20 years after ‘Mondays in the Sun’, the director turns Javier Bardem into a paternalistic and ruthless businessman in ‘The Good Patron’, who represents Spain at the Oscars
Fernando León de Aranoa (Madrid, 1968) shows in ‘El buen patrones’ how things have changed in the labor market twenty years after ‘Mondays in the sun’. If then Javier Bardem was an unemployed shipyard worker, poor but class-conscious, now he turns the actor into the owner of a scale company obsessed with getting a prize from the regional government, even if for this he has to interfere in life private of your employees. There are no longer unions or solidarity among workers in this hilarious satire, which represents Spain at the Oscars and hits theaters this Friday, October 15.
– Have you had a boss like the one in the movie?
“Fortunately, no.” When I was very young I worked for a time in a company, the only time I have done it, I have been self-employed since I was 22 years old. I was a cartoonist and I smelled a type of labor relations where there was a lot of pressure on the workers. The aroma of fear and pressure, which exceeds the professional and gets into the personal realm. Knives sometimes flew, also among the employees.
–He portrays a boss who is a bit old: the clothes he wears, he sleeps with pajamas, he drives a Jaguar with some years …
-This story had to happen in a small city, in the provinces. A boss like that in a city like Madrid might not have so much power. But in another smaller place, an entrepreneur with 200 workers is still a small local power; If you need to talk to the mayor, he will get it, if you call the owner of the newspaper, too. That’s why they call him the boss, a long-standing term that seemed very suitable for him. I was looking for a microcosm, a representation of something that happens on a larger scale in the labor market in a market economy.
– Do you think the businessman turned into a local chief still exists?
–I am convinced, I know people who suffer from it. And not only in this country, but throughout Europe. The smaller the scope, the easier it is for it to happen. Everyone knows each other and relationships are vitiated. If you find a quota of power, you will exercise it over the one who played it ten years ago. Power relations are key in the workplace.
– There will be viewers who take time to decide if the protagonist is a good guy or a tyrant. He does not stop worrying about his employees so that the company goes well.
The worst label is that of Manichaeism, the good guys and the bad guys. The workers below him aren’t exactly holy either, they all have corpses to hide. Javier and I were always clear that we wanted a part of the character that could be embraced, that the public empathized with this hustler who tries to figure things out. For their own benefit, yes.
– What would a good boss be like for you?
-I do not know. Certainly someone who does not get into my personal life, unlike Blanco, who crosses all lines. Work shouldn’t define us that much, it shouldn’t have such a huge influence on our lives. When you meet someone, the second question is what do you do? As if that were to give you an image, to define that person. You can imagine his environment, how much he charges, if he is happy or not …
– Do you think that after this year and a half of teleworking forced by the pandemic, something good will come out that improves labor relations?
-I do not know. We are animals of habit, there are dynamics that have been established for so long and weigh so heavily on our routines that they are difficult to change. I suppose there will be those who know how to take advantage of it, but I am afraid that it will be the exception. I have the feeling that we will return to the previous dynamics, although you speak with someone who has teleworked all his life.
– What do you find in Javier Bardem?
– Much complicity and commitment to work. You expect from your collaborators things that you put. In Javier I find a lot of effort and the itch to do well, because he has a lot of respect for the viewer. And we had a great time together exploring the characters. Talent and ability are assumed, like value in the military.
Tarik Rmili and Javier Bardem in ‘The good pattern’.
– How has Spain changed from ‘Mondays to the Sun’ to the current one?
–When we premiered ‘Los Mondays in the Sun’ it already seemed to represent a previous Spain, that of the 80s and 90s, that of industrial reconversion. There is an important difference between the two films. In ‘Mondays in the Sun’, those shipyard workers shared something that served as a lifeline: class consciousness. When I did the documentation work in Asturias in 2001, it was something that was very present: the emergency fund, the support of colleagues, your identity, knowing you are part of something even if you have nothing. In ‘The Good Patron’, twenty years later and in a different type of factory, there is no such float. The workers do not show solidarity, it is for himself who can. At least I decided to tell it with humor so that it had something cathartic.
– How have you changed in these twenty years?
–I couldn’t tell you… Many things in relation to my job remain the same, the desire for each film to be the first. With each new shoot you start over. The momentum and commitment to the job are the same. Maybe the need to use satire has to do with the fact that I have not been able to do a drama with this topic.
“In ‘Mondays in the Sun’ the characters were class-conscious, now it’s for himself who can”
“The Government is achieving things that when they were raised seemed impossible”
– Five years ago he shot ‘Politics, instructions manual’, a documentary in which he followed Podemos for a year. Are you disappointed by the evolution of the game?
– I did not shoot it because I placed hope in Podemos, but because I wanted to tell a process that seemed very interesting to me and very little predictable if we looked at the previous twenty years. And they gave me access to do it from within. Things have changed, right now we have a government formed by the Socialist Party and United We Can that is achieving things that when they were raised seemed impossible and terrifying, such as raising the minimum wage.
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