If like me, you were dazzled by this year's "Babel", you will likely be as curious as I was to check out the first film in director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's trilogy about death. Similar in narrative structure to "Babel", this viscerally shattering 2000 movie carries three overlapping stories tied together by a defining car accident. Written with dramatic precision by Guillermo Arriaga (who later wrote the other two films in the trilogy, "21 Grams" and "Babel"), all three take place within the different social strata of Mexico City, and as the title implies (English translation: "Love's a Bitch"), dogs are intriguingly pivotal to each story. Also like "Babel", the various interconnections among the stories do not come across as contrived but rather as emotional resonant in a gradually revelatory manner. Even though the movie runs an epic length of 153 minutes, it consistently holds your attention.
The first plot line, "Octavio and Susana", is about a love triangle that occurs between young Octavio, his abusive older brother Ramiro and Ramiro's wife Susana. Dog fighting is common sport in their downscale neighborhood, and the brothers own a rottweiler that's a natural aggressor in the fight pit. Octavio sees the dog as his meal ticket to steal Susana away from Ramiro and escape to Juarez. The second story, "Daniel and Valeria", focuses on Daniel, a married, guilt-ridden TV producer who buys a fancy new condo for him to live with his tempestuous supermodel girlfriend Valeria. Their relationship unravels in light of the car accident, and further complications occur when her little dog is trapped underneath the floorboards. The third story, "El Chivo and Maru", is about former political revolutionary El Chivo who has years ago left his family and became a hit man for hire. Living in squalor with a herd of homeless dogs, he is recruited by a businessman to kill his partner, both of whom turns out to be brothers. The integration of these stories is handled with supple dexterity in a non-linear fashion that allows the viewer to peel off the layers of the characters in order to understand their common dilemmas.
Unbelievably, this powderkeg of a film represents Iñárritu's feature film debut as a director, and his confidence and audacity are felt throughout although the third episode seems too deliberate a pastiche of "Pulp Fiction". He has assembled a superb cast with Emilio Echevarría the standout as the grizzled El Chivo, a scarifying vagrant who reveals himself to be a troubled soul who is the only one who successfully escapes his trying existence. In his first major role, Gael García Bernal portrays Octavio with escalating emotional fervor; and as Susana and Ramiro, Vanessa Bauche and Marco Pérez provide powerful support. Together, they generate a palpable sense of imminent violence throughout their episode. Goya Toledo makes a vivid impression as Valeria, fully capturing her spoiled character's misplaced sense of entitlement, while Alvaro Guerrero affectingly humanizes the put-upon Daniel's increasing regret. Just as he would prove later with "The Motorcycle Diaries", "Brokeback Mountain" and "Babel", Rodrigo Prieto showcases superbly evocative cinematography that is in keeping with the emotional shadings of the story.
The 2001 DVD provides a surprising number of extras beginning with an informative, often meticulous commentary track by Iñárritu and Arriaga (spoken in Spanish and subtitled in English). There are three quick featurettes. The first is a six-minute short that shows how the numerous dogs used in the film were trained and protected during the production. Considering how realistically violent the dog fighting scenes are, I find this short helpfully reassuring. The second is the standard, making-of featurette, about fifteen minutes long. Even though Iñárritu seems to be promoting the film as well as explaining the genesis of it, there is good behind-the-scenes footage, including some interesting table readings from the cast. This leads to one quick short about the staging of the car accident itself. Also included are about a dozen deleted scenes, totaling about fifteen minutes, which actually help provide context in understanding some of the characters' motivations. There are also three music videos from the movie's soundtrack, which is a dramatically effective mix of Mexican and Spanish rock-rap tracks.
The first plot line, "Octavio and Susana", is about a love triangle that occurs between young Octavio, his abusive older brother Ramiro and Ramiro's wife Susana. Dog fighting is common sport in their downscale neighborhood, and the brothers own a rottweiler that's a natural aggressor in the fight pit. Octavio sees the dog as his meal ticket to steal Susana away from Ramiro and escape to Juarez. The second story, "Daniel and Valeria", focuses on Daniel, a married, guilt-ridden TV producer who buys a fancy new condo for him to live with his tempestuous supermodel girlfriend Valeria. Their relationship unravels in light of the car accident, and further complications occur when her little dog is trapped underneath the floorboards. The third story, "El Chivo and Maru", is about former political revolutionary El Chivo who has years ago left his family and became a hit man for hire. Living in squalor with a herd of homeless dogs, he is recruited by a businessman to kill his partner, both of whom turns out to be brothers. The integration of these stories is handled with supple dexterity in a non-linear fashion that allows the viewer to peel off the layers of the characters in order to understand their common dilemmas.
Unbelievably, this powderkeg of a film represents Iñárritu's feature film debut as a director, and his confidence and audacity are felt throughout although the third episode seems too deliberate a pastiche of "Pulp Fiction". He has assembled a superb cast with Emilio Echevarría the standout as the grizzled El Chivo, a scarifying vagrant who reveals himself to be a troubled soul who is the only one who successfully escapes his trying existence. In his first major role, Gael García Bernal portrays Octavio with escalating emotional fervor; and as Susana and Ramiro, Vanessa Bauche and Marco Pérez provide powerful support. Together, they generate a palpable sense of imminent violence throughout their episode. Goya Toledo makes a vivid impression as Valeria, fully capturing her spoiled character's misplaced sense of entitlement, while Alvaro Guerrero affectingly humanizes the put-upon Daniel's increasing regret. Just as he would prove later with "The Motorcycle Diaries", "Brokeback Mountain" and "Babel", Rodrigo Prieto showcases superbly evocative cinematography that is in keeping with the emotional shadings of the story.
The 2001 DVD provides a surprising number of extras beginning with an informative, often meticulous commentary track by Iñárritu and Arriaga (spoken in Spanish and subtitled in English). There are three quick featurettes. The first is a six-minute short that shows how the numerous dogs used in the film were trained and protected during the production. Considering how realistically violent the dog fighting scenes are, I find this short helpfully reassuring. The second is the standard, making-of featurette, about fifteen minutes long. Even though Iñárritu seems to be promoting the film as well as explaining the genesis of it, there is good behind-the-scenes footage, including some interesting table readings from the cast. This leads to one quick short about the staging of the car accident itself. Also included are about a dozen deleted scenes, totaling about fifteen minutes, which actually help provide context in understanding some of the characters' motivations. There are also three music videos from the movie's soundtrack, which is a dramatically effective mix of Mexican and Spanish rock-rap tracks.