Abstract

Amores Perros, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñaritu's box office hit immerses the spectator in a series of uncomfortable images of bodies. The corporeal stance colonizes the screen with visceral force. The nodal scene of the picture features a car crash which reunites the three narrative lines and at the same time displays with swift and intense force the damage inflicted upon the characters' bodies by the accident. This is one of the first clues suggesting Iñarritu's emphasis on the body as privileged medium of conveying meaning in Amores Perros. The cinematic language pertains to a persistent viscerality and identitary fragmentation which is conveyed with the help of specific artistic means and through a unique corporeal aesthetics. The object of the present endeavour is to ascertain whether Amores Perros preserves stereotypical approaches in its depiction of bodies. Using the analytical tools provided by film studies, French feminism, gender studies and psychoanalysis, the present inquiry places the corporeal instance in relation with space and gender issues.