Friday day 31 March, at eight in the afternoon, with the hangover from the preview the day before, sold out after ten days of promotion, traveling non-stop and sleeping very little, I went into a session to watch my movie. I had no desire. I'm sick of watching my movie. But I wanted to make sure that all the sensations I had experienced so far were genuine.. May all the enthusiasm of the event in Malaga, of the previews in Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid, it was real. Where there are no longer relatives, nor friends, nor famous, not even people who enter for free (which comes to be the same). Only people who decide between the tangle of premieres that overwhelm the billboard, go see your movie paying six euros. Those are the ones that are worth it. Those are the ones the movie is made for.. And I had to see it. So I went to the Renoir Retreat, to the cinemas in my neighborhood, to see it with my own eyes. A little more than average entry and mostly older people. It's what neighborhood cinemas have. I sat in the last row, I wasn't interested in seeing the movie., I was interested in seeing the spectators, even if they were their necks. I bought some popcorn and a medium light coke. Yes, I am one of those. What a pleasure to consume popcorn while attending the screening of your movie. 105 minutes later the light came on. I was the last one to leave the room. on the street, I saw how a couple bought tickets for the ten-thirty session. “Give me two for Azulnoséqué”. These were younger. Almodóvar had already exhausted all of his session, for mine there were still plenty left. Good, Hey, you don't have to be too demanding either.. Or yes, you have to be, because perhaps only in this way will we get the public to stop showing a systematic rejection of Spanish cinema, Give us newcomers a chance, that not only fill the Almodóvar rooms, Amenábar, León or Segura, How well they deserve their audience. And that can only be achieved through demand and obsession., being very honest with our work. And if it is not a joint effort, it will be of no use. How many times have I heard when leaving a cinema, after watching a bad spanish movie: “I won't watch Spanish cinema again”. Or in video stores: “don't take that one, which is spanish”. I, for me, I'm not going to allow that to happen with one of my films.. And I will continue going into movie theaters to see how the public reacts., with my popcorn and my medium light coke.
The other day someone told me: “what a bitch, What a competition to go against Almódovar, ¿no?”. No, I do not compete with Almodóvar, I want to play on the same team as Almodóvar, and when he is tired of filling the cinemas, I will be there ready to replace him, even if it's just to play the garbage minutes. Little by little.
That Friday night I finally rested. I slept seven hours for the first time in many days.. At the cinema in my neighborhood, in a small room half full, people laughed and got excited. He reacted just as I had imagined., just as I had been doing for two years. When leaving the audience had a smile on their face, much smaller than mine, but more than enough. You liked this Spanish film. This is not going to cause rejection towards Spanish cinema, the cinema that I have had to live, that we have had to live. In the next one I play the same game and more minutes.
Written by Daniel Sanchez Arevalo
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