What filmmaking techniques does BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022): Unreliable Reality, Dream Logic Structure, Autobiographical Distance, Wide Lens Immersion and History Invading the Present.

Who directed BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths?

Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, released in 2022. CineCode also covers The Revenant (2015).

What films are similar to BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths?

Films that share techniques with BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths include Stalker (1979), 8½ (1963), Shutter Island (2010), The Wind Rises (2013).

Drama · Comedy · Fantasy

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2022

Silverio, a Mexican journalist turned filmmaker living in Los Angeles, is about to receive a major American award. As the story moves, memory, fantasy and fear blur together. Iñárritu stages a man's life review as a series of large dream scenes. Watch what the wide lenses do to the space.

1 Psychology 3 Narrative 1 Cinematography

At a glance

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is a 2022 drama, comedy and fantasy film directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (1 psychology, 3 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Stalker uses several of the same techniques.

Psychology

Unreliable Reality

Keeping it unclear what is real and what is imagined in the film's world. You end up as unsure as the main character.

How this film uses it

From the opening flight over a desert, you cannot be sure what is real. Late in the film a stroke suggests that much of what you saw happened in Silverio's head. The ending stays open, and you are left as unsure as he is.

Where to see it

The stroke on the Metro. Silverio has a violent stroke on the L.A. Metro and is left unattended, which reframes the film as his mind processing his life.

Narrative

Dream Logic Structure

Arranging scenes the way a dream moves, where one image leads to the next by feeling or association. Events don't follow normal cause and effect.

How this film uses it

Scenes follow feeling and association, and cause and effect fade away. A visit to a restroom leads to a talk with his dead parents. A walk out of his mother's building leads to crowds of the dead collapsing in the street.

Where to see it

The party restroom. Silverio retreats to a restroom and imagines reconciling with his dead parents.

Narrative

Autobiographical Distance

Drawing on the filmmaker's own life but keeping it at arm's length, often through a fictional stand-in. The result is precise and unsentimental, and it can question how memory flatters us.

How this film uses it

Silverio is a Mexican artist working in the United States, and many viewers read him as a stand-in for Iñárritu himself. The film keeps some distance by making him a documentary maker and by mocking him. His pride and doubt both get exposed.

Where to see it

The talk-show insult. After a talk show host criticizes his work, Silverio insults the host.

Cinematography

Wide Lens Immersion

Shooting mainly on very wide lenses so edges stretch and rooms bend. The warped space makes a scene feel like a memory or a dream.

How this film uses it

Cinematographer Darius Khondji shot on the large-format Arri Alexa 65 with Panavision lenses, mostly 17mm and 21mm. Rooms and faces curve slightly at the edges. The image feels both huge and slightly off, like a memory.

Where to see it

The desert flight. Silverio imagines himself flying over a desert in the opening, and the film closes the same way.

Narrative

History Invading the Present

Letting historical figures or events appear inside a modern scene as visions. The past sits on top of the present and shapes what the character feels.

How this film uses it

The 1847 Battle of Chapultepec appears while Silverio meets the US ambassador, and Hernán Cortés sits on a pile of bodies in a city square. These visions tie one man's guilt and pride to Mexico's long history with its neighbor.

Where to see it

Cortés in the Zócalo. Hernán Cortés sits on a pile of corpses and lectures Silverio about the genocide of Indigenous peoples.

Questions

BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (2022): Unreliable Reality, Dream Logic Structure, Autobiographical Distance, Wide Lens Immersion and History Invading the Present.
Who directed BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths?: Alejandro G. Iñárritu directed BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, released in 2022. CineCode also covers The Revenant (2015).
What films are similar to BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths?: Films that share techniques with BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths include Stalker (1979), 8½ (1963), Shutter Island (2010), The Wind Rises (2013).

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