Edward Norton plays the role of Mike, a stage actor who mocks the film world and believes the world of the stage is where authentic portrayal and exploration of the human condition is found, not on the silver screen. He throws this in Riggan’s face, mocking him and unsettling him as he attempts to upstage Riggan and steal his publicity. He successfully manages to do this, capturing the main page of the New York Times Entertainment section, which throws Riggan into a state of massive anxiety and rage. The coup was done at the expense of Mike’s own personal relationship with his co star and lover, played by Naomi Watts, whom he almost rapes on set. Mike confesses that he can be sexually aroused in front of an audience. His lover (Naomi Watts) is appalled but Riggan’s daughter (Emma Stone) is intrigued to discover this. In a ‘truth or dare’ game he confides to her that his great fear in a relationship would be his inability to perform sexually, which is apparently the case. His entire identity, right to the core of his being is tied to the ephemeral world of the stage and the whims of the audience and critics.

Antonio Sanchez provides the drum score used frequently and prominently throughout the movie; the drum rolls accentuating epiphanies along the way. IÑÁRRITU adds to the puzzle of where the reality of the movie lies by adapting and sprinkling the script with fragments of well known Shakespearean soliloquies. The actors are all desperate to reinvent themselves, to be significant, to have a value that they measure by the adulation of the press. Riggan’s daughter drives home how the scale of measurement keeps changing. She sets up a social media identity for her father, remarking that he doesn’t even have one. She tracks his success and later when he achieves his social media fame, the cost seems unreasonable to all but Birdman and maybe his daughter. “ I have an intuition…the one that knowing that my aspiration and the one of every artist to transcend it is not but a vain illusion…often transforms this noble wish into delirium”

ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU

ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU has 2 Oscar nominations for Biutiful and 7 for Babel, which won Best Director at Cannes and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama. He directed 12 Grams starring Sean Penn, winning Penn the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor at Venezia60 and garnered Naomi Watts and Benicio del Toro Academy Award nominations. BIRDMAN (OR THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) was the Opening Film at Venezia71 and goes next to Toronto for TIFF14.

Moira Romano

See the hilarious press conference outtakes from the 71st Venice International Film Festival with ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU, Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Amy Ryan, Emma Stone and Naomi Watts on the next page!