Biutiful

[MacGuffin]

Javier Bardem joins 'Biutiful' cast
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu to write, direct film
Source: Variety

Javier Bardem will star in Mexican helmer Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's first project after his much-publicized bust-up with former screenwriting partner Guillermo Arriaga.

Spanish-language pic "Biutiful," which Gonzalez Inarritu wrote, shoots on location in Barcelona next week.

Pic is about a man embroiled in shady dealings who is confronted by a childhood friend, now a policeman.

Arriaga and Gonzalez Inarritu were Mexico's most successful filmmaking duo, starting with their breakout hit "Amores perros" in 2000 and the subsequent leap into Hollywood with English-language pics "21 Grams" and "Babel" that formed a trilogy.

Quibbles over writing credits on the three films came to a head with "Babel" when Arriaga was reportedly shut out from attending its debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

"Biutiful" will be co-produced by Fernando Bovaira's Mod shingle and Cha Cha Cha, Gonzalez Inarritu's three-way partnership with Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Toro.

Cha Cha Cha is a $100 million, five-feature production partnership with financing, distribution and international sales handled by Universal Pictures and Focus Features Intl.

Arriaga recently helmed "The Burning Plain," based on his own screenplay, starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

[modage]

Trailer: http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/07/watch-first-full-international-trailer.html

[Pubrick]

Trailer: http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/07/watch-first-full-international-trailer.html

in summary.. something about a storm, sand in your pants can be annoying, "there will be blood" (practically literally said in the trailer).

[SiliasRuby]

Looks really intriguing...to say the least.

[Alexandro]

I didn't know what to expect of this film. I was hesitant because the title seemed horrible, the poster depressing and those two elements combined with the description of the film around the internet and iñarritu's name really sounded bad to me. I'm still trying to figure the whole film out but it's his best since Amores Perros and a sort of departure also. Changing screenwriters (note that he didn't wrote it all himself but got help and showed here some unexpected humility) was a wise decision and it shows. It's a very dense, unpredictable film. It has none of the pre conceived, forced coincidences of his other films. I would say it's a movie that better shows his strenghts as a filmmaker and minimizes the weaknesses. You may notice I don't even know how to begin to talk about it. It's because the film goes so many places and does so many things. The thing everyone will talk about is Bardem's performance, which is just brilliant in every aspect. He nails this completely and goes into the list of his amazing home runs. But Iñarritu deserves all the credit he can get because the film never takes any easy ways to convey feelings or points. One of the first reviews I read compared it to the neo realist films of De Sica and Rosselini, and I think it's an apt comparison. It's about people on the margins of society dealing with life the best they can. no one is perfect, no one has any amazing epiphanies, no bigger points are telepgraphed. I'm pretty impressed with it and it will probably grow on me afer i re watch it. But I will let some time pass before that because it was a heavy emotional experience, a lot of dirty, blood, sweat and tears.

[cronopio 2]

brilliant and inspiring scenes, in isolation, but the movie didn't do much for me. bardem is a fucking force of nature, one of the best, but we've known that for a while... it's hard to distinguish him from his characters, and he's th reason why uxbal is so interesting.  my main problem with this movie was how fucked up its pace is. i found myself thinking about many other things because some parts i found pointless. i don't think the worlds of alejandro gonzález iñarritu are for me. he's spectacular in a technical sense, very elegant (his vision of barcelona is very inspired), but i don't appreciate his idea of intimacy and his storytelling.  i need to think on it, really.

[SiliasRuby]

Depressing and it had me so utterly sad by the end that I couldn't take it anymore. Javier's characher I felt was being pulled into too many places, doing horrible things and struggling to survive just long enough that everything is ready and taken care of for his children. All the while going through so many horrific tragedy's. It didn't really connect with me emotionally all that much other than making me feel such ugly lonliness by the end of the film. Glad I saw this film, the images are gorgeous....Gave me this dread in the pitt of my stomach and not it a good horror film way.

[Reel]

^^
sounds like a alejandro gonzalez inarritu movie

[Lottery]

Stumbled across this thread while searching for another.

I watched this a while back, utterly depressing and affecting film. Slow in its pace and movement with some surreal moments, it's visually quite great too. Javier Bardem is superb and pretty much serves as a beacon of guilt and misery. I haven't watched it in a while but there's this one event in this movie which makes you 'ah fuck...oh no'.  By the end you have to wonder if it only existed to destroy you. Imperfect people in some really horrible situations.