Other than a brief 45 second promo clip during Cannes, “Biutiful,” the first film from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu since 2006’s “Babel,” has remained pretty firmly under wraps, despite premiering at Cannes back in May. The drama, starring Javier Bardem as a black market trader suffering from terminal cancer now finally has an international trailer, courtesy of UK distributors Optimum Releasing and Empire.
It’s a very strong clip (despite pulling the old let’s-hide-that-the-film-is-subtitled switcheroo), brilliantly edited and full of some stunning imagery. Thought it should be noted, the flowery voiceover is not in the finished film. “Biutiful” begins its international rollout in Spain in August, hits the UK in January, but is still without a distributor in the U.S.
Having said that, our man on The Croisette wasn’t a big fan, calling it a ‘slog’ and a muddle in narrative terms, although he praised Bardem’s performance. Despite this, and the disappointment that was “Babel” (although that film does have its defenders on staff), this clip has definitely piqued our interest.