Profiles: Alejandro González Iñárritu
About five years ago, the only people who recognized the name Alejandro González Iñárritu lived in or near Mexico City. It was there that González Iñárritu first made a name for himself as a radio DJ at one of the city’s most popular stations.
That changed dramatically in 1999 when he directed and produced his first feature film, Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch). The small-budget Mexican film soared to international success and made González Iñárritu a name known to millions around the world.
The gritty film told three almost separate stories of people and dogs, knitting them together as the movie progressed in what’s known as a triptych, or threefold tale. The movie went on to win a nomination for best foreign language film at the Academy Awards.
More importantly, its success meant that González Iñárritu would be able to continue directing films.
His next movie, 21 Grams, hit screens in late 2003. Again, it garnered González Iñárritu tremendous praise and acclaim and further cemented his reputation as one of the best directors in Latin America and perhaps even the world.
This time, the movie was shot in the United States in English and it starred some of Hollywood’s best actors, including Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro and Naomi Watts. One thing, though, remained the same: 21 Grams was also a triptych, three stories coming together in tiny vignettes that, at first, make little sense but, by the end of the movie, paint a clear picture of tragedy, grief and even a touch of redemption. While it didn’t earn Gonzalez Iñarritu an Oscar nomination as director, the film still resonated with the Academy: both del Toro and Watts were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively.
González Iñárritu has said that he didn’t plan for either picture to come out the way they did. He has said he edited them emotionally; doing what he felt was truest to the stories. And the triptych form simply grew from those emotions.
Yet even though the forms are similar, the two films couldn’t be more different. Amores Perros shows the underside of Mexico City, right down to graphic scenes of dogfights and the surreal nights of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. 21 Grams was filmed in Memphis and features the middle class lives of Americans, albeit gone terribly awry.
So what’s next for González Iñárritu? After working on some television spots for the Mexico Tourism Board, he plans to return to Mexico for his third movie. He intends to team up once again with his longtime friend and collaborator, Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter for both Amores Perros and 21 Grams. And he also plans to make another movie containing three distinct stories.
In other words, a triptych of triptychs.
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