000 people have vanished in Mexico since 2006, based on authorities information.
Ms. Belmonte puzzled if Hollywood or the European cinema business would dare to make musicals concerning the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults.
Throughout a information convention earlier than the movie’s launch in Mexico, Mr. Audiard mentioned he apologized if he dealt with a fragile topic “too calmly.” In a special interview, he said that “cinema doesn’t present solutions; it solely asks questions, however perhaps the questions in ‘Emilia Pérez’ are incorrect.” (He has additionally said that he didn’t research Mexico a lot earlier than making the movie.)
Netflix, which bought the U.S. distribution rights for “Emilia Pérez” on the 2024 Cannes Movie Competition, declined to remark. It not too long ago introduced a $1 billion funding to supply collection and movies in Mexico over the following 4 years.
David Chelminsky, the director of Zima Leisure, which distributed the movie in Mexico, mentioned in an interview that he had by no means had a movie in his profession generate such hatred within the nation.
“All criticism is legitimate, however there was a really virulent, very aggressive criticism that didn’t depart room for different opinions,” he mentioned. “So individuals who preferred the movie or who needed to see it most popular to remain just a little bit on the sidelines as a result of there have been fixed assaults in opposition to anybody who got here out to say, ‘I preferred it.’”
He instructed there have been tinges of xenophobia and transphobia in some critiques.
Not all Mexicans have condemned the film. Guillermo del Toro, a three-time Oscar winner, said that Mr. Audiard was “one of the vital wonderful filmmakers alive” and that his view of Mexico was “hypnotic and delightful.” Elisa Miller, one other acclaimed Mexican filmmaker, said it was “good” to function an adviser on Mexican issues for Mr. Audiard.
After a latest exhibiting at a Mexico Metropolis theater, Alberto Muñoz, 37, a visible designer, mentioned he understood the considerations concerning the film but additionally appreciated its technical qualities. “It’s an entertaining film,” he mentioned.
However Ms. Belmonte, whose family disappeared in Chihuahua, mentioned that after streaming the movie whereas in California for Christmas, she was so troubled by it that she created an online petition in January calling for a halt on awards and its launch in Mexico.
“The film has been profitable with individuals who haven’t skilled disappearances,” Ms. Belmonte mentioned.
Whereas she understood Mr. Audiard’s protection that the movie is fiction, Ms. Belmonte was additionally disturbed on the manner the Emilia Pérez character shifted from being a infamous cartel chief to a champion of the disappeared.
Critics have additionally taken concern with the dearth of Mexican expertise in entrance and behind the digicam. “Emilia Pérez” was largely shot on French soundstages as a result of, Mr. Audiard said, he most popular the managed setting.
Adriana Paz is the one Mexican performer who performs a number one character. Mexicans felt slighted when the movie’s casting director said that whereas crew members looked for actors in Mexico and different Latin American nations, they determined to go along with the most effective choices, even when they weren’t Mexican.
Mr. Audiard has said that they needed bigger-name stars so as to have the ability to finance the movie.
Mexicans have additionally pointed to the accents of the lead actresses: Zoe Saldaña, an American of Dominican descent who has gained awards for her efficiency and is up for an Oscar for greatest supporting actress; Ms. Gascón, who’s from Spain and has lived and acted in Mexico; and Selena Gomez, an American of Mexican descent who worked to regain her Spanish fluency for the movie. (Ms. Gascón is the primary overtly transgender actress to be nominated for an Oscar.)
After Eugenio Derbez, a widely known Mexican actor and filmmaker, called Ms. Gomez’s pronunciation “indefensible,” she apologized, saying “I did the most effective I may with the time I used to be given.”
In Mexico Metropolis, some viewers members laughed throughout a latest screening when the Ms. Saldaña and Ms. Gascón’s characters used Mexican colloquialisms.
“The dialogues are utterly inorganic — what the characters are saying doesn’t make sense,” mentioned Héctor Guillén, 26, a Mexican screenwriter and producer. (Ms. Gascón has mentioned she is “extra Mexican than cactus.”)
Given the controversy surrounding the film, he mentioned, “in a number of years this film might be one of many greatest embarrassments of European movie.”
However Mr. Peredo Castro, the professor, questioned why the backlash in opposition to “Emilia Pérez” was so robust, arguing that there have been 120 years’ value of depictions of Mexicans in “insensitive” and “insulting” methods.
He pointed not solely to “greaser” films of the early 1900s that featured Mexicans as villains, however latest music genres, telenovelas and reveals (scripted and reality) that glorified narco-trafficking. And he mentioned the larger American and European movie industries have ceaselessly checked out Mexico by means of the lens of distress.
Mr. Peredo Castro mentioned “Emilia Pérez” had been launched at a time of upheaval underneath President Trump, who has repeatedly targeted america’ greatest buying and selling companion over fentanyl and migration. The criticisms, he mentioned, have “drastically exacerbated the sensitivity” of Mexico at being the focus for violence, medication and corruption.
In response to “Emilia Pérez,” Camila Aurora, a Mexican trans content material creator, made the quick movie parody, “Johanne Sacreblu.” Filmed within the streets of Mexico Metropolis with Mexican performers utilizing stilted French accents and stereotypical apparel, it has gained 3.2 million views on YouTube in a month and was launched in some theaters.
“Emilia Pérez,” alternatively, has drawn tepid viewers numbers. Since its debut in Mexico and thru final weekend, it has made $832,000 with about 210,000 tickets bought, based on figures from the Mexican Nationwide Chamber of the Movie Trade.
Compared, “Captain America: Courageous New World,” which got here out three weeks later, bought 2.9 million tickets by means of final weekend.
On Sunday, Ms. Belmonte, who created the net petition in opposition to the movie, mentioned she had no plans to observe the Oscars, regardless that she considers it her Tremendous Bowl, a must-see annual occasion. This time, she mentioned, “I’ve misplaced the will.”
