R (rated for violence/gore, sexuality, and language), 153 minutes, Mexico.
“Life is a bitch; you get used, though, or you kill yourself. Either way, you’re winning.”
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s debut Amores Perros is a delightful ride into the Mexican new wave films, the flag bearing renaissance- title roughly translates to love’s a bitch. It’s a fitting précis delve into the passion, ardor and the fragility of those lives, thrown beyond the reasons of gruesome balances. The narration plaids a fast-paced, unflinching genre twist of hyperlink cinema. Featured of an ensemble cast interconnected to one traumatic incident, leading in many to an eventual indulgence, and an inevitable consequence of three stories converging right of this diminutive brute by a car accident in the streets of Mexico City.
It’s the first instalment in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Trilogy of Death. Getting on the order, through the 21 Grams (2003) and Babel (2006). Commercial success also led him to mark his foot in the US. Amores Perros credits as the kick-starter of the Mexican film industry have been in the rough patch then. The film won more than thirty awards, including -The Best Foreign feature at BAFTA and Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix; The Prize of the Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival; The film won the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics. Also, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Apart from the awards- The film earned enormous success at the box offices. It earned $10 million in Mexico, $5 million in the US, and $20 million worldwide. He made Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015) in the US in later years. Both the film won Iñarritu a DGA Award(Director Guild of America), making history the first person to win two in a row. Interestingly, Iñárritu is the first global filmmaker to try the VR installation project at 2017s Carne y Arena, at the Cannes Film Festival. Being one of a kind and had a distinct awarded as a Special Achievement Academy Award for his virtual reality project.
What’s makes the movie so unique and matchless is the brilliant story-telling. The compelling soundtrack, the dazzling cinematography are the factors for its triumph. The cinematic and editing techniques used in this movie are very different from the earlier Latin American filmmakers. The plot isn’t exactly in lines- neither use flashbacks or flash-forwards. The impeccable construct, as a narrative triptych, is extensively studied. It entails many contrasting barefaced, flagrant stories come together in the opening scene, which is a frightening car accident runs through a recount of an intersection, of Octavio and Susana; Daniel and Valeria and El Chivo and Maru.
The central characters have one thing in common, as all of them are canine owners. The plot begins when Octavio (Gael García Bernal), his friend, and Cofi, the rottweiler pet bleeding in the rear are evading from another car. At the crossroad, they hit the vehicle of Valeria (Goya Toledo), a gorgeous woman, who’s seriously injured. The outline shifts to the next scene to an illegal dogfight, a sneak in Octavio and Susana’s first story.
Octavio is in love with Susana (Vanessa Bauche), the teenage mum and wife of his violent brother Ramiro. He earns money with dogfights and confers to Susana to escape to begin a new life. As a plan, Octavio pays a gang to assault his brother Ramiro. In the turn of events, Susana flees with Octavio’s money with her husband, Ramiro. At the illegal dogfight pitch, Octavio’s rottweiler Cofi is shot by Jarocho, a mistrust opponent because of his dog losing the game to Cofi. Octavio in his defence stabs Jarocho and runs away with injured Cofi along with his friend in his car. Jorocho’s gang chase Octavio’s car. The first scene is displayed back as Valeria, a supermodel in the TV show. Octavio and his friend watching a supermodel on the TV before going to the dogfight.
The second story about Valeria and Daniel -Valeria and Daniel (Álvaro Guerrero), have moved to their new apartment. Daniel, the magazine publisher, having left his wife Julieta for the successful supermodel. Valeria’s leg is injured in the car accident and undergoes surgery after some weeks. In the intervening, Valeria’s dog, Richie, plummet down the floor and very nearly eaten by rats. Daniel saves Riche before the floor is dented to get it rescued.
The final storyline of El Chivo and Maru- El Chivo (Emilio Echevarría), a drifter seen with his pet mongrels. He earns money as a hitman. His background reveals an upright teacher, who’s falsely charged on the act of terrorism and been sent to jail. After the release, Chivo search for his teenage daughter Maru, who’s under the impression that her father is no longer alive as her mother unveils before her death. Gustavo, the businessman, hires El Chivo to kill his half-brother Louis Miranda Solares. The first scene retrials from El Chivo’s point of view, as he’s about gunning down Louis, and instead rescues Octavio’s injured rottweiler Cofi. He discovers Cofi killing all of his mongrels. Later Chivo decides not to kill Louis but instead kidnaps the two brothers to leave them alone with a gun. He plans to get away before dropping the actual photo of him and a message on the answering machine at his daughter’s house. El Chivo recedes out of the city together with Cofi, in that primrose blooms into the horizon.
Amores Perros is shot for ten weeks on location at several places in Mexico City, using documentary-style camerawork. The cameraman Rodrigo Prieto is virtuoso used a unique technique called bleach-bypass process on the camera negative for the whole film to get perky, and bright colours. However, the film stock processed with silver retention to create stronger contrasts and texture in colour. The opening scene beautifully depicts crafty deep colours-the fire of yellowish ting, when Octavio’s car crashed in and unnaturally bright. But also in the rest of the film, the intent is to use deep colours. The first and third chapter resembles the same because of the same film stock. In the second chapter, it is shot in a different raw stock, just to make it crisper and cleaner.
Iñárritu’s emotions are upright on the screen. The main characters are forlorn and failing in love. Octavio is empty-handed without Susana not making into his life. So is Valeria’s separates with Daniel and El Chivo’s not making it to his daughter. To a large extent, the frailties of lives leave regrets. It’s the splendour bound for destruction, and when the impact would come, nothing can fix oneself. I’m sure the audience feels there’s something real about the way things must have touched. Like life itself- Amores Perros, tortuous as the heart. Some blows fall too heavy upon those too fragile, far away. Bitter. Sweet. Alive.
Film Crew
Starring: Emilio Echevarría; Gael García Bernal; Goya Toledo; Álvaro Guerrero; Vanessa Bauche; Jorge Salinas & Adriana Barraza.
Based on the story idea by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga.
Screenplay by Alejandro González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga.
Music by Gustavo Santaolalla.
Edited by Alejandro González Iñárritu; Luis Carballar & Fernando Pérez Unda.
Cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto.
Produced and Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
