“I will be ready to apologize”: Jacques Audiard reacts to the Emilia Perez controversy

The French director is strongly criticized in Mexico for his film shot in Spanish.

For several months, Emilia Perez is the subject of heated controversy in the Latino world. The film of Jacques Audiardwhich tackles the subjects of transidentity and drug trafficking in the form of a colorful musical comedy, shocks in Mexico. And the success of the film, which triumphed at the Golden Globes and is one of the favorites for the Oscars, only makes the situation worse.

In summary, we blame Emilia Perez to portray in a too light manner a very serious subject: mass disappearances linked to drug cartels. All of this was filmed in France, with an essentially non-Mexican cast, apart from the supporting role played by Adriana Paz. Selena Gomez, American actress of Mexican origin, was also targeted. She had to learn Spanish for the film, and her accent made Spanish speakers grate.

But the bulk of the criticism obviously concerns Jacques Audiard and his vision of Mexico. A few months ago, the French director admitted during an interview that he had not really studied the question before embarking on the project: “What I had to understand I knew“. An unfortunate quote that is on repeat on social networks.

Jacques Audiard was present this week in Mexico for the premiere of the film, which will finally be released in Mexico on January 23. Speaking to the Spanish version of CNN, the filmmaker agreed to respond to the criticism, justifying why he chose to set his film in Mexico and shoot it in Spanish, as well as his relationship to reality:

“The drug traffickers are still Mexican or Colombian. I could have placed it elsewhere, but the character in Boris Razon's novel was Mexican. And I wanted an opera in Spanish, I love the Spanish language, I love Spanish singing and I don't speak Spanish at all.

If I have to choose between history and legend, I prefer to write the legend. What I mean is that from the moment you place yourself in a form which would be opera, we are not in a system of realism.

If there are things in Emilia that strike you as offensive, I will be prepared to apologize. I'm very sorry. Cinema does not provide answers, cinema asks questions. Maybe the questions Emilia asks are inappropriate, I don't know. But I don't find them uninteresting. I don't mean to be pretentious, but there is something about Emilia's themes that is universal.”

This little mea culpa does not seem to find a favorable response among Internet users. But it should be noted that voices are also being raised to defend Emilia Perez in Mexico. Guillermo Del Toro, a big fan of Jacques Audiard, praised the French director and his film during a public screening.