Amores perros

Infobox_Film
name =Amores perros

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caption =Poster for "Amores perros"
director =Alejandro González Iñárritu
producer =Alejandro González Iñárritu
writer =Guillermo Arriaga
starring =Emilio Echevarría
Gael García Bernal
Goya Toledo
Álvaro Guerrero
Vanessa Bauche
Jorge Salinas
Adriana Barraza
Gustavo Sánchez Parra
music =Gustavo Santaolalla
Antonio Vega
cinematography =Rodrigo Prieto
editing =Luis Carballar
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Fernando Pérez Unda
distributor =Nu Vision (Mexico)
Lions Gate Films in world film magic
Filmax International (Spain)
released =flagicon|France 14 May, 2000 (premiere at Cannes)
flagicon|Mexico 16 June, 2000
flagicon|USA 30 March, 2001
flagicon|Australia 5 April, 2001
flagicon|UK 18 May, 2001
runtime =153 minutes
country = Mexico
language =Spanish
budget =US $2,000,000Fact|date=September 2007
imdb_id =0245712
amg_id =1:201704|

"Amores perros" is a Mexican film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu in 2000. It is an anthology film containing three distinct stories which are connected by a car accident in Mexico City. Each of the three tales is also a reflection on the cruelty of humans toward animals and each other, showing how they may live dark or even hideous lives. "Amores Perros" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2001 and won the Ariel Award for Best Picture from the Mexican Academy of Film.

The film was released under its Spanish title in the English-speaking world although it was sometimes translated as "Love's a Bitch" in marketing. In a 2001 interview on National Public Radio Iñárritu pointed out that an American English idiom, "Love's a Bitch" is not a satisfactory translation of the titleFact|date=February 2008 (see below).

Plot

The film is constructed from three distinct stories linked by a car accident that brings the characters briefly together.

"Octavio and Susana" stars Gael García Bernal and Vanessa Bauche as the title characters. Susana is Octavio's sister-in-law, however Octavio is in love with her and doesn't like how his brother, Ramiro, treats her. Susana also has a potential relationship with Octavio and tries to persuade her to run away with him. Needing to make money so he and Susana can escape and start a life of their own, Octavio becomes involved in the business of dog fighting until his dog Cofi (Coffee) is shot during a fight by the rival owner, whom Octavio then stabs. While being fired at by his pursuers Octavio finds himself in a car chase along with his lifelong friend and the wounded dog. In the collision the best friend dies and Octavio is badly injured.

"Daniel and Valeria" stars Álvaro Guerrero and Goya Toledo. Daniel is a successful magazine publisher who leaves his family to live with the Spanish supermodel Valeria. Unfortunately, Valeria is badly injured in the accident involving Octavio's car and therefore can no longer work as a model. Valeria's dog disappears under the floorboards in her and Daniel's apartment one day and stays there for days. The missing dog triggers serious tension for the couple, causing numerous fights which leads to doubts about their relationship on both sides. Valeria reinjures her leg trying to help the dog resulting in severe internal bleeding which leads to gangrene. Her doctor is forced to amputate the leg, removing any chance she may have had at modeling. Once her leg is gone she realizes that her life is more than likely ruined since her sense of purpose, modeling, has been taken away from her.

"El Chivo and Maru" stars Emilio Echevarría and Lourdes Echevarría. The story concerns an ex-private school teacher who had become involved in guerrilla movements that led him to be jailed for 20 years, who appears in the film as a bedraggled, nearly invisible homeless man pushing a junk cart accompanied by a half-dozen mongrel dogs that he cares for. Though he lives in perpetual squalor he is in fact a professional hitman, El Chivo. At times throughout his story, Chivo tries to make contact with his daughter, Maru, whom he abandoned when she was a child and who believes he is dead.

Hired by a man to kill his business partner, Chivo learns that the intended victim is the client's half-brother. Although disgusted, Chivo is about to make the kill when the film's central car crash interrupts him. During the chaos at the crash scene, Chivo steals Octavio's wounded dog and takes it home to nurture it. Sadly, while Chivo is away, the rescued dog kills all of the other dogs in the house, but Chivo forgives him. Still grieving for his beloved dogs, Chivo captures both his client and his client's brother, and leaves them chained to the wall with a gun between them and within the reach of both, their fate left undetermined. He then visits his daughter's empty house, leaves a message on her answering machine and a wad of money, and disappears again.

The movie begins with and revolves around the car crash which is the common event in all three stories. Octavio runs a light during a chase, hitting the car Valeria is driving. El Chivo is the first on the scene. This accident changes all three of the main characters' lives.

Production

The film was produced by Zeta Film and AltaVista Films. Production began on 12 April, 1999.

Awards

The film won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.The film also won the top award at the 2001 edition of Fantasporto.The film also won the Prize of the Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival.

Translation of "amores perros" anchor|translation

Just as "amores perros" itself is a film triptych, so also does its name present three interrelated interpretations.

Among the few Spanish language lines found on the official "amores perros" website are these:

"Si tu historia acabó bien, explícalo en el canal de "amores". Si acabó mal, explícalo en "perros" [ [http://movies.filmax.com/amoresperros/ Amores perros ] ] (If your story turned out well, put it down to "amores." If bad, put it to "perros.")

To the author of these lines, "amores" is life's "goodness" or "sweetness" as in the Spanish aphorism, "Hechos son amores, que no buenas razones." (Accomplishments are fine and beautiful, good excuses are neither.) And "perros" is wretchedness, as in, "¡Este perro de vida!" (This wretched life!). Accordingly, with "amores" translating as that which is beautiful, pleasant and desirable in life, and "perros" that which is miserable and of bad luck, one true English language aphorism for "amores perros" is "Sometimes you hunt the bear, sometimes the bear hunts you!"

All the same, posters for the movie often pose the question, "¿Qué es el amor?" [ http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1827970048/tt0245712 "Amores perros" posters at IMDB] (What is love?), followed by the film title, "amores perros," as a play on an answer, "amor es perros," meaning "love is wretched" (love's a bitch). And surely "wretched" describes the human-to-human love-lives of the film's three protagonists: Octavio fears and loathes his own brother and is abandoned by Susana; Valeria participates in the betrayal of her lover's wife, and Chivo is permanently shunned by his own daughter. But all three characters have strong and dependable emotional bonds with their various beloved dogs. In this sense the third interpretation of "amores perros," "amor es perros" ii, can be understood as "love is dogs", a concept that anyone who ever knew a dog can instantly understand.

References

See also

*Hyperlink cinema - the film style of using multiple inter-connected story lines.

External links

*imdb title|id=0245712|title=Amores perros
*amg movie|id=1:201704|title=Amores perros
*rotten-tomatoes|id=amores_perros|title=Amores perros
*metacritic film|id=amoresperros|title=Amores perros
*mojo title|id=amoresperros|title=Amores perros

succession box
title=BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language
years=2001
before="Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"
flagcountry|Taiwan
after="Talk to Her"
flagcountry|Spain