criterionforum.org

Sólo con tu pareja

[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/1139/353_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]

Before Alfonso Cuarón brought us the international sensation Y tu mama tambien, he made his mark on Mexican cinema with the ribald and lightning-quick social satire Solo con tu pareja. Don Juan-ish yuppie Tomas (Daniel Giménez Cacho, from Bad Education) spends his nights juggling so many beautiful women that he can't keep their names straight until one of his many conquests, a spurned nurse, gives him a taste of his own medicine. Beautifully filmed by the inimitable Emmanuel Lubezki (The New World), Cuarón's wildly successful feature debut (which has never been released in the United States) offers the first glimpses of the exuberant flair that has come to define this one-of-a-kind director.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki
- Making "Sólo con tu pareja", a collection of new video interviews with Cuarón, screenwriter Carlos Cuarón, and actor Daniel Gimenez Cacho
- Short films by Alfonso Cuarón and Carlos Cuarón
- Original theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
-Plus: A booklet featuring a new essay by Ryan F. Long, and a "biography" of Tomas Tomas, written by Carlos Cuarón

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

Feature currently disabled

Wow, what a daring choice for Criterion. I never thought I'd see them release a fairly recent film that had no US theatrical distribution. Of course, the reputation of Cuaron alone should be enough to sell it.

They did do Ratcatcher, mind. Still, it looks like a lot of fun and they're clearly trying to up the tally of Spanish films dramatically. This is a wonderful Criterion month.

Yeah. This month is very especial. Love the choices.

As a huge fan of Y tu mama tambien, this film has been high on my wish list for quite a while--all the more so because it's been impossible to see (at least with English subtitles). So nice when the occasional release flies under the radar and eludes all of our efficient sleuthing (I love that omigod moment).

Okay, apparently IFC Films is giving this a limited theatrical release on September 20.

Interesting that both IFC Films and Criterion have chosen to market the film under its Spanish title, Sólo con tu pareja, instead of the English title, Love in the Time of Hysteria (I believe it played at the Toronto International Film Festival under that name). Clearly, the Spanish title didn't hurt business for Y tu mamá también (which IMDb Pro insists upon listing as "And Your Mother Too"). Perhaps Cuarón insisted, or IFC plans to market it more to Spanish language audiences.

Babel Fish translates "Sólo con tu pareja" as "Only with Your Pair." Could one of the forum's Spanish-speakers comment on the meaning of the title? Is it an idiom? A double-meaning? A play on words? Does the "pair" refer to cojones? beasts? Just curious.

Pareja can also mean partner or mate. "Solo Con Tu Pareja" was a slogan for an AIDS awareness campaign in Mexico.

Gregory wrote:Pareja can also mean partner or mate. "Solo Con Tu Pareja" was a slogan for an AIDS awareness campaign in Mexico.

That's correct. It was a sexual campaing for AIDS: "Only with your couple".

Interesting that both IFC Films and Criterion have chosen to market the film under its Spanish title, Sólo con tu pareja, instead of the English title, Love in the Time of Hysteria

Maybe IFC and Criterion didn't want the English title of the film to be confused with the Garcia Marquez book, Love in the Times of Colera.

Babel Fish translates "Sólo con tu pareja" as "Only with Your Pair."

Pair can be "pareja" when it is associated with a non-human thing. Couple should have been the proper translation. But as Gregory and gigmonagas said, "Solo con tu pareja" was the anti AIDS slogan in Mexico.

gigimonagas wrote:That's correct. It was a sexual campaign for AIDS: "Only with your couple".

Makes sense since the lead is a womaniser. I don't know anything about the film but with the information that the title is a slogan for AIDS awarness and the information in the promotional spiel that 'until one of his many conquests, a spurned nurse, gives him a taste of his own medicine', I wonder if this means she tells him he has AIDS which forces him to have to go and contact all his previous conquests, and gets his comeuppance or conscience pricked by having to tell them the truth about all the other women he has been seeing.

Well done, Colin.

IMDb plot summary:

Young yuppie and womanizer Tomas (Gimenez Cacho) is caught in a trap when falsely diagnosed with AIDS by Silvia (Liubomirova), a nurse who finds herself cheated by the young Casanova. Looking for a quick death (putting his head into a microwave oven) Tomas falls in love with Clarisa (Ramirez), a beautiful stewardess who also wants to suicide because her lover is having an affair with a blonde stewardess from Continental Airlines.

FilmFanSea wrote:Babel Fish translates "Sólo con tu pareja" as "Only with Your Pair." Could one of the forum's Spanish-speakers comment on the meaning of the title? Is it an idiom? A double-meaning? A play on words? Does the "pair" refer to cojones? beasts? Just curious.

It translates as Alone with your partner or Only with your partner.

Tribe

That was a lot of responses. My suggestion was just to substitute "partner" or "mate" for "pair" in the original Babel Fish translation. I don't think "alone with" is quite as good as "only with," which captures the slogan's emphasis on monogamy. And the English phrase "with your couple" makes it sound like a threesome. Just my opinion.

it translates as "only with your partner".

When Alfonso Cuarón entered the CUEC film school he made two short films, the one that comes as an extra and the infamous "who's he anyway" in which he was expelled from the school because it's an english spoken short film, and at that time it was forbidden to make a non-spanish short film. On a trivia note,when Cuarón and Lubezki entered, they wanted to be exactly the opposite, Cuaròn wanted to be a cinematographer and Lubezki a director.

Also the second unit director of Solo con tu pareja was Rodrigo Prieto, yes, the cinematographer of Iñarritu and others...

spinetta wrote:it translates as "only with your partner".

It also translates as Alone with your partner.

Tribe

Geese, I swear that I saw "Salo" in the title thread.

i saw this one when it was released here in mexico(and several times after that) and has been one of my favorites of the so called "new mexican cinema" ever since, all the video releases weere pretty crappy and i cant tell you how happy i am for this announcement...the movie is not THAT great but i love it, its a nice comedy. so who else besides me has seen it? :p

Cosomatli, is the film like Y Tu Mama Tambien in any way?

i dont think so Michael...well, other than the fact that its the same writer, the same cinematographer and the same director...i dont think the 2 movies are alike

Thanks. I was just curious because in my world, Y Tu Mama Tambien is a masterpiece. Everything about it is downright perfect. I love the feeling and look of Y Tu Mama Tambien. It's such a beautifully subtle film that's packed with details, colors and textures - for instance, the two boys bear the same easy-to-miss tattoo in the shape of a thunderbolt on their backs; the silver dome (church?) glistens in the background of the maid's hometown; the purple oozes out of an ordinary motel fan.. and so much more. Mama Tambien carries an incredible range of emotions without ever rubbing into your face. It pains me every time I see the way Gabriel Bernal Garcia sits in a restaurant booth in the end before he asks for the check. What body language! This film and Lucrecia Martel's La Cienaga are absolutely my favorite Latin-American films.

Earlier this year, I read something about Cuaron praising a Mexican film called Temporada de Patos (Duck Season). I can't remember what source it was and the exact words he expressed about this film. If I remember correctly, he said that he wished he had made that film.

Solo Con tu Pareja is a movie full of wit and smart, it's a very good movie but not like Mamà Tambièn, but you can see some of his style in this first work.

Duck Season is a good film, there's a review of the dvd at the beav.

Michael wrote:Earlier this year, I read something about Cuaron praising a Mexican film called Temporada de Patos (Duck Season). I can't remember what source it was and the exact words he expressed about this film. If I remember correctly, he said that he wished he had made that film.

Temporada de Patos is a great film. Beautiful shot in black and white, with amazing performances from the all the cast. The movie won the top prize for a first time director last year here in the Dominican Republic International Film Fest.

Edit: The R1 DVD is coming on August 29

This release is currently listed under the 'Director's commentary' section of the website, although there's no listing of one on the special features. Could one have been added at this late stage?

Narshty wrote:This release is currently listed under the 'Director's commentary' section of the website, although there's no listing of one on the special features. Could one have been added at this late stage?

Perhaps the web intern meant to put it under "Director Approved" and selected the wrong label. Criterion website fuck-ups are so common that they often seem like the most reasonable explanation whenever anything is out of the ordinary over there.