AMORES PERROS

2000 - Mexico - 153 min. - Feature, Color

Director - Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Set In Mexico City, Mexico

Produced by Alta Vista Films / Zeta Entertainment

Release Jun 16, 2000 (Mexico) / Mar 30, 2001 (USA- Limited)

Premiere 2000 05 14 (Cannes Film Festival)

PLOT SYNOPSIS:

Three stories of life along the margins in Mexico City converge in this inventive thriller. Octavio is sharing an apartment with his brother, which leads to a serious problem when he falls in love with Susanna, his sister-in-law. Octavio and Susanna want to run away together, but Octavio has no money. He does, however, know a man who stages dog fights, and he volunteers his dog Cofi for the next round of fights. Cofi bravely rises to the occasion, but the dog's success in the ring leads to a violent altercation. Elsewhere, Daniel, a successful publishing magnate, leaves his family to take up with a beautiful model, Valeria. Valeria, however, soon loses a leg in an auto accident, and as Daniel tends to her needs, her tiny pet dog gets trapped under the floorboards of their apartment. And finally, El Chivo (Emilio Echeverria) is an elderly homeless man who is trying to contact his daughter, whom he hasn't seen in years. Desperate for money, El Chivo is hired by a businessman to assassinate his partner; however, as he's following his target, he's interrupted by an auto accident, from which Octavio and his injured dog stagger in search of help. Amores Perros (aka Love's a Bitch) was the debut from director Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu. - Mark Deming

REVIEW:

A film that made it onto numerous top ten lists in both 2000 and 2001, depending on its stateside or Mexican release date, Amores Perros is an overlapping consideration of the crises of love as it wavers in and out of reciprocity, in both the gutters and penthouses of Mexico City. More striking on the surface is how that theme is explored metaphorically through the egregious mistreatment and abuse of all species of dogs, the double entendre "bitches" of the title. Their graphic deaths and dismemberments might have given the ASPCA fits if it weren't for the short that accompanies the video and DVD release, which illustrates the "canine actors" at work and demonstrates the methods of bloodying them without actually hurting them. In his astonishing debut, director Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu saves the real blood for the fractured human relationships, agonizing in their complexity and cruelty. Directing an interweaving screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga, whose narrative structure bursts with the kind of freshness once ascribed to Quentin Tarantino, Inarritu brings his gritty camera into the dingy slums and palatial condos with equal confidence. From this he mines authentic perceptions about the strain of loyalties under the duress of an ironic, twisted reality. The moral center of the film is a disheveled hit man, living as a bum among the detritus of his wasted life and ruined family. His solution for how to resolve a conflict between back-stabbing brothers is the enduring image of a film that consistently and brilliantly dissects the anguish behind the titular cliché. - Derek Armstrong

CAST:

Emilio Echeverria

Gael García Bernal

Goya Toledo

Alvaro Guerrero

Jorge Salinas

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Director

Guillermo Arriaga - Screenwriter

Rodrigo Prieto - Cinematographer

Gustavo Santolalla - Composer (Music Score)

Brigitte Broch - Production Designer

Manuel Teil - Casting

AWARDS:

Best Foreign Language Film (nom) - 2000 Academy

Best Foreign Language Film (nom) - 2000 Golden Globe

Best Foreign Language Film (win) - Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu - 2001 British Academy Awards

Best Foreign Film (win) - 2001 National Board of Review

SIMILAR MOVIES:

Miami Blues (1990, George Armitage)

Our Lady Of The Assassins (2000, Barbet Schroeder)

Nueve Reinas (2001, Fabian Bielinsky)

Dog Story (2000)

Traffic (2000, Steven Soderbergh)

Trois Couleurs: Rouge (1994, Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Live Flesh (1997, Pedro Almodóvar)

Y tu mamá también (2001, Alfonso Cuarón)

City Of God (2002, Katia Lund, Fernando Meirelles)