By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer
VENICE, Italy (AP) --Alejandro G. Iñárritu left Mexico with his family on Sept. 1, 2001. They'd decided to move to Los Angeles for one year. But one turned into 21. In Los Angeles, Iñárritu's filmmaking career flourished: He won five Oscars, two for directing and one for best picture, and worked with many of the top movie stars. But he longed for Mexico.
His new film "Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths)" is both his return to his home country and a deeply personal (and utterly surreal) expression and interpretation of that longing. It's having its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival Thursday night, where it is among the competition titles.
Going back to Mexico to make the film, he said was, "like being in a mirror, re-meeting a friend. Totally different. People find me as different. But it was like reinterpreting, emotionally, a memory."
"Bardo" is not about an Iñárritu-like filmmaker, however. His stand-in is a journalist and documentarian, (Daniel Giménez Cacho) who also left Mexico for Los Angeles 20 years early, got wildly successful and then returned home.
"This movie, like the others has not been developed by my mind but rather by my heart," Iñárritu said through a translator before the film's premiere. "I didn't want to write an emotional autobiography, that was not my objective… but I was trying to give meaning to these feelings, revealing many things about myself."
The film grapples also with ideas about success. One character says that you can take a sip of success, but you have to spit it out after because it can poison. The line, he said, was lifted from his own father, who he said inherited success and then lost it.
"Success was important for me but you want success may also entail expectations and responsibility you have to bear towards other people," he said. "You face challenges. Success requires a change of your priorities. For me, it was like a learning process, having success which is why I've tried to include this sentence in an important moment."
"Bardo" will open in theaters on Nov. 18, before becoming available on Netflix on Dec. 16.
Netflix, he said, gave him "total freedom."
"This movie will be screened in theaters as well, in Mexico and the U.S., this is something I really appreciate," he said. "This is something special and important for me."
But while Iñárritu appreciates the sanctity of the theater, he also said that a fair amount of his own cinematic education came from watching movies on television, with commercials, or on poor-quality VHS tapes. He's not, in other words, especially worried about people seeing his film at home, distractions and all.
"What remains is our ideas," he said. "A movie is a movie."
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More