There are love letters, but there are also divorce letters. In 2007, Alejandro González-Iñárritu wrote one of the second. He had just released , including seven Oscar nominations, when he published a text that turned Mexican cinema upside down. The director accused Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter of the three films, of being a bitter man who only wanted success for himself. He reproached him for wanting sole authorship of the works and said goodbye with a laconic: “good luck with your future films.” and that his partner had isolated him. It was the beginning of the end. And the breakup between the two new talents in Mexican cinema lasted for almost two decades. Until this Monday night, by surprise, they signed peace.
Like those separated couples who reunite on their children’s birthdays, Iñárritu and Arriaga staged the end of the war in the. The Palace of Fine Arts, the high culture venue of the Mexican capital, had scheduled a special screening of the film and a few brief introductory words from Iñárritu. The director took the stage and began by thanking his team over all these years. Then, with a solemn gesture and his hands clasped behind his back, he spoke of a “fracture, a very painful separation.” He said it had been provoked by “the disagreement of different points of view, but also encouraged by other people and interests.” And he asked for a loud applause for “his brother and great talented writer Guillermo Arriaga.” Amidst the applause of the audience, the scriptwriter took the stage and returned the glove saying that “it’s nice that we are together, like what we always were, brothers.” The reconciliation was sealed with a brotherly hug before the film screening.
The signing of peace has been received with enthusiasm in Mexico, where there was little hope of seeing two of their prodigal sons together again. During all these years, they dedicated themselves to throwing things at each other’s heads, in a kind of war of egos between brothers as if they were some Gallaghers from Chilangos. But just as Manchester toasts the return of Oasis, Mexico City can now celebrate the meeting between Memo and el Negro. In an interview with this newspaper, Arriaga had even confessed that the breakup came from further back, precisely from the premiere of Love Dogsa mosaic of intertwined stories in the then DF at the end of the 20th century. The screenwriter defended that it was his idea, that it was very autobiographical, and that they had reached “a gentlemen’s agreement” so that the project would be theirs, a formula similar to that of the Coen brothers. But Iñárritu broke that pact.
Continuing with rock analogies, Iñárritu even told him to think of them as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards: “They don’t speak but the Rolling Stones are better together than apart. We don’t need to be friends to work.” That formula didn’t work either. They still recorded together 21 Grams (2003), with an international cast and a large-scale budget. But . Arriaga denounced interventions in the script of another mosaic story, this time located in the United States, Japan and Morocco. The Japanese part tells the story of a deaf teenager who feels rejected, but Arriaga assures that the script was originally about a Spanish teenager who lost her sight.
After the divorce, both of their careers followed different paths but nothing has gone badly for them. Arriaga has dedicated himself above all to his literary career. Novels with intricate intertwined story structures and jumps in time, as well as recurring themes born from their personal obsessions: violence, death, redemption or loss. All house brands also present in their scripts. A regular star guest at Latin American literary festivals, the novel save the fire It was awarded in 2020 with .
While Iñárritu continued with cinema. He came in to co-sign some of his new scripts and even abandoned his usual outrageous tone for one occasion with a crazy comedy, Birdman (2014), which earned him the long-sought definitive accolade at the Oscars: Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay and Cinematography. The following year he won best director again with The revenant. A return to epic and solemnity, for which, at the time, Arriaga also had something to say. Based on a true story, the protagonist -Leornardo Di Capirio- is a 19th century hunter who escapes from outlaws who want to kill him. One of the most memorable scenes is a fight with a giant bear in a frozen forest. And according to Arriaga, that was also his idea: “I had told him that idea. He is not a hunting or nickname guy. He stole my world.” Who knows if from now on, there will be no more tantrums between the “brothers” and maybe they will even be able to work together again.
