Special Guests 2007
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu inaugurated the new era of Mexican Cinema with his widely successful Amores perros (2000), the first film in an ambitious trilogy that collectively aims to capture, through a visually intricate formal discourse and dense storylines, the fragility of humanity. With this first feature, Iñárritu breached new ground, daring to set his movie in the gargantuan 21st century Mexico City and subsequently spawning a new genre of urban cinema. The film gathered accolades around the world, captivating foreign and Mexican audiences. It revitalized Mexico’s film industry and paved the way for other filmmakers and actors to carve an influential niche in world cinema. With a relatively simple premise —three stories hinging on a tragic accident— Iñárritu explored the intricacies of class, family relations, love, misdirected aspirations, guilt, and redemption. Pitting ideology against the shattering powers of the incidental, he exposed prejudices entrenched in Mexican society. What has become a trademark narrative device —non linear storytelling, temporal and spatial discontinuity, situations linked by random events, coupled with stunning cinematography, also played a structuring role in his second and third films.
He followed the success of his debut with the English language 21 Grams. This time working within an entirely different industry and with a Hollywood cast, he dove even deeper into the transformative effects of sudden tragedy, producing a work of arresting drama and stark emotion. His most recent achievement, the monumental Babel, takes the idea of interconnectedness up a step, to the global scale. Spanning three continents, four stories, in five languages, and boasting a cast of superstars (Brad Pitt, Gael GarcÃa Bernal, and Cate Blanchet) and non-actors alike, the film is a virtuoso illustration of the butterfly effect, and a call to transcend political, geographical, and language barriers in an effort to repair the ravages of intolerance and war.
Each one of Iñárritu’s films works like a prism, fragmenting the world we know to offer a privileged view of the interrelation of lives, and telescoping the mundane to enact a profound existential analysis. Different rhythms, different camera angles, different stocks translate into different perspectives, different reactions to the catastrophic and unexpected. Synergy is the guiding principle: chance occurrences create ripples of tragedy that are met with waves of empathy and compassion.
Particularly in a world that seems more and more destined to fragmentation, alienation, and self-destruction, it is inspiring to see a filmmaker building celluloid bridges across nations where others erect concrete walls.
Close info
Galleries
