We all have talented friends, but this is a little ridiculous. On Friday, Netflix hosted a special evening celebrating three iconic filmmakers and lifelong friends — Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro, otherwise known as the “Three Amigos” of cinema.
“The way I met both of them, Alfonso and Guillermo, they started earlier than me,” Iñárritu said. “They have films already made when I was even thinking [about starting] to make something. And the first thing that I did was try to approach Alfonso.… He offered me that hand and that advice, truthful, tough and generous.” The trio have been inseparable ever since; del Toro even flew from Texas to help his friend finish his cut of Amores Perros.
“[It’s] such a privileged job that we have but so tough and sometimes so lonely,” Iñárritu continued. “To walk this path, never lonely in your life, always with two friends that can hold you in failure and can celebrate with you in success.… These two guys, without them, I would not exist.”
It wasn’t just a lovefest; the trio also talked about the shared threads between their work.
“For the three of us, one thing we have in common is that we don’t have a difference between filmography and biography,” said del Toro. “We make movies that reflect our lives, where we were.”
That quality comes through in the three films the directors have made for Netflix. Cuarón’s Oscar-winning Roma draws from his childhood; del Toro’s Pinocchio dives into his Catholic upbringing; Iñárritu’s Bardo dwells on his Mexican heritage. “It’s a fictionalized way for me to liberate a lot of things: shame, pain, doubt, fear,” Iñárritu said. “That’s why movies exist for me. It’s a cathartic thing.”
Roma, Bardo and Pinocchio (all Oscar-nominated, including Bardo for Best Cinematography and Pinocchio for Best Animated Feature at this year’s ceremony) are all streaming on Netflix now. You can watch the full “Three Amigos” evening right here.
