Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu interview on NPQ

Brad Pitt in Babel

Diverging from the music for a bit....when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of cinema, I far prefer the work done and being done by Spanish and foreign filmmakers such as Alejandro González Iñárritu, the genius behind films such as Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros. Iñárritu spoke with NPQ editor Nathan Gardels in February on the subject "Hollywood Must Portray Point of View of Others." Here's a snippet of that interview for your reading pleasure.

NPQ | What accounts for this fantastic eruption of cinematic talent from the Spanish-speaking world—yourself, Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) and the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Volver)? How is it the same, how is it different, from the Latin boom in literature 30 years ago with Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa?

Alejandro González Iñárritu | There is a very fortunate consonance, a beautiful coincidence, among the three of us from Mexico—del Toro, Cuarón and myself. We are Mexican filmmakers from the middle class living outside our country, getting another perspective, all releasing films at the same time that emerge from that experience. And, on top of that, we are friends. That's a huge thing. We share projects, we help each other, we criticize each other.

This is all similar to what happened in the so-called Latin American literature boom. The challenge for us now is not just to be a "boom" but to maintain these strengths for the next 30 years.

NPQ | One Hollywood producer said to me that the critical success of foreign films in this year's Hollywood awards season—Babel, Stephen Frears' The Queen, Volver—is because filmmakers like yourself have broken out of the cycle of remakes Hollywood was stuck in by telling new stories about our changing world—something United States filmmakers once excelled at. Do you see this?

González Iñárritu | Yes. Babel is about the point of view of others. It literally includes points of views as experienced from the other side. It is not about a hero. It is not about only one country. It is a prism that allows us to see the same reality from different angles. While Babel is a foreign-language film in some countries, in others it is a local film. Today it is no longer about cultural or language barriers. It's emotion and humanity that make the connection in our global community. Films like Babel can transcend the one-point-of-view formula that has reigned for so long.

At the same time, it is true that the sensibility of Babel is that of someone from a Third World country. This film could not have been conceived or executed, and certainly would have been completely different, if it was made, say, in Switzerland or the US. The film really talks about all of us on the other side of what the average American citizen has been able to experience from the TV screen without having crossed the border into the world out there. It seeks to reveal that other truth...

Continue reading the interview at New Perspectives Quarterly, and do yourself and check out the foreign section next time you're at the video store. It's got everything American made movies have - sex, violence, nudity, drama, drugs - but these movies are actually art.