The Rules of Life by Alejandro Iñarritu, director of Birdman

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Alejandro Iñarritu only recently became world famous after his film "Birdman" won the Oscar for Best Film of 2014. Iñarritu is a contradictory personality. Skepticism and Eastern philosophy coexist in him at the same time. We will tell you about the rules of this person's life below.

Alejandro Iñarritu is a pain in the ass. At least that is how Emmanuel Lubezki, the world-renowned cameraman who became famous for filming the movie "Gravity", describes him. They also shot Birdman together, with Iñarritu as director and Lubetzky as director of photography.

In general, it is not difficult to believe in Lubetzky's words. But how can one person be insufferable and relatively successful? Iñarritu himself claims that one of the main signs of intelligence is the ability to adhere to several opposing ideas at the same time.

We publish a translation of the article with the rules of life of Alejandro Iñarritu.

Do not consider your work invaluable

Iñarritu says that he cannot understand how some writers and screenwriters consider the script to be sacred text, because this is just the beginning.

All people on the set will change the script as they wish.

If the script is not flexible and does not regenerate with each change, then it is just a piece of paper.

The famous director doesn't like to read scripts. “The problem with the script is that it’s not literature or film,” Iñarritu says.

Collaboration is partly confrontation

According to Iñarritu, his brain works much better if someone questions his ideas. Creating the picture "Birdman", the director shared his work with other famous directors.

“As soon as I say something stupid, it can turn into something beautiful,” says Iñarritu. "Perhaps my stupid idea will be answered with an equally stupid idea and we can transform it." Sometimes it happens. Brainstorms, which are built to share ideas, are a great example of this.

Every hero has contradictions

“I think that intelligence can be defined as the ability to have several different ideas existing and functioning together,” says Iñarritu about one of the main rules of his life. "So I think a good script is a script in which several completely different things coexist."

As an example, he cites the main character of the movie "Birdman" Riggan, played by Michael Keaton.

Half of the time he thinks that he is an amazing actor, and the other half he thinks that he is a complete mediocrity.

Riggan sees such contradictions everywhere. “We want to conquer the world and get a million likes. We are single, but we have 10,000 followers on Twitter. We are bipolar. I am famous, but lonely. I am an actor, but also a prostitute,”- these are the thoughts of the main character of the film.

The director is the king, but the king can be defeated

If you put your camera here, decided to shoot this room, chose this sound and nothing worked, it's your fault. Not the fault of the actors, cameramen or screenwriters. Only yours. You can catch new ideas, inspire and be different, but if in the end nothing worked, then only you are to blame.

Do you want clarity of mind? Meditate

You don't need to spend a lot of time in the present. According to Iñarritu, our brain is a place that everyone should learn much better. To do this, he meditates twice a day.

For me, this is not an opportunity or a choice. Meditation is something I cannot live without. This is an opportunity to help my brain.

Therefore, Iñarritu meditates for 24 minutes in the morning and does the same during the day. The director considers meditation to be observation and concentration on different aspects of thinking and being.

Inyarritu follows the teachings of a Vietnamese Buddhist. According to him, meditation is very simple. Like breathing. And even the knowledge that you are breathing is already extremely powerful.