(Toronto) Director Alfonso Cuaron has set his sights on the small screen with Disclaimera seven-part psychological thriller starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, though for him the end result is still a movie — a very long movie, he said Monday.
Furtively passed through the world of television with the short series Believe (NBC) ten years ago, the Mexican filmmaker returned there for the first time since his Oscars for Gravity And Rome.
The miniseries, which premiered Monday at the Toronto Film Festival after a world premiere in Venice, stars Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft, a journalist whose life is turned upside down when she receives a novel that appears to tell the intimate details of her darkest secret.
This sordid affair notably involves the late son of Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline), a bitter widower who does not hide his desire for revenge.
Added to this are a trio of hand-picked Oscar nominees: Sacha Baron Cohen, Lesley Manville and Kodi Smit-McPhee, as well as Australian actress Leila George.
For the 62-year-old screenwriter, who is used to feature films, the production of Disclaimerthe first project of the multi-year contract he signed with Apple TV+, was not much different from that of a film.
“The idea was to make a film that would last five and a half hours and to cut it into seven chapters,” he explained on the red carpet.
PHOTO MARK BLINCH, REUTERS
Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Leila George and Alfonso Cuaron
His adaptation of Renee Knight’s 2015 thriller of the same name – broadcast from October 11 – travels through time to reveal the sordid aspects of the characters’ intertwined lives.
But, as journalist Christiane Amanpour reminds us in an appearance at the beginning of the series: “Be wary of the narration and its form.”
“Not everything you see is necessarily true,” Blanchett added during a Q&A after the screening in Toronto.
“What’s interesting, I think, for all of us who play this role is that we’re playing a version of reality,” she said.
“Meticulous”
Speaking to the Toronto audience, Alfonso Cuaron recalled the origins of the project when author Renee Knight sent him proofs of her novel before it went to print.
“I immediately thought of a film, but at the time I didn’t see how to make it as a conventional feature film,” he said, adding that the idea of a miniseries only came to him later, but that “writing the script was very quick.”
For the cast, it was a real “dialogue” with Cate Blanchett, who signed on directly after reading the first three episodes.
“I read it and threw it across the room,” the actress said, adding that every time she reacted that way to a script, she realized she was facing a challenge that she had to overcome.
For Kevin Kline, it was Alfonso Cuaron’s working method that left its mark on him.
“He said, ‘It’ll take as long as it takes,’ and that’s how we did it. He’s very meticulous, detail-oriented and thorough,” the actor noted on the red carpet.
Only three episodes were broadcast on Monday, the rest of the series will be presented at the closing of the festival in order to attract a larger audience.
This year’s program also includes Families Like Ours by Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (Drunk) And Faithless by Tomas Alfredson (The Mole).