The celebrated director talks nature, nurture and a desire for hibernation with AnOther
Should such an award exist, Alejandro González Iñárritu could certainly add busiest man of the year to his long list of Oscar nominations. Last year saw the Mexican director take home the Academy Award for Best Director for his surreal meta-masterpiece Birdman, and this year, against the odds of time and energy, he is back in the running for the very same prize, this time for his epic, snow-entrenched drama The Revenant. If he wins, he will be the first director in 66 years to win the accolade twice in a row – and the third ever to do so in the ceremony's long history.
So why did he set himself such a Herculean goal? "Trust me, it wasn't planned that way," he tells us. "I started working on this film over five years ago and had even begun scouting locations but then it got cut into by Leo’s role in Wolf of Wall Street – a project he had been pursuing for a long time – so the schedule no longer worked and it was put on hold. Then I went and jumped into Birdman in the meantime and just as I was finishing that, the project suddenly came again alive again so I had to do a back-to-back thing. It was just the way it went."
For something so spontaneous, however, Iñárritu's latest offering required a huge amount of planning, filmed as it was in the vast and breathtakingly picturesque mountainscape of Alberta in Canada. The gruelling shoot took seven months to complete, was filmed in analogue using entirely natural light, and saw the crew battling with frozen equipment, frequent storms and multiple bouts of flu. But, be assured, it was worth it.
One of the most awe-inspiring testaments to the beauty and omnipotence of nature to date, the film is an utterly overwhelming, and enervating, cinematic experience – enhanced further by a powerful original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bryce Dessner and Alva Noto. At its helm is a bearded Leonardo DiCaprio, playing legendary 19th-century frontiersman Hugh Glass, who embarks on a terrifyingly treacherous mission of revenge against a back-stabbing member of his hunting team. As the title suggests, this involves countless death-defying feats, played out to perfection by the Oscar-nominated actor – involving a much-raved-about, gut-wrenchingly realistic fight with a bear. Here, on the day of the film's release, we sit down with a tired but triumphant Iñárritu to talk nature, nurture and killer soundtracks.
On being at the mercy of the great outdoors...
"It’s absolutely terrifying because you don’t have control over anything. You don’t have any sense of containment, landscapes are absolutely overwhelming. Your camera is suddenly smaller, and it's very difficult to get perspective on what you really need to do and how to achieve it. When you're exposed to such tough conditions, when you're outdoors for 90% of the day, the logistics of everything certainly make the process very difficult.
Of course, it was always considered that we would have to be dealing with difficult conditions, so we prepared enormously, we rehearsed enormously. We did all our work with months in advance and logistically it was an amazing achievement, but no matter how well you prepare, nature will be bigger than you every time and you have to surrender and be humble and find solutions. But once you get into a rhythm, then it’s fascinating. You learn that sometimes those problems give you gifts creatively. So it’s a process that you, in a way, are learning as you are doing – as every great process of self-expression goes."
On epic films that inspire him...
"One of my favorite films in the world is Andrei Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky. Another that I find very impressive is A Letter Never Sent by Mikhail Kalatozov, which is amazing. Dersu Uzala by Akira Kurosawa and [Francis Ford] Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Oh and Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, both by Werner Herzog – those are also really powerful."
On working with DiCaprio and other talents...
"I appreciate every actor’s process, but I think have been lucky to work with great actors all my life. The standards, and the honesty, and the truth they are looking for is the same as mine. And working with Leo has been one of the best collaborative experiences I've had, because he is so rigorous and so passionate about things, and nothing is false in his performance, which was a great thing."
On perfectionism...
"I’m a mess as a human being; nothing is very controlled in my daily life. But when I’m working, the way I get passionate about it means that I pay attention to every detail."
On soundtracking The Revenant...
"I knew conceptually what would be needed. I knew that it would have to be noninvasive – I knew it would need a lot of silence and that it would have to integrate the sounds of nature into the score. I knew conceptually what kind of thing I wanted, but I didn’t have any tracks in mind as I had with Birdman. So it was starting from scratch. I have been a fan of Ryuichi for 30 years and it was such an honor for me to work with him. When he was sending things through and everything was just right on, it was a great feeling."
On his favourite soundtracks...
"I love soundtracks! To name a few of my favourites, there's Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, Vangelis’ Blade Runner and Once Upon a Time in America by Ennio Morricone. I think those are really amazing sound scores."
On deciding to become a filmmaker...
"I think that decision came later in my early life, when I was around 19 or 20 years old. That was when I began to consider it, not super clearly but I was playing with the idea. There wasn't one moment or one film that made me realise this; I have many films that I saw in that period. I’m not the kind of director who can say, ‘I remember at four years old I saw this and that’ – I have never been so clear. I wish I could be but I don't really know where things come from in my life: it’s a blur of experiences."
On being the youngest of five children...
"I think, being the last one, my parents didn’t pay me a lot of attention. For the good and for the bad. You need attention, so that’s the bad side, and the good is that I wasn't as taken care of as my sisters and brothers, so in a way I was a little bit more free. I am absolutely different from all my family – I’m the only one who does what I do, and who has chosen this kind of career. Does my position really mean something? I don’t know... I guess yes, maybe it stemmed from wanting to prove myself as a little boy, to prove I will do better."
On Hollywood vs independent cinema...
"I miss making independent films, I do, but I honestly have nothing in my mind now. The only thing I'm dreaming of is going into a cave like a bear and hibernating for six months."
The Revenant is in cinemas nationwide from today.