AMORES PERROS a Film by Alejandro González Iñárritu
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AMORES PERROS A film by Alejandro González Iñárritu Distributor Contact: New Yorker Films 220 East 23rd St., Ste. 409 New York, NY 10010 Tel: (212) 645-4600 Fax: (212) 683-6805 [email protected] AMORES PERROS CREDITS Directed by ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU Written by GUILLERMO ARRIAGA Producer FRANCISCO GONZÁLEZ COMPEÁN Dir. Of Photography RODRIGO PRIETO Editor LUIS CARBALLAR ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU FERNANDO PEREZ UNDA Music GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA CAST El Chivo EMILIO ECHEVARRIA Octavio GAEL GARCIA BERNAL Valeria GOYA TOLEDO Daniel ALVARO GUERRERO Susana VANESSA BAUCHE Luis JORGE SALINAS Ramiro MARCO PEREZ www.NewYorkerFilms.com Mexico, 2000 154 min., Color In Spanish with English Subtitles 1.85, Dolby Dig. 2 SYNOPSIS Mexico City, a fatal car accident. Three lives collide, revealing the hounding side of human nature. Octavio, a young teenager, decides to run away with Susana, his brother’s wife. His dog Cofi becomes a cruel instrument to get the money they need to run off together, further complicating this touching triangle of passion where forbidden love becomes a road of no return. Meanwhile Daniel, a 42-year old man. Leaves his wife and daughters to move in with Valeria, a beautiful model. On the day they’re celebrating their new life together, destiny pushes Valeria into the tragic accident and she is brutally run-over. What does a man do when he thought he had it all and his whole life changes in an instant? Daniel and Valeria will descend into their own brand of hell when Richi, Valeria’s tiny dog, is trapped under the apartment’s wooden floor-the perfect metaphor of a love story that bravely assumes the consequences of disenchantment and despair Finally, el Chivo (“the goat”) arrives on the scene of the accident; he is a former communist guerilla who, after serving several years in prison, is deeply disappointed in life and works as a hired assassin. There he finds a dying Cofi-Octavio’s-dog-which he steals and heals. Paradoxically, this encounter will enable him to come to terms with himself and his painful past. An exciting film and thrilling story about redemption and the vulnerability and complexity of human experience. No movie had ever portrayed the chaos of the world’s largest and most populated city with such realism and crudity before. The circle is never closed; pain is the path towards hope. 3 DIRECTOR’S NOTE REFLECTIONS ON AMORES PERROS Mexico City is an anthropological experiment, and I feel I’m part of it. I’m just one of the twenty one million people that live in the world’s largest and most populated city. In the past, no person had ever lived (survived, more likely) in a city with such rates of pollution, violence and corruption, however-incredible and paradoxical as it may seem-it is a beautiful a fascinating city and that is precisely what Amores Perros is to me: a products of this contradiction, a small reflection of the baroque and complex mosaic that is Mexico City. For me, the process of Amores Perros has been a long journey inside. From the time I read Guillermo Arriaga’s first draft (we worked on 36 drafts over three years) it moved, shook and disturbed me. I could not only see and feel the characters, but I could smell them and feel something profoundly human for them. It was like they stepped out of the paper and stood before me, suffering, with perfectly organic dialogues. If I’m certain of anything it’s that I didn’t make this film with my intellect, bu by sheer instinct and intuition. I know I didn’t put my heart into it, rather my entrails and a piece of instinct and intuition. I think everybody gave a piece of their lives to the project, there was always a very strange mystique around the set-a silence which sowed mixed feelings are reaped deafening emotions. It was never inspiration, just perspiration; there was no mercy, compassion or compromise, things are what they are, not what we want them to be. Every department- art, wardrobe, music-yielded to the story and to Rodrigo Prieto’s incredible camera work, which I wanted to be a silent but proactive witness of real facts taking place before our eyes. It was something close to documenting a piece of reality, and maybe this is why the film is disturbing and exciting, because the worst we can see in it Is ourselves. Sometimes refusing to accept our nature or going against it is also a part of this very nature. In Amores Perros characters forget their divinity and dive deep into their animal nature in order to redeem and survive themselves, their decisions and consequences through pain, but always with great beauty, courage, dignity and hope. This is why these characters are likable and endearing they may be unfaithful but never disloyal. After reading dozens of scripts, the profound and complex structure of Amores Perros, along with the fortunate and vital empathy that bonded me with Guillermo Arriaga, led me to know I had finally found a story that would allow me to exorcise me terrible fear of the ordinary human experience of day-to-day existence, which has perhaps been hidden behind the frivolous esthetic of TV commercials. I wanted to touch and to touch myself, to feel alive and make the characters and viewers alive. I wanted to strike, caress, entertain, move and provoke. I wanted to take the viewer up and down the extremes of a roller coaster ride, no breaks. I wanted to completely strip the characters naked before the camera without them feeling embarrassed, to find the perfect catharsis or the uncomfortable shame of the viewer watching him or herself. With this regard, I think the actors and actresses’ heartrending and incredible work in the film accomplished a lot more than I had imagined. - ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU 4 PRODUCER’S NOTE There are three fundamental reasons why we wanted this film to be made. The first was the originality and strength of the script by Guillermo Arriaga. Set in a city of contrasts, all his characters are deeply human, embodiments of pain and hope. The second was the impressive storytelling ability, the imagination and talent of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu as director, and his tenacity and leadership as producer in bringing together the best possible cast and crew to help him tell this story in its full dimension. The third is that we believe this film, from its conception, possesses all the necessary elements to communicate with worldwide audiences craving new dimensions in storytelling. As viewers may notice, we took great creative risks in shooting Amores Perros. All of us at Altavista Films are proud to be a means for developing and exhibiting the work of Mexico’s finest talents. -FRANCISCO GONZÁLEZ COMPEÁN 5 BIOGRAPHIES CAST EMILIO ECHEVARRIA (El Chivo) Emilio began his career in 1978 when he joined in the creation of ARTE Y SOCIEDAD, an institution, which brought together many artists from different disciplines, and provided a venue for art, cinema, theater, dance and music exhibitions and performances. So far he has participated in over twenty plays including “Querida Lulu”, “Nadie Sabe Nada”, “Los Perdedores” and “Don Juan”. His film career is also quite extensive: “Bordando la Frontera” by Maricarmen de Lara, “Dia Crucial para Ausencio Paredes” byt Eduardo Herrera, “Los Pasos de Ana” by Marisa Sistach, “Morir en el Golfo” by Alejandro Pelayo, “Intimidad” by Dana Rotberg, “Intimidades en un Cuarto de Baño” by Jime Humberto Hermosillo, “Novia Que Te Vea” by Guita Schyfter, “Ambar”, by Luis Estrada, “Un Volcan con Lava de Hielo” by Valentina Leduc, and “Sucesos Distantes” by Guita Schyfter. His latest film is “Amores Perros” in which he has the leading role. GAEL GARCIA BERNAL (Octavio) My full name is Gael Garcia Bernal, which is also the name I use as an actor. I was born November 20, 1978 in Guadaljara. From an early age I started working with my parents in different theatre plays. When I was eleven I worked in a play called “El Rapto de las Estrellas” written by Alejandro Reyes. When I was twelve I starred in a soap opera called “El Abuelo y Yo”, which was also the name of the musical that followed with which we toured the country. After that I starred in film school exercises and short films including “De Tripas, Corazon” which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Short Film. I worked in the play “Roberto Zucco” directed by Catherine Marnas. I also worked in a short film in Uruguay directed by Rodrigo Pla, El Ojo en la Nuca”. I’ve just finished studying acting in the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England, where I’ve lived for the past three years. In school I’ve participated in several public theatrical productions which have played in different cultural festivals throughout Europe. Amores Perros is my first full-length feature film. I am currently working in “Y Tu Mama Tambie” which is a movie directed by Carlos Cuaron and photographed by Emanuel Lubezki. VANESSA BAUCHEA (Susana) In 1999 she got the lead role in the film “Piedras Verdes”, Angel Torres Flores’s first film. In 1998 she co-starred in “Un Embrujo” directed by Carlos Carrera. On that same year she had a special appearance in Gabriel Rete’s “Un Dulce Olor a Muerte.” In 1996 she acted in the films “La Ley de las Mujeres” by Billy Arellano, and “Hasta Morir” by Fernando Sariñana for which she was nominated for an Ariel as Best Supporting Actress.