Amores Perros (2000)

Amores Perros (2000), Lionsgate

"Amores Perros" (Love's a Bitch), acclaimed director Alejandro González Iñárritu's feature debut, is tense and all-engrossing. The drama and brutality of emotions are masterfully done.

All of the acting in the film is amazing, but Gael García Bernal (as Octavio) and Emilio Echevarría  (as El Chivo) are especially phenomenal; Bernal's performance made all the more impressive by the fact that this was his film-acting debut. Adriana Barraza (as Octavio and Ramiro's mother) also gives a quietly powerful performance as a mother whose essentially powerless- someone who walks around in a constant state of worry and pain.

There are three segments to the film; three separate tortured stories of love that are all connected by one tragic and life-changing event.  

Notes:


Opening scene:

"What did you do?"

Octavio: "I'm possibly regretting my life decisions"

Octavio (Gael García Bernal) is driving wildly through the streets and his friend, Jorge (Humberto Busto), is asking him what he did because they are being pursued by a truck. Octavio's dog is bleeding to death in the backseat. The men that are chasing them pull out a gun. Octavio runs a red light and slams into a car in the intersection. The woman driving the hit car is bloody and injured.

First Segment: Octavio and Susana 

Back alley dog-fighting ring. Jorge is watching as two owners ready their dogs to fight. The dogs begin to fight and the scene cuts away. 

Susana (Vanessa Bauche), in a school uniform and wearing a backpack, walks up to a building and opens the door. A dog runs out. She yells after it, "Cofi!" but he doesn't come back. She goes up to an apartment where her mother-in-law (Adriana Barraza) is in the kitchen watching her son. Susana picks him up, and asks her mother-in-law if she could watch the baby the next day so she can take a math exam, and her mother-in-law refuses and tells her that she needs to raise her own child.

"But, what about math?"

A bearded man in a grubby suit is collecting trash onto his cart on the side of the road with his dogs.

"Mmmm...trash"

At the dog fight, Jorge is watching in tense horror.

Octavio walks into the kitchen and says hello to Susana and his mother. Octavio sits down at the table with Susana and begins chatting with her, making jokes.

Ramiro (Marco Perez), Susana's husband and Octavio's brother, walks in demanding why she didn't bleach his uniform and does she know where Cofi is? He says, "you let him out again, didn't you, bitch?"

Ramiro: "I'm mean and angry, deal with it."

He continues to berate Susana until Octavio tells him to "lay off." Ramiro begins to argue with his brother, and Octavio tells him that he doesn't even care about the dog and that he is the one that feeds him. He tells Ramiro to lay off Susana and takes the blame for letting the dog out. Ramiro stalks out of the kitchen, and Susana smiles at Octavio in thanks, and Octavio smiles back. It is obvious that Octavio has feelings for Susana.

The dog fight is over, and Jorge leaves with the winning dog's owner, Jarocho. Once outside, Jarocho's dog won't calm down, and one of his friends spots a pack of stray dogs rummaging through garbage in the alley. He suggests that Jarocho let his dog mess with the stray dogs. Jarocho smiles cruelly at this, and begins to walk his dog over to the other dogs. Jorge is upset at this plan of action. As Jarocho approaches the dogs, the bearded man steps into sight from around the corner, and it becomes clear that the "stray" dogs actually belong to him. He stands in front of his dogs in defense, but before a confrontation can ensue, another one of Jarocho's friends whistles to him and points to a lone dog on the other side of the alley. It is Cofi. Jarocho smiles, and begins to lead his dog towards Cofi. Cofi runs away and the group of men pursue him.

Cofi stops and Jarocho gets ready to unleash his dog when Jorge says, "Oh shit! That's Octavio's dog!" and the Jarocho says, "exactly!" and lets his dog go.

Octavio is in his room watching a movie when Susana knocks on the door and asks if she can come in. He says yes and she thanks him for sticking up for her earlier.

"Thanks for saving me from your horrible brother."

He notices a wound on her ear that is bleeding and he asks what happened. She says nothing, and he demands, "did Ramiro do this to you?" She fumbles with an explanation, saying, "yes, but he didn't mean to." Octavio flops back on the bed angrily, asking, "why do you put up with him? He treats you like shit."

The bearded man is in his room and he pulls a photograph of a man out of his dresser drawer. He then pulls out a gun and loads it.

Susana and Octavio are both sitting on his bed watching a movie when Octavio's mother yells that he has a visitor. When Octavio emerges from his bedroom, his mother says, "You know Ramiro doesn't like it when Susana is in your room," and she tells him "this is the last time." Octavio goes to the door to see that it's Jorge, and who tells him that Cofi killed Jarocho's dog. Jorge explains what happened, and Cofi appears at Octavio's side, unharmed. Octavio hugs Cofi to him protectively as Jarocho's car pulls up. Jarocho's friend lays the dead dog in front of Octavio and Jarocho tells him that the dog cost him 20,000 pesos. He tells Octavio that he can either pay him back or give him Cofi.

"Seriously? Those are my only options?"

Octavio tells him he's an asshole. Jarocho leaves, threatening that Octavio better pay.

Octavio and Ramiro are sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast, when their mother comes in, telling Ramiro that she needs money. Ramiro says that he won't have any money until Friday. His mother asks what she is supposed to do when the baby needs diapers and formula.

"Can I have some money so I can take care of your child?"

She leaves the room and Octavio asks his brother skeptically, "You don't have any money?" Ramiro angrily tells him to mind his own business, and threatens to kill him if he says one more word.

"I loathe thee, Ramiro"

The bearded man waits outside of a restaurant with the gun hidden in his jacket, watching a man inside. He then pulls the gun out and shoots the man in the restaurant in the back through the window, and then runs off.

A wealthy couple, Daniel and Julieta, arrive home with their two daughters, and the phone is ringing. One of the little girls answers it, but whoever is on the other line hangs up. A few moments later, the phone rings again and Daniel yells that he will answer it, but his wife reaches the phone first, and the mystery caller hangs up again. Julieta looks at her husband and says, "strange, isn't it?" But, you can tell that she doesn't think it's strange at all and that she believes he is having an affair. 

Susana, looking distressed, knocks on Octavio's bedroom door, and he asks what's wrong. She begins to cry and tells Octavio that she is pregnant again and that Ramiro is going to kill her. Octavio hugs her and tells her that his brother will come around, but Susana replies that she doesn't know if she wants to stay with Ramiro, and that she can't have the baby. Octavio asks if she's thinking about abortion, and she says she doesn't know what else to do.

Octavio suggests they run away together. Susana looks at him incredulously, and says, "I'm being serious," and Octavio replies, "so am I." He grabs her and kisses her, but she pulls away exclaiming, "what are you doing, jerk?!" Octavio pleads, "come away with me," as she runs out of the room.

Ramiro and his friend hold up the people in a drug store at gunpoint.

The bearded man is sitting at his kitchen table, looking through the newspaper, when he sees an obituary for Norma Sainz, and he begins to cry. 

Ramiro, on a high from the excitement of the robbery, bursts into his bedroom where Susana and the baby are sleeping and gives Susana a walkman as a gift. They begin to kiss and Ramiro is singing loudly when Susana tries to hush him because the baby is sleeping. Ramiro goes to the baby to wake him up to give him a stuffed animal. Susana protests, telling Ramiro that the baby is sick and has been puking all day and it was hard to get him to sleep. Ramiro wakes the baby up anyways and Susana tells him to stop and that he is selfish, and Ramiro becomes angry and begins to shout at her. Octavio can hear the shouting and the baby crying from where he lays on his bed.

Octavio tells Jorge what happened with Susana, and Jorge expresses disbelief that Octavio is messing with his brother's wife.

"Sleeping with your brother's wife is not a good life decision"

Octavio defends himself saying that he's liked Susana for a long time, before his brother even met her. He confesses that he can't stop thinking about her, and that he wants Susana to live with him. Jorge wants to know where he's going to get the money for that,  Octavio smiles down at Cofi, and Jorge asks, "you're going to fight him? Where are we going to get the betting money?"

Octavio hears Ramiro and Susana having sex in their room, and he shouts through the door that there is an urgent phone call for Susana from her mother. When Susana comes out to the kitchen to answer the phone and no one is there, she asks Octavio what is going on. He grabs her and tries to get her to have sex with him but she tells him no and says, "not like this." As she walks back to her room, he asks, "then how?"

Octavio and Jorge make a deal with Mauricio, the man running the dog-fighting operation. Cofi will fight and Mauricio will put up the betting money, and they split the profits 50/50. Mauricio gives Octavio 2,500 pesos up front in order to put Cofi in a trial-run fight.

Ramiro is working his job as a cashier at the supermarket when Octavio appears in his line to buy diapers. Ramiro is angry and tells Octavio that only he buys things for his family. Octavio tells him to ring him up or he'll call for the manager. Ramiro grabs his brother around the neck and threatens to kill him if he doesn't leave.

"I will kill you in the produce section, I don't even care"

Octavio replies, "I'm not Susana, I'm not afraid of you," and he head-butts Ramiro in the face, and takes off with the groceries.

Susana is sitting at home with the baby when Octavio walks in and sets the bags of groceries and diapers in front of her. He also hands her a wad of cash and tells her there is more on the way. Susana looks at him shocked and says, "for what?" Octavio tells her it's for taking care of her babies.

Daniel and Julieta are laying in bed watching television when the phone rings and Daniel answers it, saying hello to his brother. He says he can't hear with the TV on, so he leaves the room and his tone changes. He is not talking to his brother, and he says, "I miss you a lot, too. Don't call here anymore. Julieta's suspicious... I love you."

Ramiro returns home and goes into the bathroom where Octavio is taking a shower. He picks up a metal rod and begins beating Octavio with it through the shower curtain, yelling, "stay out of my business!" He leaves Octavio sitting in the shower, bleeding.

Octavio's dog Cofi and Jarocho's new dog fight.

The bearded man watches a funeral from afar. One of the women in attendance notices him, and walks over to ask him what he is doing there. She warns him not to mess with them, especially "her" which is presumably the young girl she was hugging a moment ago. The man replies, "you are hostile, sister-in-law," and she turns and hurries back to the funeral gathering.

Jarocho loads his second dead dog into the back of his truck. As Octavio walks away with Cofi, Jarocho says to him, "that's two you owe me now."

Octavio returns home and gives the winnings from the fight to Susanna, telling her to keep it hidden from Ramiro. She tells him to put it in the case in the closet where she put the other money. Octavio tells her that the case is their bank now. She asks him if he is stealing too, and Octavio replies that the money is clean, so that she will come away with him. She says, "you still don't get it, do you?" He tells her that Jorge has cousins in Juarez that they can stay with, and they would have the money to open up a store. Susana says, "I don't want anymore trouble, can't you understand that?" Octavio repeats, "come away with me." Susana shakes her head.

Octavio continues to win at dog fighting and to give money to Susana. He also buys himself a car. Ramiro continues to rob stores, and cheats on Susana with one of the girls at his work.

Ramiro comes into Octavio's room one day and says, "I heard you're getting rich with my dog. Your car is nice." Octavio looks at him, and asks, "your dog? That dog is mine." Ramiro says, "that dog's as much mine as he is yours, so I get half of the winnings." Octavio tells Ramiro that he isn't giving him any money. Ramiro pulls out a gun and points it at Cofi's head, and warns Octavio that if he doesn't split the money with him, then he will blow away his piggy bank.

The bearded man watches as the young girl from the funeral walks out of her apartment and gets into her car.

Octavio walks into Susanna and the baby's room with more money, and Susana tells him that they have enough to live on for two years. He asks, "so you'll come live with me?" Susana asks him why he wants to live with her, and he looks at her and says, "you still don't get it, do you?"

"Don't you understand that I'm crazy obsessed with you?"

She responds, "No, I get it." He kisses her and they make out on the floor.

"I totally get that you're a whole bag of crazy."

Daniel walks into the room of his sleeping daughters and kisses them goodnight.

Mauricio tells Octavio and Jorge that Jarocho has a new dog that he wants to fight against Cofi, and he wants to bet 40,000. Mauricio says that it is too much for him to bet, and if Octavio wants to do the fight, he's on his own. He also tells him that Jarocho wants the fight to be private, with no outside bets. Octavio says that he wants to do the fight, but that he needs a big favor from Mauricio.

While Octavio and Susana have sex in a laundry room, Mauricio's men wait for Ramiro outside of his work. As Ramiro leaves work, he kisses the girl that he is having an affair with goodbye, and then starts walking home. He is grabbed and pulled into a car by Mauricio's men, and they take him to a secluded location and beat him up. While they are beating him up, Octavio keeps glancing at his face in a mirror while he is having sex with Susana, a look of guilt crossing his features.

Later, Octavio tells Susana that everything is ready for them to leave for Juarez on Sunday, but he will need a little bit of their money. He tells her Saturday is "the big one," and Susana looks worriedly at Cofi. She says, "Don't fight him anymore. We have enough money." Octavio says, "one last one."

"Just one more fight where I risk my dog's life, what could go wrong?"

He tells her that Ramiro won't be fucking with them anymore, he's sure of it. Susana understands the implication behind this, but doesn't say anything. Octavio asks her if she's scared, and she says, "this is heavy shit."

Susanna arrives to pick up her baby from her mother, who was supposed to be babysitting, but she finds her mother passed out and the baby crying on the floor. Susanna picks him up and then turns to her mother, and says, "Now you can stay drunk," and she leaves.

Octavio is in the kitchen and his mother comes in and asks him if he knows what happened to his brother, who didn't come home last night. Octavio says he has no idea, and she tells him that Ramiro was beaten up badly and had his life threatened. She then tells him that Ramiro left with Susana and the baby.

"Whaaaaat?"

Octavio, alarmed, asks where they went. She says she doesn't know where they went or when they are coming back. Octavio runs up to Susana's room to find that the money from the case is gone.

Octavio tells Jorge that he has to find Susana. Jorge tells him, "she tricked you. I warned you." Octavio insists that it isn't Susana's fault, it's Ramiro's. Jorge is watching a talk show while they are discussing their plan, and a super model named Valeria is the guest. She is introducing everyone to her boyfriend, Andres, and their "son," Richie, who is a dog. Octavio says, "let's go," and he and Jorge head to the fight with Cofi.

When they arrive, Mauricio asks if they have the 40,000. Octavio says no, that they only have 20,000. Jarocho says fine, and they start the fight.

Jarocho: "Doing business with me is probably not the best idea."

Jarocho sees that his dog is going to lose, and he pulls out a gun and shoots Cofi. Octavio and Jorge start flipping out and Mauricio gives both sides back their money and says that he is staying out of it. Jarocho tells Octavio that it's part of the game and that they'd better get out of there.

"I loathe thee, Jarocho"

Jorge picks up Cofi and he and Octavio walk out to their car, but Octavio tells Jorge to wait a minute, and he goes back inside. Octavio pulls out a knife, walks up to Jarocho, and stabs him in the belly. He runs back to the car and drives off, with Jarocho's men chasing him. The bloody knife is left laying on the pavement.

The film has come full circle, and Jorge and Octavio are now again in the opening scene, with Jorge demanding to know what Octavio did to make Jarocho's men come after them, and Octavio driving madly through the streets, with Cofi sliding around in the backseat. They crash into the car in the intersection.

Cut back to the talk show, where Valeria and Andres are leaving the set together. Andres asks her to have lunch with him, and at first she says she can't, but then Andres insists that he has a surprise for her, and she says ok. Before getting into the car, Andres waves at a screaming group of fans (he is clearly, also famous).

Andres takes her to an apartment, and as she walks in, Valeria asks, "did you buy this place?" and Andres responds, "not exactly." Valeria walks into the living room, and Andres tells her that the couch there is from her house, and all of her clothes are already in the apartment's closet. Valeria is angry and demands to know what is going on, and Andres hands her the keys to "her" apartment. She is confused and angry until Daniel appears in the doorway, and then she is happy and excited. She runs over to kiss him, and the three of them have a laugh. As Andres heads to the door to leave, Daniel walks him out and thanks him for the apartment. Andres says, "thanks for the magazine cover," and leaves.

Valeria asks Daniel, "is it true, my love?" Daniel tells her that he spoke to Julieta, and that they are separating. He then says, "we will go to bed together tonight." 

When Valeria asks Daniel what they are toasting with, Daniel exclaims that he knew he forgot something, and Valeria reassures him that she will go pick something up.

"Don't worry, I'll be right back. Or not."

She heads out and takes Richie with her. She stops at a red light and applies lipstick. The light turns green and she accelerates into the intersection, where she is slammed into on the passenger side by Octavio's car.

Second Segment: Daniel and Valeria

The doctor comes out to talk to Daniel, who is sitting in the hospital waiting room. Daniel asks if Valeria will be ok, and the doctor says that he hopes so, but that she's lost a lot of blood and has several fractures. Daniel asks when he can see her, and the doctor tells him in two days. Before he leaves, he tells Daniel, "give my regards to Julieta... Sorry, habit."

Daniel has come back to see Valeria and she asks about Richie. Daniel tells her that he is fine and back at home. Valeria asks Daniel to no tell her father about the accident, and Daniel responds that maybe it is time she talked to him. She says she doesn't want to and that her father might say she deserves this. Later, Valeria wakes up crying and tells Daniel that she is scared to death. Daniel tells her everything will be fine.

Daniel takes Valeria, whose in a wheelchair, back to the apartment when she is released from the hospital, and then says goodbye to her the next day when he leaves for work. Once he leaves, she wheels herself over to the window to look at the billboard across the street that she is on for a perfume ad. 

The bearded man is still spying on the young girl from the funeral. When she gets into her car and leaves for the day, he picks the lock to her residence, and goes inside and steals a photograph from her graduation day.

Valeria is playing fetch with Ritchie in the apartment when she accidentally throws the ball into a hole in the floor, and Ritchie jumps into the hole after it. She calls out for him, but he doesn't return. When Daniel arrives home from work, she tells him what happened with Ritchie, and that he's been missing for five hours. Daniel puts chocolates in Ritchie's food bowl and then sets the bowl inside the hole, saying that it will bring the dog out in no time.

Valeria and Daniel are sleeping in bed when Valeria hears Ritchie crying, and she wakes Daniel up. Daniel grabs a flashlight and tries to see into the hole. The phone rings and Daniel answers, but the caller hangs up.

The next day, Valeria is talking to her agent on the phone and finds out that she has lost her perfume modeling contract because of her injuries.

Cofi, his side bandaged up, is laying on the living room floor of the bearded man's apartment.

Valeria climbs out of her wheelchair onto the floor so that she can look down into the hole with the flashlight and call for Ritchie. She is startled when she spots rats.

"Ewwwww"

Daniel is at work, laying out the magazine cover with Andres on it, when his secretary tells him that he has an urgent call from his wife. Daniel picks up the phone and says, "hello, Julieta, what is wrong?" Valeria is on the other line and asks, "what do you need to talk to Julieta for?" Daniel tries to explain that it was the secretary's mistake, but Valeria is angry. She blurts out, "the rats ate Ritchie."

Daniel returns to the apartment where Valeria is crying in her wheelchair, and she explains that there are thousands of rats underneath the floor, and they must have eaten Ritchie. Daniel tries to sooth her, but she then starts talking about her leg is nothing but scars. She screams at him not to touch her, but then they both hear Ritchie whining and get excited. Daniel says that he will make the hole bigger so that the dog can get out, and Valerie wheels over to answer the ringing phone. She says hello, but the caller hangs up, and she turns on Daniel angrily, asking, "who was that?" He says he doesn't know but she doesn't believe him.

Daniel wakes in the middle of the night to find Valeria out of bed and in her wheelchair, staring out the window. He asks her what's wrong, and she says that her leg hurts badly. She asks him to hold her.

"Being an injured supermodel is the worst."

At the hospital, the doctor takes off the bandage on Valeria's leg, inspecting her stitches. Her wound is severe. On the ride home, she is depressed and Daniel tells her everything will be fine. She becomes angry and asks him if he knows how to say anything else. When they are in bed that night, Valeria hears Ritchie whining, and she wakes up Daniel, telling him to get Ritchie out. Daniel asks, "how?" and Valeria screams at him to rip up the floor. Daniel says that he can't rip up the floor because he doesn't have the money to fix it. Valeria screams that money does not matter and to get Ritchie out and Daniel responds, "Right now, it does more than you know." Valeria continues to scream at him, and tells him that he's always been so selfish. He responds that he gave up everything for her, and Valeria spits back, "you left your wife because she's a bitch! And your daughters are idiots!" He tells her to shut up or he'll hit her, and she tells him to fuck off, and he yells, "always you and that stupid dog!" Valeria continues to scream at him and he leaves the bedroom, slamming the door. He walks out to the living room and looks at the billboard with Valeria on it.

The next morning, Daniel is leaving for work and says he'll be back around 2:00. Valeria tells him she doesn't care if he ever comes back. At the office, Daniel calls his house, and his wife answers. He doesn't say anything, and Julieta says, "Daniel? Sweetheart?" But he still says nothing, and hangs up.

Daniel returns home to the apartment to find a box of tools and a few of the floor boards torn up. The bedroom is shut and he bangs angrily on it, yelling at Valeria to open it, but she doesn't. He lays down on the couch and goes to sleep. When he wakes up, he tells Valeria that he will break down the door if she doesn't open it. She doesn't respond and he kicks in the door, to find Valeria sprawled out on the floor, unresponsive.

At the hospital, the doctor tells Daniel that Valeria had severe arterial thrombosis which caused advanced gangrene to set in, and that he was forced to amputate her leg. Daniel is devastated at this news, and when he returns to the apartment and hears Ritchie crying, he goes berserk and begins smashing out the floorboards until he finds the injured dog. Daniel lifts Ritchie out and begins to cry.

When Daniel brings Valeria home, now only with one leg, she immediately rolls herself over to the window to see her billboard, but it has been taken down, and she begins to cry.

Third segment: El Chivo and Maru

Two men, Leonardo and Gustavo, are driving to go meet with El Chivo. Leonardo is Chivo's friend, and he gives Gustavo a quick background on Chivo. He tells him that Chivo used to be a professor, and then one day he left his wife and daughter to become a guerilla. His wife remarried, and his daughter does not know that Chivo exists. Leonardo, a cop, is the one that finally caught Chivo, and put him behind bars for twenty years. When Chivo finally got out of jail, he was a mess, and Leonardo took pity on him and gave him some money and a place to stay. Leonardo explains that Chivo still does an occasional job for him, and Gustavo asks, "like this one?"

Leonardo and Gustavo arrive at Chivo's place and Chivo, who turns out to be the bearded man, greets them at the door and invites them in. They all sit down in his living room and Leonardo tells Chivo that Gustavo has a favor to ask, and Gustavo pulls out a photograph. Chivo does not look at the photo but looks at Leonardo, saying, "I told you I don't do that anymore." Leonardo asks Chivo if he is going to live off garbage again, and Chivo replies that the garbage provides.

"How do you think I got this sandwich?"

Chivo eventually agrees to assassinate the man in the photograph that Gustavo wants dead for 150,000. The man he wants dead is Luis Solares, an associate of Gustavo's who is cheating him.

Chivo is walking along a street at night, when he passes Susana, holding her baby, with a very badly beaten-up Ramiro. Back at his place, Chivo looks at a photo album with old pictures of his daughter and wife. Presumably, the funeral that he watched from afar was his wife's, and the young girl that he has been spying on is his daughter.

Chivo stakes out the building where Luis works and sits and watches the building all day.

"Just sitting here planning assassinations."

He then follows Luis as he leaves work and walks down the sidewalk with his girlfriend. Chivo is watching the couple sit down at a restaurant when the car accident between Octavio and Valeria takes place at the intersection behind him. 

Chivo walks over to the accident, and pries the driver's side door off of Octavio's car. Octavio and Jorge are both bloody and unconscious, and Chivo spots the wad of cash hanging out of Octavio's pants pocket. He takes the money and Octavio's wallet, and stuffs all of it into his coat pocket. He then helps pull Octavio out of the car with the help of another man. Octavio is yelling in pain on the street and Jorge is pronounced dead by one of the bystanders. Chivo steps away from the cars, and watches as paramedics arrive on the scene. He watches as two of them lift the unmoving Cofi from Octavio's backseat, and lay him on the street. Chivo immediately goes over to Cofi and lifts him into his cart, telling the dog, "you're going to make it," as he rolls him away from the accident.

Chivo takes Cofi back to his place, where he cleans his wounds and bandages him. He murmurs tender encouragements and assurances to the dog, saying "the boy's not here. It's ok, the boy's not here."

"Here, let me fix you up so you can wreak havoc on my life."

Chivo assumes it was the dog's owner that abused him. He then looks through Octavio's wallet, lingering on the pictures of Octavio with Cofi and Ramiro, and he looks like he might feel a little guilty.

Ramiro and his friend run into a bank with guns, attempting to rob it. Leonardo happens to be inside, and his partner charges in and shoots Ramiro, and handcuffs Ramiro's friend.

"I'm robbing a bank with a cop inside, what could go wrong?"

Chivo takes the bandage off of Cofi, and tells the dog that his wound is healing nicely. He then leaves to go follow Luis around. That night, when Luis stops at a convenience store, Chivo gets out of his car with his gun, ready to assassinate him, but two kids get in the way.

Ramiro's family is gathered at his funeral, and Octavio, who is on crutches, sits down next to Susana. He asks her why she left and she says it isn't the time to talk about that. She gets up from her seat and goes out into the hallway and Octavio follows her. She says to Octavio, "Ramiro was my husband, wasn't he?" and Octavio asks her, "what about our plans together?" Susana replies, "the plans that you had. You know what my grandmother used to say?

"If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." 

Octavio asks her again to come away with him, and she tells him that he's losing it. He says that he is leaving for Juarez on Sunday, and that he will be waiting for her at the bus station. Susana doesn't respond to this and simply tells him that she is going to name her baby "Ramiro."

"You're losing it, buddy."

Chivo returns home to find that Cofi has killed all four of his dogs. He takes out his gun to shoot Cofi, but can't bring himself to do it, and he sits in his truck to sob with grief instead. Cofi killing his dogs ends up being the turning point in Chivo's life.

That night, lying in bed alone, Chivo turns on the lights and puts his glasses on (which he had stopped wearing) for a few moments to look around. He then takes them back off and turns out the light.

The next night, Chivo comes up behind Luis in a video store parking lot and holds a gun to his back and tells him to get inside his car and start it. When Luis asks what's going on, Chivo tells him that he's being paid to kill him. He handcuffs Luis to the wheel and tells him to drive.

Chivo brings Luis back to his place, and handcuffs him to a pole. Chivo asks him if he knows who is paying to have him killed. Luis says no, and Chivo tells him that it is Luis' girlfriend, Marta. Then he tells him that it's Luis' wife. Luis suddenly guesses that it's Marta's husband. Chivo laughs, "A lot of fucking people want to kill you."

"Haha, everyone hates you."

Chivo tells Luis that he found his dog on the street and doesn't know what to call him. Chivo suggests, "Gustavo? Know any Gustavos?" It comes out that Gustavo is Luis' half brother.

Chivo goes to bed and leaves Luis tied to the pole. The next morning, Luis offers to make Chivo very rich if he lets him go. Chivo puts his gag back in and tells him he has to go. Chivo goes to a pay phone and calls Gustavo, telling him to bring the rest of the money to his place.

Gustavo shows up at Chivo's with the money, and Chivo tells him to come in. He leads Gustavo to where he has his brother tied up. Chivo begins to yell at Gustavo that if he wants his brother dead then he should kill him himself. He shoves the gun in Gustavo's hand and tells him to shoot Luis, but Gustavo can't do it. Chivo takes the gun back and points it at Luis' head yelling at Gustavo, "do you want me to kill him?!" Gustavo begins to cry and won't say anything. Chivo punches Gustavo to the ground in disgust.

Octavio is at the bus station waiting for Susana, but she doesn't show up. When the bus driver asks him if he is going or staying, Octavio stays at the station and limps away in despair.

Chivo is at his bathroom sink, and he shaves, cuts his hair, and puts on his eyeglasses. He gets dressed, packs a bag with his money and photographs, and goes out to tell the brothers that he has to leave town.

"I've gotta run guys, it's been real."

He unties both of the brothers' hands, but leaves them tied at the waist with rope. He says that he hopes they can talk things out, but he leaves a gun in the middle of the floor in case they can't. Chivo leaves, and both brothers immediately start trying to get to the gun first.

Chivo picks the lock of his daughter's residence again, and goes into her empty apartment. He puts stacks of money underneath her pillow and puts her graduation photo back into its frame, with a picture of his face covering her step-father's. He then sits down on her bed and leaves a message on her answering machine: "Maru, my love. This is Martin. Your father. Your biological father. You must think this is a ridiculous joke. Especially after all the years I've been dead to you. But in fact, I'm a living ghost. When I last saw you, you had just turned two. But I swear, a day doesn't go by when I don't think of you." He tries to explain why he left, and tells her that he will find her again once he has the courage to look her in the eye.

"I know I'm not Dad of the Year"

Chivo sells his car, and starts walking to an unknown destination with "Blackie," the name he gives to Cofi.

"Amores Perros" was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (Mexico) at the 2001 Academy Awards.

Amores Perros (2000)

Director:
Alejandro González Iñárritu

Writer:

Guillermo Arriaga

Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto

Cast:

Gael García Bernal- Octavio

Vanessa Bauche- Susana 
Emilio Echevarría- El Chivo

Humberto Busto- Jorge

Marco Perez- Ramiro
Adriana Barraza- Octavio's mother

Goya Toledo- Valerie
Alvaro Guerrero- Daniel

Gustavo Sanchez Parra- Jarocho 
Jorge Salinas- Luis
Gerardo Campbell- Mauricio

Amélie (2001)

 Amélie (2001), Miramax

The French film "Amélie" (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain) is like a beautifully vivid, wonderfully weird, clever and witty dream.

Audrey Tautou is impossibly gorgeous and talented as the introverted and imaginative Amélie Poulain, a 23-year-old Parisian waitress who prefers to delve into the lives of others rather than contemplate her own lonely existence.

Notes:

Opening scene, Rue Saint Vincent

Narrator:

"On September 3, 1973, a blue fly capable of flapping 70 beats a minute, landed on Saint Vincent Street in Montmarte. At that moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a fifth-floor flat on Avenue Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend's funeral, Eugene Colere erased him from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one X chromosome, belonging to Raphael Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amelie Poulain was born."

Amelie's father, Raphael Poulain- "Her father, an ex-army doctor, works at a spa at Enghien Les Bains." Arrows on the screen point out his facial characeristics - (Tight lips, hard heart).

I don't believe in hugs

Amelie's mother, Amandine Poulain- "Amelie's mother, a schoolmistress from Grugeon, has always had shaky nerves." Arrows on the screen point out her facial characteristics- (Facial twitch, weak nerves).

I need a Xanax

"Amelie is six. Like all little girls, she'd like to be hugged by her Daddy. But, he never touches her except for a monthly checkup. The thrill of this rare contact makes her heart beat like a drum. As a result, he thinks she has a heart defect. Declared unfit for school, Amelie is taught by her mother."

"Dad, it's not a heart defect, it's a cry for love"

"Deprived of playmates, slung between a neurotic and an iceberg, Amelie retreats into her imagination."

"I'll just amuse myself with these raspberries"

Blubber, the suicidal goldfish

"Amelie has one friend, Blubber. Alas, the home environment has made Blubber suicidal." Blubber is a goldfish, who jumps out of his bowl and begins flopping around the kitchen floor, which causes Amelie to scream loudly until Blubber is safely returned to his bowl by Amelie's father."Blubber's suicide attempts destroy Mother's nerves. A decision is made." Amelie's mother sets Blubber free into the river, as Amelie looks on, saddened by the loss of her one friend.

Oh, my life

"To comfort Amelie, her mother gives her a used Instamatic." Amelie, standing on a sidewalk, begins taking pictures of clouds that are shaped like animals. Suddenly, two cars crash into each other in front of her, one of the cars belonging to her neighbor. Angry about the accident, her neighbor begins to unload his anger onto Amelie, shouting that her camera causes accidents.

"A neighbor fools her into thinking her camera causes accidents. Having taken pictures all afternoon, Amelie is petrified. She stares at the TV, racked by the guilt of causing a huge fire, two derailments, a jumbo jet crash."

"Holy Christ on a piece of toast, I'm going to kiddie Hell!"

She later realizes her neighbor lied to her, and gets her revenge by messing with his TV while he is trying to watch an important soccer game.

"One day, tragedy strikes. Amandine takes Amelie to Notre Dame to pray for a baby brother. Minutes later, heaven sends, alas, not a baby boy, but Marguerite, a tourist from Quebec, bent on ending her life." As Amelie and her mother walk out of the church, a woman committing suicide jumps from the roof of the church and lands on Almandine. "Amandine dies instantly."

"After her mother's death, Amelie lives alone with her father. His unsociable tendencies increase. He's obsessed with building a miniature shrine to house his wife's ashes. Days, months, and years go by. In such a dead world, Amelie prefers to dream she'll earn enough to leave home."

"Five years later, she's a waitress in Montmarte at the Two Windmills."

Audrey Tautou as Amelie Poulain

 "It's August 29th. In 48 hours, her life change will forever but she doesn't know it yet."

"She lives quietly among her coworkers and regulars. On weekends, Amelie often takes a train to see her father." Amelie asks her father why he doesn't use his retirement money to travel because he's never been anywhere, and he responds that he and her mother wanted to travel when they were younger, but couldn't because of Amelie's heart. And then, "now..." Her father trails off when trying to explain why he doesn't travel now, because he doesn't really have any reasons. Rather than travel, Amelie's father lives in a depressed haze, spending all of his time focusing on the care of a garden gnome that he sits on top of her mother's shrine.

"Alas, this gnome requires all of my attention"

"Some Fridays, Amelie sees a movie."

While sitting in the theater she whispers, "I like looking back at people's faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees. But I hate it in old movies when drivers don't watch the road."

"Amelie has no boyfriend. She tried once or twice but the results were a letdown. Instead she cultivates a taste for small pleasures: dipping her hand into sacks of grain, cracking creme brulee with a teaspoon, and skipping stones at St. Martin's Canal."

"Creme brulee, here I come!"

Skipping stones, la, la, la

It is evening, and Amelie is in her kitchen. She turns out the lights and gets out a spying glass to watch her neighbor, Raymond Dufayel, paint from her kitchen window.

Raymond Dufayel aka "The Glass Man"

"They call him the Glass Man. He was born with bones as brittle as crystal. All his furniture is padded. A handshake could crush his fingers. He's stayed inside for twenty years."

 Amelie looks out over Paris from a rooftop.

"Time has changed nothing. Amelie still seeks solitude. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below, such as, 'how many couples are having an orgasm now?'"

The answer is "15"

"Finally, on August 30, 1997, comes the event that changes her life forever." Amelie is in her apartment, listening to the news on the TV when she hears: "Lady Di, Princess of Wales, died in a car crash last night with her companion Dodi Al-Fayed."

Say what?

Amelie is so shocked by what she is hearing that she drops the cap to her perfume bottle and it falls to the floor and crashes into one Amelie's bathroom tiles, slightly dislodging it. When Amelie bends to retrieve the cap, she notices the dislodged tile. She pulls it away to find a tin box hidden inside a hole.

The box is full of various items put there by a little boy 40 years ago.

"On August 31st at 4:00 am, Amelie has a dazzling idea. Wherever he was, she would find the box's owner and give him back his treasure."

Amelie is laying in bed, and in a departure from her usually shy self, decides that she will find the man who hid the box behind the tile as a boy, so that she can return his childhood things to him. She begins asking her neighbors if they remember the family who was living in her apartment in the 1950s. The grocers suggests that Amelie go talk to his mother, who is likely to remember something like that. The grocer's mother tells Amelie that the family she is looking for is "Bretodeau."

Amelie is in a train station when she hears a song playing. She follows the music and sees that it is an old blind man sitting on a bench with a record player in his lap. Amelie puts some change in his cup and then looks to see a man groping underneath a photo booth. It is Nino Quincampoix.

"Don't mind me, just being weird"

"When Amelie lacked playmates, Nino had too many." Flashback to Nino being shoved into a tiny trashcan by his classmates. "Five miles apart, they both dreamed of having a brother and sister to be with all the time."

When Nino looks up and notices Amelie staring down at him, she doesn't have the courage to talk to him and rushes out of the subway station.

Are you falling in love with my weirdness?

The Glass Man aka Raymond, invites Amelie into his apartment to tell her about the Bretodeau family. He gives her an address for Dominique Bretodeau.

Amelie leaves the tin box in a phone booth, and then dials the phone booth as Dominique Bretodeau is walking by, so that he will step into the booth and see the box. Dominique recognizes the box, and when he opens it, the items bring tears to his eyes as childhood memories flood back to him.

"My old junk!"

Dominique sits down at a bar with his tin box, and Amelie is a few seats down. Dominique begins talking about how he has a daughter around Amelie's age that he hasn't spoken to in years. He looks at the tin box and says that he thinks its time he go see his daughter before he himself is in a box. Amelie smiles, seeing that finding the tin box means a lot to this man. She leaves the bar and takes a walk around Paris.

"Amelie has a strange feeling of absolute harmony. It's a perfect moment. Soft light, a scent in the air, the quiet murmur of the city. She breathes deeply. Life is simple and clear."

"A surge of love, an urge to help mankind comes over her." Suddenly, she sees the blind man from the subway, hesitating on the edge of a busy street. Amelie seizes his arm and guides him safely across the street, while she describes to him what she is seeing. The blind man is delighted.

"Let me tell you everything!"

Amelie spots Nino at the train station again, scraping things from the under the same photo booth. She still can't overcome her shyness and talk to him, but when he suddenly takes off running and shouting after a man, she follows him. Nino jumps onto his motorbike to ride after the man's car, and Amelie retrieves a bag from the street that has fallen off of Nino's bike. Inside the bag, Amelie finds a photo album full of ID photos, torn up and discarded by their owners (this is what he has been scraping out from underneath the photo booth), carefully reassembled by Nino.

"Some family album!"

Amelie shows the photo album to Raymond, and they discover that there are several pictures inside of the man that Nino was chasing.

 Amelie is upset with herself for being a coward and not having the courage to talk to Nino, but rather than "fix her own life," she begins interfering secretly in other people's lives, righting wrongs as she sees them.

I'm just going to borrow these...

She steals old letters out of a neighbor's apartment so that she can reconstruct a new "long-lost love letter" from the neighbor's long-lost love. She begins sneaking into the grocer's apartment to mess with his things, in order to gain revenge for Lucien, a nice boy who is treated badly by the grocer. She sets up two lonely people at her cafe, Georgette and Joesph, by telling each one separately that the other fancies them. She steals her father's garden gnome and gives it to her world-traveling friend, asking her to take pictures of the gnome in all of the cities that she visits, and then to mail the pictures back to her father (to inspire him to leave home and travel).

"Europe is awesome, you should try it"

One day when Amelie is passing the photo booth in the train station, she sees that Nino has put up fliers, asking anyone who has found his photo album, to please call him. Amelie takes one of the flyers and heads home. 

"Any normal girl would call the number, meet him, return the album, and see if her dream is viable. It's called a reality check. The last thing Amelie wants."

Amelie stalls for a few days, but eventually decides to give the photo album back. She finds Nino at the Fun Fair, one of the jobs he works, and leaves a note on his bike, telling him what park to meet her in the next day. She's piqued his interest, but she doesn't speak to him at the park. She only slips the album into his bike basket, and then calls him on the pay phone when he comes to retrieve it. When he asks, "who are you?" she tells him "page 51." He opens his photo album and she has left a message asking if he wants to meet her. Nino begins leaving fliers all over the train station and on photo booths asking her "where and when?" Amelie responds by taking a photo of herself masked as Zorro holding a message, and then she rips it up and leaves it under a photo booth for him.

"This girl is a lot of work"

"The Two Windmills at 4 pm"

When Nino shows up at the Two Windmills and sits down to wait for the mysterious Amelie, she is too afraid to talk to him.

"She's definitely going to stand me up again"

Instead of speaking to him, she has one of her co-workers, Gina, slip a note secretly into his pocket, and then Amelie watches as Nino gives up waiting for her and leaves the cafe.

When Amelie does eventually pluck up the courage to talk to Nino when she sees him at the train station, she is literally derailed by a motorized cart pulling cargo in front of her, and by the time it passes, Nino is gone.

Joesph and a failed writer are having a conversation at the bar of the Two Windmills. When Joesph calls the writer a failure to his face, the writer responds, "Ah, yes. Failed writer, failed life. I love the word 'fail.'

"Failure is human destiny. Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play."

When Amelie walks into work, Joesph tells her that Gina is with "the man with the plastic bag," (Nino), and Amelie is devastated because she assumes they are on a date.

It turns out that Gina has met up with Nino to investigate whether or not he is a good guy, in order to protect Amelie. She decides that he passes the test.

While she's baking alone in her kitchen, Amelie discovers that she is out of yeast. She begins to daydream about Nino going to the grocer to pick it up for her.

"My hero"

Amelie is pulled out of her reverie by the sound of her cat entering the kitchen, and she begins to cry. Suddenly, her doorbell rings, and Nino's on the other side of the door, calling her name. Amelie approaches the door, but is too afraid to answer it. Nino writes a note, slips it under the door, and leaves. Amelie picks it up and it says, "I'll be back."

Amelie's phone rings, and it's Raymond, who tells her to go to the bedroom and hangs up. Amelie walks into the bedroom, where Raymond has left a video for her to watch. She hits play, and it's Raymond telling her that her bones are not made of glass, and that she can take life's knocks. He tells her that if she lets this chance go by, her heart will become as dry and brittle as his skeleton, and to "Go get him!"

Amelie races to the door to go after Nino, and flings it open to find him standing on the other side of it.

"Oh, there you are"

 They start to give each other little kisses.

 And then they live happily ever after.

 "Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's"

One of my favorite scenes is the bike ride that Amelie and Nino take at the end.

There's something about it that perfectly captures the feeling of falling in love, new romance, happiness and contentment, and that excitement for the future that you feel when you've just begun a new relationship.

At the 2002 Academy Awards, "Amelie" was nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Foreign Language Film.

Amélie (2001)
Language: French

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Writers: Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel
Art Direction: Aline Bonetto

 Cast:

Audrey Tautou- Amelie Poulain

Mathieu Kassovitz- Nino Quincampoix

Jamel Debbouze- Lucien
Serge Merlin- Raymond Dufayel
Claire Maurier- Madame Suzanne
Isabelle Nanty- Georgette
Amelie, aged 6- Flora Guiet