The top two awards of the night were the most anticipated this year, as they represented what many Oscar experts identified as “the big reveal” of the night. Would Richard Linklater be honored for his 12 year effort towards artistry? Did Alejandro G. Iñárritu strike gold by digging so close to the vein of America’s love affair with film and superheroes?
Birdman: Or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance nabbed both the Best Director and the Best Picture award, and we can’t wait to tell you that we were actually able to talk with Iñárritu about what informed his decision to conceive this masterpiece as an “all-in-one-take” film.
Sure, the film isn’t truly in one take, but that isn’t what matters according to Iñárritu.
Watch him respond to our question in the video below!
“You know, it’s‑‑ it’s funny. There has been a lot of discussion about this, you know. When you present a film with a strong formal approach, you will have, obviously, strong reactions. People have been sometimes reacting against it or, obviously, accept it passionately. I think, you know, my own intention was not to‑‑ to flash or to impress anybody. I‑‑ I really always thought that the subtlety of the way we did it, it was basically my intention. Maybe I fail. But for me, my intention was that nobody should notice this, that nobody should say, “Oh, my God.” I‑‑ I just wanted that the people can‑‑ got caught in the‑‑ in the emotional journey of this guy three days before opening a show where everything was falling apart without any‑‑ with a‑‑ in a restless kind of journey; and‑‑ and I thought that without cuts, I will not distract people by this kind of conventional juxtaposition of spaces, and places, and time but just to live in that conscience that is talking to him all the time. So I always want this to be a storytelling, you know, device, something that was more related to that and not the technicality of it. You know what I mean? So, anyway, people sometimes felt in a way, you know, affected by it in a bad way, but the intention is just a narrative tool.”
The real highlight of Iñárritu’s time on stage however, came in the form of his bite-sized words of wisdom. When responding to how the win would affect his career, he expertly responded back with “I don’t have a career. I have a life!” He also came up with one of the best euphemisms for fear that we have ever heard.
“Fear is the condom of life, you know,” said Iñárritu. “It doesn’t allow you to enjoy things.” We don’t think the director was necessarily decrying prophylactic care, but it’s an incredible sentiment either way.
Oh, and about that unfortunately placed green card gag that Sean Penn fired off at the podium? Iñárritu loved it.
According to the director, Penn and he became good friends on the set of 21 Grams, so the ribbing was well received between friends. With so many efforts to make the night a progressive event, however, it did come off a little strange, especially to people who didn’t understand their relationship. Iñárritu had a few words of his own about the response the joke would eventually receive, before concluding that if we focus too hard on our differences, it can stop us from connecting as humans.
“I don’t know how many nationalities are in this room, but I don’t feel different to anybody of you here,” said Iñárritu. “You know, it can be from any continent, from any language. I don’t care. So I as an artist, as a human, as a filmmaker, I‑‑ I cannot have these stupid borders, flags, and passports. Those are a concept that were invented by a human society. But, honestly, naked, in tighty‑whities we will be the same. And I‑‑ I have never felt that different. So for me to make films in United States, or in Africa, or in Spain, or in Mexico, I’m talking about human beings and emotions. And‑‑ and I think that’s the beauty of art. Art doesn’t have those stiff ideological borders that fuck the world so much.”
Much like how it was impossible for Neil Patrick Harris to actually predict this year’s Oscar winners, nobody could have guessed that a night that usually sees millionaires handing each other trophies would turn into a night that was really about something much more. This ceremony is known for casting its light on only one group of people in particular (“the best and the whitest” according to Neil Patrick Harris), so it was refreshing to see an Oscars broadcast that made itself about more than just golden statues and dazzling gowns.
It was a night dedicated to the moving pictures and the people that make them happen, no matter who they are, where they were born, the color of their skin, their sexual identity, or their gender. Some may decry the telecast for being “overly political,” or voice the very valid opinion that the nominations weren’t very diverse in the first place, but it’s important to remember that “politics” didn’t win any awards tonight. People won.
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