{ "id": "epj8xzhs7x", "slug": "solo-con-tu-pareja", "title": "Sólo con Tu Pareja", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994", "label": "Comedies of 1990 to 1994", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994.slapstick-black-and-family-comedies.alpha-k-to-w", "label": "Titles K to W", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994.slapstick-black-and-family-comedies.alpha-k-to-w" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 1946 to 2000: Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "path": [ { "id": "geo.latam", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946", "label": "Latin America and the Caribbean · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance", "label": "Comedy and romantic films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.latam.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Sólo con tu pareja (Love in the Time of Hysteria) is Alfonso Cuarón's 1991 Mexican comedy debut, written with Carlos Cuarón and shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, about a yuppie womanizer tricked into believing he has AIDS.", "snippet": "Sólo con tu pareja (Love in the Time of Hysteria) is Alfonso Cuarón's 1991 Mexican comedy debut, written with Carlos Cuarón and shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, about a yuppie womanizer tricked into believing he has AIDS.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.comedy-romance.comedies-of-1990-to-1994.slapstick-black-and-family-comedies.alpha-k-to-w", "markdown": "# Sólo con Tu Pareja\n\n**Sólo con tu pareja** (released in English as *Love in the Time of Hysteria*) is a 1991 Mexican comedy and the feature debut of director [Alfonso Cuarón](https://www.edgepedia.org/alfonso-cuaron), written with his brother Carlos Cuarón and photographed by [Emmanuel Lubezki](https://www.edgepedia.org/emmanuel-lubezki). A sex farce built around the AIDS panic of its era, it follows a Mexico City yuppie womanizer who is tricked into believing he is HIV positive, and it became the film that carried Cuarón, his brother, and Lubezki out of Mexican state cinema and toward Hollywood.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561) • [2](https://www.criterion.com/films/798-)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Production | Mexican feature, 1991, 94 minutes, color, Spanish; comedy/romance[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561) • [3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis) |\n| Director and writers | Directed by Alfonso Cuarón; screenplay by Carlos Cuarón, his first feature and Carlos's first screenplay[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561) • [4](https://www.eaj-pnv.eus/adjuntos/pnvDocumentos/10359_archivo.pdf) • [13](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=11276940) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Emmanuel Lubezki, music Carlos Warman, production design Brigitte Broch[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561) |\n| Lead cast | Daniel Giménez Cacho as Tomás Tomás; Claudia Ramírez as Clarisa Negrete; Luis de Icaza and Astrid Hadad in supporting roles[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/798-) |\n| Plot device | A spurned nurse types \"positive\" on Tomás's AIDS test; believing he is dying, he falls in love for the first time[5](https://moviewiser.com/mx/movie/49971) |\n| Award | Ariel for best original screenplay, Academia Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas, 1992[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561) |\n| Reception | 67% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (12 reviews); Metascore 61 on Metacritic[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/solo_con_tu_pareja) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/solo-con-tu-pareja/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Story and characters\n\nTomás Tomás (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is a young advertising executive and a contemporary [Don Juan](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-juan) who juggles so many lovers that he cannot keep their names straight, and who refuses to use condoms even in the era of the DC-10, the microwave oven, and AIDS. After one of his conquests, a nurse named Silvia, is spurned, she takes revenge by typing \"positive\" on his AIDS test. Believing he is dying, Tomás looks for a quick and painless way to end his life, and on a ledge four floors up he falls in love for the first time, with Clarisa Negrete (Claudia Ramírez), a flight attendant with a broken heart who is seeking the same solution.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561) • [5](https://moviewiser.com/mx/movie/49971) • [8](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/solo-con-tu-pareja/umc.cmc.2m6vp8d00vmz2zzrq91wb4lp9?l=es)\n\nThe film's wordplay extends to its names: besides Tomás Tomás, the cast includes Mateo Mateos (Luis de Icaza), Teresa de Teresa (Astrid Hadad), and a character referred to as Patricia from [Pathology](https://www.edgepedia.org/pathology).[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis)\n\n## Production and state funding\n\nThe film emerged from Mexico's state funding system for cinema at a low point for the national industry. Cuarón later said he decided to treat the Mexican government, which financed the film, as a business partner rather than a patron, insisting that he held the majority share of his own movie; the response was that he would not film with them again.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis) • [9](https://pstlala.oscars.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2FPST_CuaronAlfonso_OHMSIndex.xml) The finished film was initially shelved by the government, but when it was finally released in Mexico in 1991 it became a popular and critical success.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis)\n\nIn a 2017 masterclass at Cannes, Cuarón explained his intentions: he wanted a comedy in the rhythm of [Ernst Lubitsch](https://www.edgepedia.org/ernst-lubitsch), close to the contemporary energy of Martin Scorsese's *[After Hours](https://www.edgepedia.org/after-hours-film)*, and he wanted to mock the prejudices then current in Mexico about AIDS, which was seen as affecting women and, above all, homosexual men rather than heterosexual men.[10](https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/05/24/actualidad/1495654375_911473.html) The film's satire of Mexican culture included a public-service AIDS campaign within the story.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis)\n\n## Path to Hollywood\n\nThe film premiered at the Toronto festival, where Cuarón attended with Lubezki and Carlos Cuarón while, by his account, bankrupt and burned bridges with the Mexican government behind him. The film was well received; the director Sidney Pollack saw it and, in Cuarón's words, launched him to Hollywood. Cuarón described the following years as a long limbo of development projects, the most he filmed being an episode of the television series *Fallen Angels*.[10](https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/05/24/actualidad/1495654375_911473.html) The success of the debut drew attention from Hollywood producers, and the Cuarón brothers and Lubezki were invited to work in the United States.[4](https://www.eaj-pnv.eus/adjuntos/pnvDocumentos/10359_archivo.pdf)\n\nThe collaboration regrouped a decade later: Cuarón returned to Mexico in 2001 to film *Y tu mamá también*, a story he and his brother had carried since the *Sólo con tu pareja* period, this time as co-producer and under far more favorable commercial conditions.[9](https://pstlala.oscars.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2FPST_CuaronAlfonso_OHMSIndex.xml) • [11](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptb2011/mayo/0669080/0669080_A1.pdf)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nCritics reviewing the film around its 2006 United States release treated it as a rough but promising debut. [A. O. Scott](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-o-scott) of *The New York Times* called it a rambunctious sex comedy shadowed by mortality and admired its camera movement and cheeky self-confidence; the *Miami Herald* praised the camera work and sharply defined characters; the *Village Voice* found the dialogue heavy with old aphorisms and clichés.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/solo-con-tu-pareja/) Wesley Morris noted that the film challenged the stigma around AIDS, albeit for heterosexuals, at a moment when the disease was still considered a death sentence.[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/solo-con-tu-pareja/)\n\nLater commentary placed the film in context. The [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) essayist Ryan F. Long grouped it with the early-1990s Mexican films of Carlos Carrera (*La mujer de Benjamín*, 1991) and María Novaro (*Danzón*, 1991) as part of a generation of young filmmakers breaking from the tired fare of the 1980s.[3](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis) A scholar cited in a Cornell study credited the film with restoring the Mexican middle-class film audience by giving them a reason to return to the cinema.[12](https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/41163/1/so269.pdf) Criterion, which issued the film as Spine #353 with a high-definition restoration supervised by Lubezki, described it as a wildly successful debut that gave voice to a Mexican middle class largely unseen onscreen; the same page notes it had never been released theatrically in the United States.[2](https://www.criterion.com/films/798-)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Sólo con tu pareja, Sistema de Información Cultural, Secretaría de Cultura (Mexico)](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=561)\n2. [Sólo con tu pareja, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/798-)\n3. [Ryan F. Long, \"Sólo con tu pareja: Sex, Lies, and Mariachis,\" The Criterion Collection, Oct 16, 2006](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/701-solo-con-tu-pareja-sex-lies-and-mariachis)\n4. [Ficha de Sólo con tu pareja (Eaj-PNV document, citing Filmaffinity)](https://www.eaj-pnv.eus/adjuntos/pnvDocumentos/10359_archivo.pdf)\n5. [Sólo con tu pareja, MovieWiser](https://moviewiser.com/mx/movie/49971)\n6. [Love in the Time of Hysteria, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/solo_con_tu_pareja)\n7. [Sólo con tu pareja, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/solo-con-tu-pareja/)\n8. [Sólo con tu pareja, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/solo-con-tu-pareja/umc.cmc.2m6vp8d00vmz2zzrq91wb4lp9?l=es)\n9. [Alfonso Cuarón Visual History, Academy Oral History Projects (PST LA/LA)](https://pstlala.oscars.org/ohms-viewer/render.php?cachefile=%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F07%2FPST_CuaronAlfonso_OHMSIndex.xml)\n10. [Gregorio Belinchón, \"Alfonso Cuarón, el obrero del cine mundial,\" El País, May 25, 2017](https://elpais.com/cultura/2017/05/24/actualidad/1495654375_911473.html)\n11. [UNAM thesis document on Alfonso Cuarón (TESIUNAM)](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptb2011/mayo/0669080/0669080_A1.pdf)\n12. [The Contemporary Body of Mexican Masculinities, Cornell eCommons](https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1813/41163/1/so269.pdf)\n13. [ICAA Film Data - ICAA Film Database](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=11276940)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 1990 to 1994 › Titles K to W*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Sólo con Tu Pareja\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Sólo con Tu Pareja](https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja](https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Sólo con Tu Pareja\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/solo-con-tu-pareja. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Sólo con tu pareja is Alfonso Cuarón's 1991 Mexican comedy debut, written with Carlos Cuarón and shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, about a yuppie womanizer tricked into believing he has AIDS." }