«I think that cinema in itself is a country and that all the shoots are similar in that sense. You enter the set and you already know who the director of photography is, simply by their faces,” says Cecilia Roth (Buenos Aires, 65 years old), evoking the universal language used by an industry that little by little seems to be recovering from the shock caused by the pandemic. The actress launched this reflection this Tuesday in the meeting that she and Jorge Perugorría (Havana, 56 years old) have had with journalists on the occasion of the Gold Medal that the Film Academy will award them next Monday, April 25, in representation of the large group of Latin American actors and actresses who have contributed to Spanish cinema with their performances.
“These two medals would have to be 200 or 2,000 because they would be for each of the Latin American actors, actresses and directors who have made our cinema a cinema without borders”, the president of the Academy, Mariano Barroso, who has reviewed a career full of unforgettable films such as ‘Strawberry and Chocolate’, ‘Cachito’ or ‘Bámbola’, in the case of the Cuban; and like ‘A place in the world’ or ‘Arrebato’, in addition to two Goyas for best leading actress for ‘Martín (Hache)’ and ‘All about my mother’, in the case of Argentina. “If we had a star system, it would surely be headed by these two giants of our cinema,” Barroso reaffirmed.
Distended and close, the meeting has served to learn first-hand the opinion of the two actors about the current state of the Latin American industry. Perugorría explained that Cuban cinema “is not in a good moment” due to the pandemic and the “difficult conditions” that Cuba is going through. “There is no money to make movies, really,” he lamented. But he wanted to put things in context. In this sense, he recalled that countries like Colombia, Chile or Uruguay, where just twenty years ago only five or six films were shot a year, “now forty or sixty are shot.” «Cuba had its best moments in the seventies, when there was this whole concept of the new Latin American cinema, which created the Havana Film Festival as a center to unite and give it visibility, but now less is being produced, while Argentina, Mexico, Brazil are countries that have an industry and a tradition that have always been there at the forefront”. The actor has taken advantage of the recognition of the Spanish Film Academy to claim more co-productions with Spain and highlight the importance that Spanish cinema has had in Latin America and vice versa. «Most of the films I have made in Cuba and in Latin America have been co-produced by Spain. Now there are fewer possibilities and less interest and I hope that an award like this will serve to stimulate that again, “he claimed.
Roth has also complained about this lack of co-productions between Argentina and Spain, saying that his country of origin “has become a very expensive country” to produce. But he has gone further by explaining that the interest in making films in Argentina “has diminished” and that the sector does not receive support, partly because of that “false idea” that “people’s pockets are the ones that are paying for the cinema.” , when the tickets sold and the culture itself pay for it ». “Politics has been associated with the pandemic to do us a lot of harm, but the cinema cannot end because it is necessary to tell us,” he has sentenced.
They have been more indecisive when it comes to staying, for the beauty or the disastrous, with any of the shoots in which they have participated in Spain. «It is difficult to stay with a single anecdote. What I have is always the desire to repeat, even in disasters, “said Roth amused. “I always say that even bad films should always be lucky because one makes them with the same passion,” Perugorría responded by his side, who pointed out, between laughs, that the great differences between the different filmings throughout of the world “are in catering”.
“It was not the time”
Cecilia Roth will be the person who will attend the Cervantes Award ceremony next Friday, April 22, at the Auditorium of the University of Alcalá de Henares on behalf of the award-winning Cristina Peri Rossi, who will not be able to attend due to her delicate state of health. Despite being asked about this question, the actress did not want to clarify her relationship with the award-winning writer. “Something was said that should not have been said and it was not the time, so I did not want to say anything before this happens,” she pointed out.
And although they still have a long way to go, neither of them sets goals. “I personally,” says Roth, “never think about something like I have this fantasy and I want this. I think about the project that will come or that I am doing and I have no strategies to work with anyone. I have never had the feeling that I have left something along the way, I will do what life brings ». Perugorría is of the same opinion, who simply says he is available to the projects that are coming out and that he claims to have “the same desire as always” to continue being part of Spanish cinema, “although now there are more opportunities in the series.”
The difficulties of distribution
Carmen Maura recounted, a few weeks ago, that one of the things she regretted was that many of the works she had done in Latin America had not been seen in Spain. “It’s a reality,” reflects Perugorría. The Achilles heel is in the distribution. We continue filming, but the films are not released, they are not seen. Festivals are a bit of a window to see our work there and vice versa, but the commercial release, reaching movie theaters, is still very difficult. The Argentine actress agrees with him, who predicts that it will be more and more “due to the weight of the platforms, which are necessary to reach a lot of people”, but which, in her opinion, “should not overshadow the arrival in theaters ». In addition, she says, the cinemas “are from the big American tanks and the films we make do not have that possibility due to distribution, because they are less gross in the conventional sense of the word. It’s unfortunate and very sad.”
They deny, however, that the content on the platforms is becoming homogeneous and is spoiling the wealth of the audiovisual industry in each country. “I have seen very good, free and risky things on the platforms, another thing is that they are not at the top of the lists, but that also happens in theaters,” defends Roth. In this regard, the Cuban has pointed out that services like Filmin “are giving us the chance to return to our cinema, so that young viewers can rediscover films they have not seen. The only thing that always gives me a bit of a thing is that the magic of going to a cinema is lost ».
Finally, the two actors have spoken about how they have managed the ups and downs of a trade that surely has rather little. «There is a time for actors when they may call you less to make movies, but there is always the theater, and one also reinvents oneself. I am not one to eat the coconut a lot when these things happen, but to reinvent myself. Right now I am in charge of the Gibara International Film Festival. We suspended it due to the pandemic and we will resume it in August. And it’s another way to support the cinema and support the work that my colleagues do, to create a platform where that work can be seen. When I don’t have a job as an actor, I’ve been behind the camera, I’ve also made documentaries, feature films. One is always reinventing oneself », he comments.
For his part, Roth assures that he does not eat the coconut too much with these things, although he assures that he has been “very lucky” with everything he has worked for. «I also do theater and invent possibilities of things with other colleagues. Especially in a pandemic, that I have come to do theater on WhatsApp », he concludes.
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