Biutiful
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlejandro González Iñárritu
Written by
Based ona story
by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Produced by
  • Alejandro González Iñárritu
  • Jon Kilik
  • Fernando Bovaira
StarringJavier Bardem
CinematographyRodrigo Prieto
Edited byStephen Mirrione
Music byGustavo Santaolalla
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • 17 May 2010 (2010-05-17) (Cannes)
  • 22 October 2010 (2010-10-22) (Mexico)
  • 3 December 2010 (2010-12-03) (Spain)
Running time
147 minutes[2]
Countries
  • Mexico
  • Spain
Languages
Budget$35 million[3]
Box office$24.7 million[3]

Biutiful is a 2010 psychological drama film directed, produced and co-written by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Javier Bardem. The project marks González Iñárritu's first film in his native Spanish language since his debut feature Amores perros (2000). Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro (who make up the "Three Amigos" with González Iñárritu in the film industry) serve as associate producers. The film follows Uxbal, a criminal and father who becomes diagnosed with prostate cancer and seeks to settle various things around his life before he dies. The title is in reference to the phonetic spelling in Spanish of the English word beautiful.

Biutiful premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and was released theatrically by Videocine in Mexico and United International Pictures in Spain on 22 October 2010 and 3 December, respectively. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and was a box-office bomb grossing $24.7 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million. It was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2011: Best Foreign Language and Best Actor for Bardem; his nomination was the first entirely Spanish-language performance to be nominated for the award. Bardem also received the Best Actor Award at Cannes for his work on the film.

Plot

Uxbal lives in a shabby apartment in Barcelona with his two young children, Ana and Mateo. He is separated from their mother Marambra, an alcoholic prostitute with bipolar disorder. Having grown up an orphan, Uxbal has no family other than his brother Tito, who works in the construction business (and sometimes solicits Marambra's services). Uxbal earns a living by procuring work for a group of Chinese illegal immigrants who make forged designer goods which a group of African street vendors then sell. He also works as a medium to the dead, passing on messages from the recently deceased at wakes and funerals. When he is diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, leaving him with only a few months to live, his world progressively falls apart.

Uxbal initially begins chemotherapy, but he later ends the treatment at the advice of his friend Bea, an alternative healer. She gives him two black stones which she asks him to give his children before he dies. The group of Africans are brutally arrested by the police, despite Uxbal's regular payment of bribes, because they also deal in drugs. When one of them is deported back to Senegal, Uxbal offers his wife Ige and baby son a room in his apartment. Meanwhile, an attempt at reconciliation with Marambra fails when Uxbal realizes she cannot be trusted to look after their children. As the Chinese are out of work, Tito brokers a deal to get them employed at a construction site. However, almost all of them die in the night from carbon monoxide poisoning, as the cheap gas heaters Uxbal bought in an effort to help were not safe. An attempt by a human trafficker to dump the bodies into the sea fails when they are washed up on the shore shortly after, causing a media sensation.

As Uxbal's health continues to deteriorate, he is plagued with guilt that he is responsible for the expulsion of the Senegalese and the death of the Chinese. With his death drawing nearer, he realizes that there will be nobody to take care of Ana and Mateo once he is gone. He entrusts the remainder of his savings to Ige, asking her to stay with the children after his death. She accepts his request but later decides to use the money to return to Africa. At the apartment, Uxbal sees Ige's silhouette behind the bathroom door and hears her voice saying she has returned. Uxbal lies down next to Ana and, after having passed on to her a diamond ring which his father had once given to his mother, he dies. In a snowy winter landscape he is reunited with his father, who had died before Uxbal's birth shortly after having fled Francoist Spain for Mexico.

Cast

Production

Iñárritu got the idea for the film while listening to Ravel's Piano Concerto,[4][5] and its slow middle movement features prominently in the film soundtrack.

Biutiful is formally recognised as a Mexico-Spanish co-production, even if US independent production companies also took part in the production.[6] It is a Menage Atroz, MOD Producciones, Focus Features International, Ikiru Films, and Cha Cha Cha Films (although it later went uncredited) production,[7] and it also had the participation of Televisión Española, Televisió de Catalunya, and ICAA Ministerio de Cultura.[6] Director/producer/co-writer Alejandro González Iñárritu reunites with composer Gustavo Santaolalla and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto from his previous films, Amores perros (2001), 21 Grams (2003), and Babel (2006), and editor Stephen Mirrione from the latter two films. Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, friends and part of the film industry's dubbed "The Three Amigos of Cinema" with González Iñárritu, serve as associate producers.

The film's model, Akira Kurosawa's 1953 Japanese film Ikiru, is described as a similar structure and morale in The Guardian's article by Philip French. French writes: "the way a middle-aged Japanese civil servant reacts to the news that he has terminal cancer – and transformed it into a profound statement about the human condition".[8]

Release

Cast and crew at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Biutiful competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival; it premiered on 17 May 2010,[9] with Bardem winning for Best Actor, an award shared with Elio Germano for La Nostra Vita.[10] The film released theatrically in Mexico by Videocine on 22 October that same year, and in Spain by United International Pictures on 3 December.

In the United States, the film was released by LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions in 29 December 2010 in select theaters before a wide release on 28 January 2011,[11] and released on home media by Lionsgate Home Entertainment on 31 May 2011.[12]

Reception

Box office

Biutiful grossed $5.1 million in North America and $19.6 million overseas for a worldwide total of $24.7 million, against a production budget of $35 million.[3]

Critical reception

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 66% based on 155 reviews, with an average rating of 6.43/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Javier Bardem's searing performance helps to elevate Biutiful, as does Alejandro González Iñárritu's craftsmanship, but the film often lapses into contrivance and grimness."[13] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14]

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter calls the film, "a gorgeous melancholy tone poem about love, fatherhood and guilt", and describes Bardem's performance as "...a knockout."[15] Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Bardem gives a performance of staggering depth, unquestionably one of the year’s best."[16]

Some dismissed the story as too bleak; Justin Chang of Variety wrote Iñárritu is "...stuck in a grim rut."[17]

Filmmakers Sean Penn, Werner Herzog and Michael Mann have been very outspoken in their acclaim for the film. Herzog likened it to a "poem" and Penn compared Bardem's performance to that of Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris (1972).

Awards

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result
Academy Awards[18] 27 February 2011 Best Actor Javier Bardem Nominated
Best Foreign Language Film Mexico Nominated
British Academy Film Awards[19] 13 February 2011 Best Leading Actor Javier Bardem Nominated
Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Goya Awards Best Actor Javier Bardem Won
Best Supporting Actor Eduard Fernández Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Ana Wagener Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bó Jr., and Nicolás Giacobone Nominated
Best Cinematography Rodrigo Prieto Nominated
Best Editing Stephen Mirrione Nominated
Best Art Direction Brigitte Broch Nominated
Best Original Score Gustavo Santaolalla Nominated
Denver Film Critics Society 28 January 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Golden Globe Awards[20] 16 January 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards[21] 28 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Won
Utah Film Critics Association Awards 23 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards[22] 20 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Javier Bardem Nominated
Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bó Jr., and Nicolás Giacobone Nominated
Satellite Awards[23] 19 December 2010 Best Actor Javier Bardem Nominated
Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Alejandro González Iñárritu, Armando Bó Jr., and Nicolás Giacobone Nominated
Houston Film Critics Society Awards 18 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards[24] 17 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Won
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards[25] 16 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards[26] 14 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Critics' Choice Award Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards 13 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Indiana Film Critics Association 12 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Washington D. C. Area Film Critics Association Awards[27] 6 December 2010 Best Foreign Language Film Won
Cannes Film Festival 23 May 2010 Best Actor Javier Bardem Won
Palme d'Or Nominated

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Biutiful at Box Office Mojo
  2. ↑ "BIUTIFUL (15)". British Board of Film Classification. 19 October 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 "Biutiful (2010)". The Numbers. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  4. ↑ Blair, Iain (1 February 2011). "Director's Chair: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - 'Biutiful'". Post Magazine. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  5. ↑ Dawson, Tom (29 March 2022). "Biutiful - Alejandro González Iñárritu interview". The Liast. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  6. 1 2 Tierney, Dolores (2018). "Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: Director without Borders". New Transnationalisms in Contemporary Latin American Cinemas. Edinburgh University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-7486-4573-2.
  7. ↑ Acosta Jiménez, Wilson Armando (2017). Cine del narcotráfico mexicano y colombiano. Análisis y perspectivas para la enseñanza de la historia del tiempo presente (PDF). p. 13.
  8. ↑ French, Philip (30 January 2011). "Biutiful – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  9. ↑ Leffler, Rebecca (15 April 2010). "Hollywood Reporter: Cannes Lineup". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  10. ↑ "Thai film captures Cannes top prize". CBC News. 23 May 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  11. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin (22 December 2010). "Updated: 'Biutiful' Gets A Wide Release Date of January 28, 2011". IndieWire. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "Buitiful (2010)". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  13. ↑ "Biutiful (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  14. ↑ "Biutiful Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 26 December 2012.
  15. ↑ Honeycutt, Kirk (14 October 2010). "Biutiful -- Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  16. ↑ Sharkey, Betsy (29 December 2010). "Movie review: 'Biutiful'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  17. ↑ Chang, Justin (17 May 2010). "Biutiful". Variety. Penske Business Media. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  18. ↑ "Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  19. ↑ "Past Winners and Nominees – Film". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  20. ↑ "Nominations and Winners – 2010". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Archived from the original on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  21. ↑ "Phoenix Film Critics Name THE KINGS SPEECH Best Film of 2010". Phoenix Film Critics Society. Archived from the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  22. ↑ "Chicago Film Critics Awards – 2008-2010". Chicago Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on 24 February 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  23. ↑ "2010 Nominations" (PDF). International Press Academy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  24. ↑ Wilonsky, Robert (17 December 2010). "DFW Film Crix, Very Social at Year's End". Unfair Park. Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  25. ↑ Adams, Ryan (16 December 2010). "The Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards". AwardsDaily. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  26. ↑ "2010 Awards". San Diego Film Critics Society. Archived from the original on 21 December 2010. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  27. ↑ "The 2010 WAFCA Award Winners". Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
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