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It’s an apt title for Iñárittu’s film, and indeed for his debut. As an expression, Amores Perros translates to ‘that which is good and desirable in life and that which is miserable.’ These various meanings are also reflected in the characters of Iñárittu’s film. Perros translates to ‘dogs’ which feature heavily in the film (more on that later) but has also been said to mean, in pejoritive terms, ‘an unworthy person’, ‘a hired killer’, ‘a prostitute’ and ‘an unfaithful man’.
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The Spanish title of his debut, Amores Perros, has numerous meanings. In Amores Perros there are few human deaths but ideals, hopes, and dreams are obliterated. It was the first film in a trilogy exploring the theme of death. In 2000, director Alejandro González Iñárittu released his first feature-length film, Amores Perros. Recently, Natalie also inducted Iñárittu’s 21 Grams into our Greats section. With her permission, we are re-posting the beautiful piece in celebration of Alejandro González Iñárittu and his newest film Birdman, which opened this week in American theaters.
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The following article originally appeared at WriterLovesFilm, a film site run by author Natalie Stendall, one of our favorite contributors at Audiences Everywhere.