Los Angeles – Thanks to the movies Amores perros and Estacion central, others like Sin nombre and Rudo y cursi (that will be released in the United States soon) are being received in a different and radical way, actors and producers Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal affirmed here today.
“We are amazed at how the reception has been and that would have been different if we had done the promotion eight years ago, where they would not have attracted attention had they not even generated this level of expectation,” García Bernal indicated about the two productions.
Luna and García Bernal offered a press conference in the Beverly Hills
Hotel in order to promote the premiere of the movie Sin nombre
(Without a name) (winner of the Festival of Sundance 2009), as well
as Rudo y cursi where they act together again.
“These films will be released in the United States with their original
names and in Spanish, which eight years ago was very difficult and in
the past it would only have convened a press conference of the Hispanic
media. That wasn’t common either,” pointed out Diego.
Both actors, nevertheless, reject that Mexico is growing a new “star system” that could propel figures of this nation in the international market.
“We are really far from that,” said Luna. García Bernal and Luna are executive producers of Sin nombre.
“It is very agreeable to be producing when things are in terrible economic crisis because you are not necessarily below the thunderstorm, but always as from a satellite,” said Luna.
“But you are a part of the movie and you have a vision of the project objective, so we feel proud to have been a part of the production and it was a luxury that they have invited us to participate,” shared Gael, who with Luna run a film production company called Canana.
Sin nombre is an indication of the current reality that in time of crisis you’re able to tell about what we are living through. It is a chance to talk about a topic that’s not reported, that we try to ignore or simplify on having said that only that happens on the U.S. – Mexican border,” clarified Luna.
“But it is not true. It’s a world phenomenon where an absurd quantity of people are born without opportunities and it is in the search of how legitimate most work is, a chance to survive and it’s a phenomenon that rivals us all,” indicated Luna.
Gael goes on, “It’s a movie about the reality of this world. It shows that each time the immediate future will be more people on trains and more fractured families.”
Luna explains that as producers they shouldn’t be considered rich by exploiting this function. “Our company maintains the same, but it does not give wealth and that's why we keep on working as actors,” he clarified.
They explained that Sin nombre, after its premiere in the American Union, will debut at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in order to continue the process of exhibition in Mexican movie theatres and those of other countries.
About the last Oscars ceremony, where Hispanic presence was scarce, García Bernal mentioned that it’s necessary to find reality and “to understand that he has considered this ceremony with a mythological repercussion that seems to be the only goal and the real sign of success.”
“In 2007 Mexican directions like Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro González
Iñárritu and Alfonso Cuarón were nominated, but what happened is that
they were only clear signs of personal points of view and these works
were celebrated and that’s that,” emphasized García Bernal.
He added that, “New conditions have created a new reality where there is
no manifesto and the actors turn out to be famous because their work has
an after-effect and not because they have won an Ariel [award for
acting], all
that has resulted in one complete and tremendous freedom in order for
independent voices to emerge.”
This, said García Bernal, with exceptional cases like a lawyer who
decides to pick up a camera and that’s now one of the most famous
Mexican directors like Carlos Reygadas or a girl from Tucumán, and that
now all directors of the world try to emulate, like Lucrecia Martell of
Argentina.”
“This is the alternative that we have. It’s not that of competing with a
monster like Hollywood can be, but living with the immediacy and the
need to tell a story. Not that of sustaining an industry, but turning
into a kind of counterculture,” concluded Luna.
Translated by Heather