Petit Bulletin GRENOBLE - Cinema Grenoble: Lee Unkrich ("Coco"): "We really wanted it to breathe Mexican" - interview published by Vincent Raymond

What is Coco's starting point?

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Lee Unkrich: The inspiration simply came from Mexico, where I had always enjoyed the "Día de muertos" Day of the Dead. When I started writing about this subject, I realized that there was no story about this party, that it was quite a unique idea. As my research progressed, I discovered how important the idea of ​​remembering his family was. There was the potential for a universal story, funny, dramatic, visually very beautiful and with a real heart. It moved me.

Did you design the Land of the Dead as a mirror to that of the living, since people drink, eat and sleep there?

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LU: No, we didn't think about this notion of a mirror, but we did a lot of research for the preparation, which helped us design Santa-Cecilia, the city in the world of the living where Miguel lives . Obviously, we couldn't do research for the world of the ancestors, so we appealed to the imagination. We could have done anything, but we really wanted it to breathe Mexican, to be full of life like in real life and to appear familiar not only to Miguel, but also to the public so that they fully shared his emotions.

There is also an amusement park aspect

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LU: (laughs) Sort of. It must have been a nice, funny place, full of colors, music, life "Día de muertos" is a celebration: you only come from the world of the ancestors once a year to see your family, everyone must be happy as a kid, all excited.

Why didn't Coco come out on All Saints' Day?

Darla K. Anderson: It had an early release in Mexico, at the time of "Día de muertos" on November 1^st ; in the United States, there would have been confusion with Halloween on October 31. For us, it's above all a film that talks about the family, about being together; values ​​that are represented by holidays like Thanksgiving in the United States and especially Christmas all over the world. It was therefore obvious for us to make it coincide with these dates.

What has changed the most in your way of working since your first films?

LU: I have more self-confidence than when I started. Now, when I start a film, whatever happens, I know it will be finished whereas it was not the case before. I panic a lot less, I have more perspective. Other than that, it's still just as difficult to find and tell a good story. As for the technology, it's so advanced that you can now do whatever you want and that's great; whatever we imagine, we can put everything on the screen.

Is everything really possible?

LU: Yes. Sure, some things haven't been done yet, but that's because we don't want to do them at Pixar like human beings looking like human beings. The real question is: how to do them efficiently while staying within budget.

Coco makes Frida Kahlo "play" dead. Did you have to ask permission to use the late artist's image?

DA: Of course, you had to create a partnership with the Frida Kahlo Foundation to have the authorization to do so.

LU: We tried to do a real work of partnership with all the authentic characters represented in the film. The Frida Kahlo Foundation has therefore requested small, subtle adjustments, particularly in the way it plays.

DA: And we had a hard time finding recordings of his voice it doesn't exist. We didn't know how to redo his voice.

LU: We felt a certain freedom, in the end: showing Frida Kahlo in death is pure imagination; it gives a few degrees of freedom to play with the character.

Did the title Coco, which refers to the great-grandmother, catch on right away?

LU: It wasn't the original title because there wasn't one at the start. When we make films at Pixar, we always give a code name during the work phase. For this one, it was Coco and he stayed. It was also the case with Toy Story we all agree, it's a bit stupid name, toy story, but that's what stuck. Coco is the same. We had made lists with hundreds of potential titles, but we chose this one because it was simple. I also liked the puzzle side. Before seeing the film, we do not know why it bears the name of the great-grandmother; at the end, we understand that she is at the heart of the story.

Coco

By Lee Unkrich (USA, 1h40) with Andrea Santamaria, Ary Abittan

By Lee Unkrich (USA, 1h40) with Andrea Santamaria, Ary Abittan

For several generations, music has been banned in Miguel's family. A real heartbreak for the young boy whose ultimate dream is to become a musician as accomplished as his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Determined to prove his talent, Miguel, by a strange combination of circumstances, finds himself propelled into a place as astonishing as it is colorful: the Land of the Dead. There, he befriends Hector, a nice boy but a little trickster on the edges. Together, they will go on an extraordinary journey that will reveal the true story behind that of Miguel's family.