The latest Pedro Almodóvar´s film, ¨Amantes pasajeros¨ (I’m So Excited), is among the eleven movies included in this Spanish Cinema Exhibition . It is a film which plot is held in outstanding performances.
It all starts when on a flight to Mexico City, a serious problem arises, in which the passengers, when seeing death very close, will gradually reveal their most intimate secrets. These people on board, colorful and different from each other, through confessions, begin to face the greatest danger which is not the risk of the plane, but the one each of them carry within, in tone of outrageous comedy to forget the anguish of the moment.
Thus, these colorful characters relate each other in the awaited return to comedy of the Manchegan filmmaker. In his nineteenth film, Almodóvar backs to his usual themes, where death, homosexuality and desire operate as unequivocal edges of his cinema geometry.
Two of these “passengers” landed in Havana for the first time to present the film in our Festival.
Hugo Silva and Raúl Arévalo, two of the most famous and talented Spanish actors of their generation, exclusively talked with OnCuba on this film, its characters and the current state of Spanish cinema.
How did you feel working with Almodóvar?
H.S: Honestly, any actor in the world wants to work with Almodóvar. When he calls you, it seems almost a joke. It is really easy to work with him and this greatly contrasts from my point of view of complexity, it is contradictory to what many think; everything lies in getting connected with his universe, getting in and dive there. It was a very positive experience .
The most interesting thing in Almodóvar is that he is a unique genius, who has a well marked and defined style, an unmistakable and authentic hallmark. He also has a very singular way of filming, or using the shots and dialogues; it is very difficult to keep any influence of his style and imprint. You can watch o ther directors´ way of working with the actors and the camera but that is not possible with Almodóvar, he has well defined codes, since talking with the actors, being in charge of the lights, building sequences and shots up to write the characters.
R. A: The dynamics and chemistry of the shooting were extraordinary. It was like conducting a major life dreams. Since I was very young my family told me I should work with Almodóvar, then it’s like making true that great desire. The luck we had on this shoot, which not always occurs, is that it was a very large group of actors that have wonderfully got along. That not always happen, sometimes a film can be good but there has not been such a good vibe like in this movie. In this regard, empathy was from day one what makes the film really special. Now that we are here in Havana, I remember a few days ago when we were in Berlin, in a tribute to Almodóvar and actors went all together and had a great time as a family.
How did you assume homosexuality in the film?
H.S: Mine is not a homosexual, is a “fagot” ‘as he tells his partner. I recognize that it cost me almost nothing to assume it, as in the composition of the character, mine is not such a queer, he carries it more in than outside. It was not complicated, I have a monologue in which I talk about my homosexual experiences and how I start being gay and I think I addressed it like any speech. The most important thing is to be in Almodóvar´s code to face these texts and everything would flow and we were all on the same train. I do not care what I have to say, I only care that it makes sense and to be well written as this case, the most important is the story; I’m capable to say any atrocity without problems.
R.A: In my case I jokingly said to my girlfriend, who also accompanied me on this visit to Havana, that I was going to sleep with men for two months to understand the character. It was not necessary. As for me, it was very funny and Almodóvar helped me more than anyone because I had to be such a fagot. To prepare the character he took me to dine almost daily with his friends. I gradually began capturing the gestures by watching them. He told me: look well on the face of this one, but do not forget the way that other puts his hands. It was fun, very enriching and novel for me.
Raul would love to direct someday and I’d like acting under his orders, Hugo said.
“I will have a very different directing style from the one of this film. Different stories interest me as filmmaker and I prefer dramas. I have already written some, “the actor, who plays Ulloa, one of the charismatic flying attendants, added.
“It’s our first time at this Festival, we’ve just arrived, we have still not collected the credential, but we have a very good impression. Everything is very well organized, it is really noteworthy the curiosity and availability of the public and the event organizers. “Hugo, the aircraft copilot, commented.
What do you think of Latin American cinema?
R.A: Cinema in Spain is terrible. The crisis has affected everything in the country, even to the movies. There is especially a sort of political strange crusade against Spanish culture, something very strange I do not think it happens today in any country in the world by political issues, it is a very rare and absurd war.
It is an issue that scares me a bit. It is said that culture is leisure and leisure is not necessary when we are in crisis and I think the opposite, both to escape as to reflect on reality.
I think a country without culture is a dangerous country. People can not live without empathy, sensitivity; they want to make a land of robots that work only to eat and a little more, a nation of manipulative people. This is a catastrophic and sad mistake because my country is among those with the biggest film tradition in Europe.
This is contradictory to creativity because there are increasingly young people raring with great ideas making different types of cinema, both auteur as experimental or more commercial. I’ll give you an example, a few years ago the horror movie was a subgenre that was barely produced and today it is at the height of the Yankees and in fact is the cinema that we export the most. This coincides with a time where there is so little support to culture and things are so bad that there is not money to make movies and we feel that everything sinks. There are measures that are incomprehensible; the price of a movie ticket is an atrocity for normal people who can not afford lot of expenses.
H.S: Situation is getting worse as it also happens with the theater. It’s funny because the level of creativity and expectation existing abroad by the Spanish cinema is very high, which contrasts with this terrible and painful story. We are privileged by making what we like because 90% of Spanish actors are doing something else to survive, or they are unemployed like 30% of the general population .
They claim having no preference for any specific theme or genre. We like challenges and novel stories. “We love to get into all the puddles, experiencing is what amuses us,” they concluded.
Photo: Gustavo Avila
