Watch: The Expansiveness of Alejandro González Iñárritu: A Video Homage

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s glance is always outwards. If a woman should be shot in the head while on a bus in a desolate mountain pass, as in Babel, the question is less Will she live? than What will the ramification of the event be for her loved ones in the present and future? If a washed-up actor of dubious talent is revealed to have special powers of telepathy and even flight, as in Birdman, the question is less How does he do that? than What does this mean for him, for his grasps at redemption? Do these powers make a difference? This expansiveness operates at a plot level, but it also operates cinematically. With its swoops, its close-ups, its lens flares, Iñárritu’s cinematography helps us to understand on a visceral level ideas which we might not immediately understand on an intellectual level. This video homage by Steven Thomas brings us into Iñárritu’s perceptive approach with intimacy and grace; this is a memorable tribute to a director who has carves out a place in film history with alarming speed.