Twenty-five years ago, Cannes opened the door to a Mexican film. No one knew its director or its star, but what happened in that theater would become an episode to remember. It was Alejandro González Iñárritu and Gael García Bernal, and the film in question: Amores Perros. The theater was partially full, and uncertainty hung in the air. They didn’t know how the audience would react, much less that it would become the winning story at Critics’ Week. A quarter of a century later, and before its re-release in Mexican theaters, Gael remembers that moment as if it were yesterday.
“I’m filled with clichés. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I remember where I was sitting at the MiraMar. It was a midday screening. I remember perfectly what I felt when I left. The theater was about 60 percent full, there weren’t many people. But everything changed when the film won, and there was a screening of the winning film. By then, everyone had heard about Amores Perros and that it had won at Cannes. It was wonderful to see how packed that theater was. There were people in the aisles watching the film. It was the first time they’d experienced it,” said Gael García Bernal.
“It was incredible what was happening, especially after the first screening when there weren’t that many people, and when it won, everyone was watching it. I remember going to other film festivals and premiering it in other parts of the world. These are moments that fill me with gratitude, because it was crazy to see what a film could achieve. Amores Perros did so many things,” the actor recalled, referring to Alejandro González Iñárritu’s debut feature, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Incidentally, this film duo reconciled before the re-release, at an event at Bellas Artes where the film was screened.
