Argentine actress and Cuban actor Jorge Perugorría will receive the Gold Medal of the Film Academy on Monday on behalf of all Latin American artists who have contributed to Spanish cinema
“I think that cinema is a country in itself and that all recordings are similar in that sense. You enter the set and you already know who the director of photography is, just by the faces,” says Cecilia Roth (Buenos Aires, 65 years old), evoking the universal language that an industry that little by little seems to be recovering from the blow caused by the pandemic. The actress launched this reflection on Tuesday in the meeting she and Jorge Perugorría (Havana, aged 56) had with journalists on the occasion of the gold medal that the Film Academy will award them next Monday, April 25, as a representative of the large group of Latin American actors and actresses who have contributed to Spanish cinema with their performances.
“These two medals should 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, presented their . reviewed a career ravaged by unforgettable films like ‘Strawberry and chocolate’, ‘Cachito’ or ‘Bámbola’, in the case of the Cuban; and as ‘A place in the world’ or ‘Arrebato’, alongside two goyas for best lead actress for ‘Martín (Hache)’ and ‘Todo sobre mi madre’, in the case of Argentina. “If we had a galaxy, it would certainly be led by these two giants of our cinema,” Barroso reaffirmed.
The relaxed and close-knit meeting was designed to get a first-hand look at the views of the two actors on the current state of Latin American industry. Perugorría explained that Cuban cinema is “not at a good time” because of the pandemic and the “difficult conditions” Cuba is going through. “There’s really no money to make movies,” he lamented. But he wanted to put things in context. In this sense, he recalled that countries like Colombia, Chile or Uruguay, where barely twenty years ago only five or six films a year were filmed, ‘are now being shot forty or sixty’. «Cuba had its best moments in the 1970s, when that whole concept of the new Latin American cinema existed, when the Havana Film Festival was created as a center to unite and give visibility, but now there is less production, while Argentina, Mexico, Brazil are countries with an industry and a tradition that have always been at the forefront». The actor has taken advantage of the recognition of the Spanish Film Academy to claim more co-productions with Spain and to emphasize the importance Spanish cinema has had in Latin America and vice versa. “Most of the films I’ve made in Cuba and Latin America are co-produced with Spain. Now there are fewer opportunities 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 his home country has “become a very expensive country” to produce. But he went on to explain that interest in filmmaking in Argentina “has declined” and the industry is not getting support, in part because of the “false idea” that “the wallet of the people is what pays for movies, when the tickets sold and the culture itself pays for it.» “Politics has been associated with the pandemic to do us much harm, but cinema cannot end because it is necessary to tell us,” he condemned.
They are indecisive when it comes to staying, for the beautiful or the disastrous, with one of the shootings they participated in in Spain. “It’s hard to stick to a single anecdote. What I’ve always wanted is to repeat, even in disasters,” Roth said amusedly. “I always say that even bad films should always be lucky because you make them with the same passion,” Perugorría replied with a laugh, pointing out that the big differences between the different shots around the world “are in the catering”.
Cecilia Roth will be the person who will attend the Cervantes Awards ceremony this Friday, April 22 in the auditorium of the University of Alcalá de Henares on behalf of the award-winning Cristina Peri Rossi, who will be unable to attend because of her. delicate health condition.
Despite being asked about this question, the actress declined to clarify her relationship with the award-winning writer. “Something was said that shouldn’t have been said and it wasn’t the time, so I wouldn’t say anything until this happens,” he said.
And while they still have a long way to go, neither of them set goals. “Personally,” Roth says, “I never think I have this fantasy and want this. I think about the project that’s coming or what I’m doing and I don’t have any strategies for working with anyone. I’ve never felt like that I have left something behind, I will do what life brings. Of the same opinion is Perugorría, who simply says that he is available for the projects that come out and that he claims to have “the same desire as always” to be part of the Spanish cinema, “although there are now more possibilities in the series.”
Carmen Maura shared a few weeks ago that one of the things she regretted is that many of the works she had made in Latin America had not been seen in Spain. «It is a reality -reflects Perugorría-. The Achilles heel is in the division. We keep shooting, but the films are not released, they are not seen. The festivals are a bit of a window to see our work there and vice versa, but the commercial release, reaching the cinemas, is still very difficult». The Argentine actress agrees, predicting that it will be more and more “because of the weight of the platforms, which are necessary to reach many people”, but that, in his opinion, they should not “overshadow the arrival in theaters Moreover, he says, the movie theaters “of the great American tanks and the movies we make don’t have that opportunity through distribution, because they’re less successful in the conventional sense of the word. It’s unfortunate and very sad.”
However, they deny that the content on the platforms becomes homogeneous and spoils the wealth of the audiovisual industry in each country. “I’ve seen really good, free and risky things on the platforms. Another thing is that they’re not at the top of the lists, but that’s what happens in the rooms,” Roth defends. In this regard, the Cuban has pointed out that services such as Filmin “give us the opportunity to return to our cinema so that young viewers can rediscover films they have not seen. The one thing that always gives me something is that the magic of going to the cinema is lost ».
Finally, the two actors talked about how they managed the ups and downs of a trade that certainly has quite a few. “There’s a time for actors when they might call you less to make movies, but there’s always the theater, and you’re also reinventing yourself. I’m not one to eat a lot of coconut when these things happen, but to reinvent myself. I am currently in charge of the Gibara International Film Festival. We have suspended it due to the pandemic and we are going to resume it in August. And it’s another way to support film and support the work of my colleagues, to create a platform where that work can be seen. If I don’t have a job as an actor, well, I’ve been behind the camera, I’ve also made documentaries, feature films. You always reinvent yourself,” he notes.
Roth, for his part, also doesn’t claim to eat much of the coconut with those things, although he claims to have had “good luck” with everything he’s worked on. «I also do theater and think of possibilities with other colleagues. Especially in a pandemic, that I came to do theater on WhatsApp,” he concludes.
Source: La Verdad
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