Product Description

On the set with Iñárritu: The making of the final film in the Mexican director’s acclaimed trilogy

Mexican film director Alejandro González Iñárritu, along with top photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Patrick Bard, Graciela Iturbide, and Miguel Rio Branco, bring together their highly perceptive visions on cultural diversity in a book that combines seductive images and firsthand remarks on the unique experience of shooting Babel. Winner of the Best Director prize at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, the film is the third in the director’s trilogy started by Amores Perros and 21 Grams.

Shot in Morocco, Tijuana, and Tokyo, and involving a multilingual cast lead by Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael García Bernal, and Koji Yakusho, as well non-professional actors from the three countries portrayed, Babel continues the director’s quest to explore the effects of loss and grief, and seeks to relate the modern implications of ancient myth on the origins of human inability to successfully communicate.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #739709 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-21
• Original language: Spanish, German, English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From the Publisher
This book is a visual recollection of the parallel stories and real-life characters that revolved around the making of Babel, and the unexpected ways in which fiction and reality collide. Photographs both from the set and the surrounding disparate landscapes are paired with the director’s personal commentary on the larger-than-life film shoot. Introduced with essays by novelist and poet Eliseo Alberto and Gonzalez Iñárritu, as well as an interview with the director by Rodrigo García, the result is an engaging book that both complements Babel's powerful statement on the barrier of language, and reveals the fascinating reality of the people and places that inspired the film.

The director: Born in Mexico City in 1963, Alejandro González Iñárritu studied filmmaking and theater and composed music for Mexican features before directing and producing his debut feature film, Amores Perros (2000), which was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film and received over 53 awards from all over the world, including BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, Tokyo, Sao Paulo, Edinburgh, San Sebastian, and Toronto. Iñárritu’s follow-up film, 21 Grams (2003), which he directed, co-wrote, and produced, starred Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, and Naomi Watts. Both Del Toro and Watts received Oscar nominations for their roles in the film and Penn won the Jury Prize for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Babel, which will be released worldwide in November 2006, garnered the Best Director Prize at the 59th Cannes Film Festival. Iñárritu lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

From the Author
The photographers: One of Mexico’s most significant contemporary photographers, Graciela Iturbide’s images reveal her love for her native country and for its people; and, more recently, include other cultures. Whether at home or in foreign lands, her work explores cultural identity and the ways people adapt to modernization. American documentary photographer Mary Ellen Mark has achieved worldwide visibility through her numerous books, exhibitions, and editorial magazine work. For almost three decades, she has traveled extensively to make pictures that reflect a high degree of humanism. Miguel Rio Branco, a Magnum photographer since 1978, was born into a family of diplomats and grew up in Portugal, Brazil, Switzerland and the United States. A ceaseless experimenter in expressive and lyrical color photography, he has been awarded several prizes for his work and has published numerous photography books. Patrick Bard is a journalist and a professional photographer who has written articles for the French and international presses about the Mexico-United States border. Bard is also the author of several novels, some of which have been adapted for the theatre.

About the Author
The writers: Eliseo Alberto is an award-winning author, journalist, and filmmaker. He has written three books of poems; and his publications include the novels Caracol Beach and La eternidad por fin comienza un lunes. Born and raised in Cuba, he now lives in Mexico City. Mexican writer/director Rodrigo García’s credits include Things you can tell just by looking at her (Fondation Gan Award, Cannes 2000) and Nine Lives (Winner Locarno Film Festival, 2005).

Customer Reviews

Remembering the Intricacies of BABEL
When a motion picture of such impact as Alejandro González Iñárritu's BABEL is released, then books such as this fine one become additive to the experience. The four stories that are so integrated into the whole become a bit more individually understandable with the time it takes to perruse this photography book. Together with cogent remarks about both the technical aspects of making this film as well as anecdotal comments about the locations, the cast and the crew that add to the pleasure are some stunning photographs both form the film and extra images.

Still photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Patrick Bard, Graciela Iturbide, and Miguel Rio Branco add scenes from the film as well as images of the sets and creation of the film that make the experience live again. Yet as with the impact of the movie, the lasting impact of this addendum to the experience dwells in the mind after the covers are closed. BABEL is n important film: this book heightens the experience for those who have seen the movie and assists those who have yet to experience it. Grady Harp, November 06

Potent, Often Affecting Images From and Around Iñárritu's Dazzling Global Triptych Film
If like me, you were dazzled by the diverse imagery of director Alejandro González Iñárritu's most recent film, "Babel", you will likely take particular interest in this handsome coffee-table book that compiles an impressive gallery of stills within the context of his recollections of the filming. Four superb photographers - Mary Ellen Mark, Patrick Bard, Graciela Iturbide, and Miguel Rio Branco - are responsible for the vital, often seductive photos presented here, both production stills and behind-the-scenes shots. The combination gives a sense of the deep cultural immersion and the bold visual palette in capturing the lives in three distinct locales - Morocco, Tijuana and Tokyo. The result is comparable in quality to any National Geographic photography retrospective.

Iñárritu's perceptive writing effectively reflects off the images to paint the broad political and emotional landscape of the film, while coming back to the common ground of people who are unable to communicate in some finite way but somehow find a bond with one other. What is most striking is how the film's story seems to mirror much of what went on with the real people during the production. There are illuminating essays by novelist and poet Eliseo Alberto and Gonzalez Iñárritu included in the introduction. As he has already proven with his first two films, "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams", Iñárritu shows an intractable grasp of loss and grief in familiar settings. That he is able to address the same themes and make them resonate even more on a global plain in "Babel" is quite astonishing. Fortunately, this book is a powerful testament to his talent as an imagemaker.

Wonderful Item
Wonderful book, great price and great shipping time. Book is worth a lot more than the selling price.