Alfonso Arau has had a long and fruitful career both in front of and behind the camera and is one of the most prominent Latino film-makers in Hollywood. He was a drama disciple of Seki Sano--a Japanese teacher, classmate of Lee Strasberg with Konstantin Stanislavski in Russia--and traveled the world from 1964 to 1968 with his one-man show, "Pantomime Happy Madness", after studying with Etienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq in Paris.

A renowned writer-producer-director-actor in theater and film for more than twenty years, in 1969 he directed his first feature film, El águila descalza (1971), in which he also starred. He has directed many films in Mexico, among them Inspector Calzonzin (1974) and Mojado Power (1981). He has received six Arieles--the Mexican equivalent of the Oscar--and numerous international film awards.

Arau has acted in a number of Mexican and Hollywood films, including The Wild Bunch (1969), El Topo (1970), Mojado Power (1981), Used Cars (1980), Romancing the Stone (1984), Three Amigos! (1986) and Committed (2000). In addition to Like Water for Chocolate (1992), his directing credits include A Walk in the Clouds (1995) with Keanu Reeves and Picking Up the Pieces (2000) with Woody Allen. For television he has done The Magnificent Ambersons (2001), based on the script of Orson Welles' film version (The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)) and the novel by Booth Tarkington.

"Happy Madness", Pantomime One-Man Show. 1965-1968

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Alfonso Arau, Jackée Harry, Yvonne Wilder, and Alex Ruiz in 227 (1985)

Michael Douglas, Alfonso Arau, and Manuel Ojeda in Romancing the Stone (1984)

Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Alfonso Arau in Romancing the Stone (1984)

Alfonso Arau, Tony Plana, and Kai Wulff in Three Amigos! (1986)

Chevy Chase, Alfonso Arau, and Tony Plana in Three Amigos! (1986)

Alfonso Arau, José Chávez, Emilio Fernández, Ivan J. Rado, and Jorge Russek in The Wild Bunch (1969)

Phil Feldman, Bruce Dern, Alfonso Arau & Kirk Douglas. "Posse", 1975.

Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short in Three Amigos! (1986)

Lumi Cavazos and Marco Leonardi in Like Water for Chocolate (1992)

Alfonso Arau, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach, Gael García Bernal, Dyana Ortelli, Herbert Siguenza, and Anthony Gonzalez in Coco (2017)

Keanu Reeves and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón in A Walk in the Clouds (1995)

Alfonso Arau

Alfonso Arau

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