Understand that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful” has a strong, linear narrative drive. Nevertheless, and most of all, it’s a gorgeous, melancholy tone poem about love, fatherhood and guilt. Some scenes are absolutely wrenching to behold. Others hit home with a punch to the solar plexus. Spain — and Barcelona to be specific — has beckoned forth the wistful poet in the Mexican-born filmmaker. His response to this summons is a film that, while about death, is teeming with life in all its tangled messiness. More than any of the director’s previous films including “Babel” and “21 Grams,” which came loaded with star power, “Biutiful” is destined for the art house. There it should enjoy a warm reception since its only star, Javier Bardem, delivers a knockout performance as a hero whose last days are detailed with Joycean elan, filled with ambiguity, contradictions and lyricism. “Biutiful” is the story of Uxbal, played by Bardem. He is a businessman of the underworld, yet a spiritually sensitive man responsible for the welfare of far too many living people and in contact with the souls of the dead. Most of all, he is a father.
One of the greatest things about film festivals is that they launch films you may never had heard of prior to its showing into the zeitgeist. When the film wins the festival’s top award, it’s an exponential increase.
Winner of the 2010 Palme d’Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES is not only hit big with critics, but shocked those who were watching the festival closely. The film didn’t have quite the buzz of films like ANOTHER YEAR or CERTIFIED COPY, nor had big names behind it like Woody Allen or Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
However, what we do now have is a wonderful trailer that gives us a brief glimpse as to just what to expect from the film. The trailer looks absolutely gorgeous, and seems to fit perfectly in the filmography of its director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who is best known as the director of films like SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY.
