I've never done a period piece or a comedy, and that could be something truly different for me.
— Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
There was so much fear after 9/11, and that fear caused people to make the wrong decisions.
We are the only alive creatures that are mortals; the animals are immortal, which is why they live stupidly. We are the only creatures that know that we will die, but that is a gift. It's important because we know we have to take advantage and squeeze life and understand why we're here in the first place.
Nowadays, a critic has to watch 700, 800 films a year, and I know through experience, being a juror in prestigious film festivals where supposedly the best films are arriving, from twenty films maybe you see two that are good, one that is so-so, and one that is extraordinary. And the other sixteen are terrible.
I think bad movies are made around the world, not just in Hollywood. There are as many bad art films in the whole world as there are bad commercial films.
I learned with 'Birdman' that it's liberating when you just lose yourself and go after something that terrifies you.
In hotels, every time I make a reservation and they never find my name, they never can pronounce it; it's so long, and sometimes they confuse.
It's hard for me to work for somebody else. I can work with someone, but not for someone.
I think that my films are basically family stories, beyond the fact that they are global and have political and social commentary.
Time starts out as a notion. But after you turn fifty, time is not a notion anymore but a fact that you start feeling clearly, and in a way, it pushes you to become present in the present.
I have a notebook, and I know what decisions will be made in pre-production. Everything is pre-determined in the pre-production period. I visually design the whole thing, and I know when things will happen.
What good is making a jewel if nobody see it? But cost depends on the story. To get those performances in 'Biutiful,' you need that time. You need 60 takes in a scene and a year to edit. It's not realistic to do it any other way.
Movies started out as an extension of a magic trick, so making a spectacle is part of the game.
I didn't have a normal academic career. I never studied cinema. I learned from life.
Many Mexican directors are scared to shoot in Mexico City, which is why there are many stories in Mexican cinema about little rural towns, or set a hundred years ago.
'Biutiful' is not about death. It's about life. It's a hymn to life.
If you stretch tragedy, it will always become comedy. That's the comedy that I like.
Good directors don't answer questions with their work. They generate debate and create discussion.
3D is the way we experience life.
I think the most experimental way to a film is to tell the story the traditional way, because everyone is doing the other thing.
I studied for three years in the theater, and it was a very, very scary experience to direct live, being so vulnerable without the possibility to control things, to be so exposed.
'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.
To shoot a conventional film means that you are always covering yourself. You are putting nets and, in a way, letting bad decisions take over.
When you have something that is bothering you, and then you articulate, take the time to really express it and see it clearly, to recognize. To acknowledge that is already a liberating energy.
I began to learn about the camera and the actors. That gave me a lot of the skills. At the same time, advertising gives you a lot of vices, for example, an obsession for a superficial look, but at the same time, it gives you the capacity to synthesize the story - tell a story in one minute.
As a Third World citizen, I always feel that I need to express my point of view. Sometimes the points of view of Third World countries are never expressed. We don't have that possibility, sometimes, to spread what we feel and how we see things.
Freedom comes with a lot of responsibility. When you are by yourself, you have to develop a third eye.
It's more enjoyable for me to know that life is finite. Knowing that, I would like to go to a party. When you get to the holidays, if you think that the holidays will be forever, you just take it for granted. But, if you know that you have just three days at the beach, you will be so happy to be there every day.
When you have critics filing on Twitter, it leaves no time for thought and perspective.
Look, I'm no purist - there are good superhero films, and there are bad ones.
When I think about growing up, I feel most affected by two travels that I made working in cargo boats when I was 16 and 18. One of them crossed through the Mississippi and Baton Rouge and Mobile, Alabama, and another went all the way to Europe.
I have been very lucky to have final cut in all my films; everything that is wrong in them is my fault.
I am not a depressive person at all, but I reflect a lot on my life, and life in general, from the perspective of death.
Irony is a great tool to deal with things. It's an intellectualization, a way to go above things, which can work.
Americans easily forget that the air they breathe is the same as those in Europe or Africa or Asia; it's the same air as Jesus breathed. I would like them to remember that connection.
I think that people would like to, at all times, reject death and disease with technology.
When I have been exposed to so many films that are so bad, my soul gets crushed. I just feel intoxicated.
Fear of the unknown is a great creative partner.
The visual architecture of 'Biutiful' is the most sophisticated of all the films I have directed.
For the actors, the talent is to serve the demands that I ask of them, to do it with naturality and truth, and to be honest when we were terrified.
I know how to work with people. I've worked with the same people for 10 years. I'm not that kind of auteur. I hear ideas.
I think we are defined as human beings through our families, no matter what kind of family - through our relationships with parents, brothers and sisters.
I'm very curious, I guess, as a human being.
My mom had very low expectations for me, and she really had a point. I was a big problem at seventeen. If I had a kid like me, I would have those same expectations.
You have kids studying master class visual arts who are pushed to make films that will be successful economically; that's what they focus on. So they work for corporate interest instead of artistic expression.
Cannes or any other major festival is basically an animal in its own nature, creating very specific perceptions of films in a moment.
I have a lot of what you might call creative self-loathing - I have pretty high expectations, and they seem to consistently be higher than what I'm able to accomplish.
Really, Mexico City has always been this big, complex monster of a city that has always had real problems and needs, and I've always found my way through it in different ways.
You can better embrace life, you can enjoy it more, when you are conscious that it will end. You bite life.
It's famous that comedians have a very dark personal state of mind. I think, in my case, it's the same. The only way to get deep is to have a balance, or a counterbalance.
