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 A favorite to win the Academy Award for best picture,
director Alejandro G. Inarritu's satirical jab at show business
takes the audience down a cinematic rabbit hole - and not just
because it takes place in the warren of a Broadway theater.
Upon embarking on "Birdman," the Mexican filmmaker felt that
cinematic storytelling was a "little bit stuck" and he wanted to
do something novel because audiences deserved it.
The film industry, Inarritu says, tends to make movies that are
comfortable or easy to understand for the audience, "without
inviting them to explore different ways to believe cinema or
stories and the infinite possibilities that cinema offers."
The exploration in "Birdman" includes the technical - filming in
what appears to be one continuous shot by Oscar-winning
cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. The camera winds its way
through dressing rooms and hallways, around the stage as actors
rehearse, onto the building ledge and out onto the streets of
Broadway.
It is also emotional. Keaton's Riggan Thomson, the washed up
actor attempting a comeback with his own ponderous Broadway
play, contends with the voice of his most famous film character,
the super hero "Birdman," who berates him with criticism.
The director of "Amores Perros" and "Babel" doesn't tie his
first comedy in a neat package, leaving Riggan's fate at the
film's end open to interpretation.
"It's not easy to break rules and it is not easy to be brave to
finance and risk money on it," Inarritu said, speaking by
telephone from wintery Calgary where he is filming frontiersman
drama "The Revenant."
"But I think it is worth it because that is the way we can be
pushing boundaries and move ahead in the possibilities of the
medium."
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 'SCULPTING LIFE'
"Birdman" was such a ludicrous proposal that late director Mike
Nichols told Inarritu he was running toward disaster and should
stop the project.
Now the movie from Fox Searchlight co-leads in Oscar nominations
with nine nods, including for best picture, best director, best
actor for Keaton, supporting actor for Ed Norton, supporting
actress for Emma Stone and cinematography for Lubezki.
In a telling show of support from Hollywood, the Producers Guild
of America bestowed its top award on "Birdman," which Inarritu also
co-wrote and produced. For the last seven years, the PGA winner has
gone on to win the Academy Award for best picture.
If the 51-year-old wins the best director Oscar on Feb. 22, it would
be the second year in a row the honor goes to a Mexican filmmaker.
His friend, Alfonso Cuaron, won last year for "Gravity," and Lubezki
won best cinematography for that film.
Even before the validation of awards, Inarritu believes "Birdman"
gave him a new kind of confidence as a filmmaker, trusting more his
work on the set and resorting less to the editing room to get the
results he wants.
"You are really creating life and you are sculpting life with your
hands and with your senses, instead of manipulating them
technically, which is great," he said.
(Editing by Eric Kelsey, Robert Birsel)
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