Amores Perros

I purchased this - mainly out of curiosity - to see what exactly was so amazing about this film "Amores Perros" (otherwise translated to Love's a Bitch), that has been labelled as possibly the best Mexican film of all time. It was the first movie I had watched by the up and coming director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, so unfortunately I had none of his other works to compare to; however, I had to start somewhere and I thought I might as well watch this before "Babel".

The film is a tragic love tale, orientated around a horrific car accident, which connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life's harsh realities; all in the name of love. Like "Children of Men", this movie is typical in that it carries the Mexican trademark of being extremely gritty and realistic - this, I felt, was a good trait as the style fitted in really nicely with the narrative.

The first story focuses around a character named Octavio who is madly in love with his brother's wife. There is a clear contrast between the two brothers - Octavio is portrayed as the more caring yet ambitious one - and his brother is shown as the selfish and abusive husband. As an audience we really feel for Octavio and connect with him very deeply. Rising actor Gael Garcia Bernal does indeed do a very good job in winning the audience's sympathy as the unrequitted lover. He is a very likeable character - I had only seen him once before in "The Motorcycle Diaries" (another Spanish film) - however, he seems to have certainly built himself up a good reputation in the world film industries, and I definately hope to look more into the development of his career, as this was the film which launched it.

Once the film reaches its second story, the atmosphere completely changes - the storyline becomes quite confusing and at the time it did take me a little while to establish what was going on. After seeing the first story, I found the jump to the second one quite tough to adapt to as we suddenly go from having connected really well to a group of characters, to having to start from scratch again. It takes a while to get going, however, it does become interesting once we start to notice the recurring theme of tragic romance.

The film's final part brings it back on track again and this time we are drawn to an older character named El Chivo who is homeless and living with a pack of dogs. His care for the dogs is really iconic of the film itself as they have been dominant features themselves throughout. In fact they leave a clever message on the story; the animals in the film are mostly loved, however it is love and compassion for other humans that the film shows the characters having difficulty with - and this is where the emotional impact of the film is. "Love's a Bitch" almost certainly appears to suggest this.

Overall, I found the "Amores Perros" deeply interesting, despite its drop in pace around the middle. The narrative is unusual, however, this is not neccessarily a bad thing as in this case I believe it to have worked. The style of the film is also extremely realistic (even the way the romances don't have fairytale endings) - it says a lot about the industry in Mexico and how they intend to really reflect the Mexican culture. If I had one criticism, however, I would say that perhaps the three stories were too losely connected - although one may argue that this would take away the realism of it all, and make the film too much like a Hollywood film. I think it all depends on taste really, and to be honest, I still really enjoyed the movie. I look forward to watching "Babel".

Children of Men

Before this movie, I had only seen one film by the relatively new-to-Hollywood Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, and that was Harry Potter 3 - which was, however, my favourite of the Harry Potter films. It was darker in tone to the previous two and had a much grittier feel to it, which I felt reflected the books more accurately. There seemed to be an atmosphere about it that had not been present in the other films.

Children of Men was not much different to the Harry Potter 3 movie in terms of style, despite the fact that this was enhanced to a much greater level. Set in London, in the year 2027, we witness the world in complete chaos after no woman on the entire planet has given birth for 18 years. Mankind has effectively become an endangered species and now economies are falling apart. It is a plot which seems quite silly on first hearing - which is what I thought before watching it - however, in the film, it is portrayed so simply that it is horrifyingly believable.

The film does have an amazingly apocalyptic feel to it and this is really enhanced by the way the audience are placed within the action on so many occasions. We follow character Theo, the main protagonist, throughout, and our thoughts are synchronised with his - as he learns, we learn. Therefore, the story does not really give much away and the whole time we are left asking a lot of questions. However, this makes it even more intense as we feel really part of this mass-panic. Many of the film's action scenes are filmed in long takes (the longest, I think, being up to eleven minutes long) and they do generally allow the viewer to be very involved. Most of it is filmed handheld and the camera tracks through the intense, endless-seeming action, amongst bomb explosions, gunshots and massacres of crowds of people, which all in itself seems so real, however, the attention is still carefully not drawn away from the main character who remains in shot for pretty much the entire time.

What I enjoyed most about Children of Men was its realistic portrayal of the future world and how unafraid it was to show really graphic scenes of terror and violence without corrupting the whole plot, which was the characters' struggle to protect a young girl who is about to deliver the first child into the world in 18 years. The cinematography was also amazing, being both visually disturbing and beautiful - which really related to the theme of the story as a whole. The thing that worked most, however, was how the director was never tempted to over-do any of the action - he kept it real and believable, which is something many Hollywood directors fail to do. I feel Alfonso Cuaron brought from his Mexican roots, the ability to reflect society to a true extent, keeping it gritty and terrifyingly real, without relying heavily on special effects, whilst making the most of what could be described as quite a simple storyline.

Title Change

In what ways have Mexican film Directors made an impact in the Hollywood industry?

The Stories of Three Amigos

http://www.washingtontimes.com/entertainment/20070111-094543-4197r.htm

An article on Innaritu, Cuaron and Del Toro from the Washington Times.

Amazing Video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8155571489738252066&hl=en

An hour long interview with Mexican Directors Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Alfonso Cuaron and Guilermo Del Toro on "Babel", "Children of Men" and "Pan's Labyrinth".

Textual Analysis

Watched "Children of Men" last night - the latest film by Alfonso Cuaron - and was very impressed.

Still need to watch one of Cuaron's earlier films "Y Tu Mama Tambien"

And the films of Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu "Amores Perros", "21 Grams" and "Babel"

Also Guilermo Del Toro's "Espinazo del Diablo, El" (The Devil's Backbone) and "Laberinto del Fauno, El" (Pan's Labyrinth)

I will be keeping a record of the content of each film - my notes on the "El Mariachi" trilogy will also be added to these.

Cool Article

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49

Sight and Sound Article on "And Your Mother Too"