Given the choice, Alejandro González Iñárritu would have picked music over film as his preferred outlet of artistic expression. This truth, though surprising coming from one of the world’s most acclaimed directors, explains in part his storytelling sensibilities and his exhaustive attentiveness to technical and narrative minutiae — a trait many of his longtime colleagues praise for the results it yields on screen. “I like music more than I like cinema, I must admit,” the Mexican auteur says by phone from a ranch near Mexico City. “Unfortunately I have a great ear but very clumsy hands. I’m a rather bad amateur enthusiast when it comes to playing music.”