I love great film controversy, and in just two days, the Venice Film Festival has launched a strong debate. When I walked out of the press conference for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s new feature film, Bardo, I thought I’d just seen an award-winning Oscar catnip that voters go crazy for.
Then I spoke with another person.
“Bar-NO,” one critic texted. “Three hours? Very selfish,” said the festival programmer. And later that day, in a hotel elevator, an Italian woman smoothly went from complaining about the weather (“Terrible!”) to a movie (“Terrible again! Why should he copy Cuaron?”). migrated.
She says “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” (if you use the full title) “Rome” by Alfonso Cuarón There are certainly some similarities. Like his friend Cuarón, Iñárritu is a respected filmmaker in Hollywood for his Netflix-funded autofiction full of long takes, digital tricks, and masterful cinematography. returned to his native Mexico on
The streaming service certainly hopes “Bald” can get the same Oscar nominations as Laurel’s “Rome” (it ended up with three statuettes). He’s been nominated for at least one Oscar, winning back-to-back Best Director for ‘The Revenant’ (2015) and ‘Birdman’ (2014), with the latter winning Best Picture. doing.
So will voters for the award respond more favorably than the first wave of Venetian moviegoers indicate? “Baldo” is Iñárritu’s riff on “8½”. It’s a surreal drama about Silverio Gama (Daniel Jimenez Cacho), a documentary filmmaker who understands the story of his life. While he tends to have dreamy visions, Gama’s problems are the kind of thing middle-aged Hollywood types involve: Am I deserving of my success or am I a fraud? Am I at home spending too little time with my family? Are my children spoiled and entitled?
After Iñárritu filmed “Amores Perros” in Mexico in 2000, he and his family moved to Los Angeles to pursue mainstream Hollywood success, much like the protagonist of “Bardo.” In many ways, Gama is a stand-in for the Veiled Iñárritu. He dresses similarly to his creator and is now haunted by old collaborators who avoid him. Early film, Guillermo Arriaga.
However, while the film acknowledges Gama’s shortcomings, it doesn’t really examine them. Characters tell Gama that he’s too self-involved, too boogie, too fake, and Gama just shrugs and moves on, so you have to take their word for it. But while the role’s passiveness may stifle a robust awards run, the film could definitely score some technical nominations. -Water in the Tank- Production designer Eugenio Caballero (who also worked on “Roma”) brings him to incredible life.
Past that, you’ll know how well the movie connects with the type of Hollywood it’s portraying, and whether Netflix is willing to push it as hard (and expensively) as “Rome.” Indeed, “Bald” implies that the streaming service has a coin for it. One of the movie’s most successful jokes is that in the “Bald” universe, Amazon is trying to make the whole purchase successful instead of a new award contender. Baja California. How much does hundreds of reference ads and a few private planes cost in comparison?