It is the story of a man caught in a world of exploitation, drug trafficking, and exploitation of Chinese and African immigrants. She cannot tolerate the gravitas in his demeanor and outlook on the world, yet depends on it.īiutiful is a dark film exploring the journey of a man who is diagnosed with cancer and given less than a couple of months to live. So there lies the paradox, that which he needs in her, her lightness of being, he cannot bear because he feels irresponsible.
In fact his wife must carry that for the two of them. Uxbal carries the weight of the world but cannot have fun. Though they love each other very much however, Marambra his wife, cannot spend too much time with the grounded Uxbal before she sinks into depression. His wife’s bipolarity is symbolic of this dichotomized view of the world we maintain. In the middle of all of this, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer, which he tries to hide from his two children. He must deal with his loving but unreliable, reckless, and bipolar wife (from whom he is separated and who poses a threat to the safety of their children), and a large group of illegal immigrants for whom he obtains material so that they may not be deported. This is a Jungian view of the world.īiutiful is the story of Uxbal – a single father who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amid the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona - all before his time is up. This film asks us to see the complexity in people and that right and wrong and good and evil are part of the same whole. The director teaches us we are accustomed to films (particularly American) taking a stance in which good and evil is personified in characters and the good always prevails. This is a story that has to be felt deeply and it is a rough road. The spelling of the word sets the tone of the film which grounds us in the senses, not in the intellect. The title Biutiful refers to the orthographical spelling in Spanish of the English word beautiful as it would sound to native Spanish speakers. It is González Iñárritu’s first feature since Babel and fourth overall, and his first film in his native Spanish language. This Friday we will be showing a film by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s and starring Javier Bardem.