Possible first theory about Cesc Gay cinema (Barcelona, 58 years old): The filmmaker and playwright is pouring in his work what he hears and sees around him, through stories of a generation and a place, an analysis of which he has left round and humor movies: In the city, fiction, you, a gun in each hand, Truman “His greatest success, or Sentimental. “It can be,” he replies. And to those who now add My friend Eva, that opens next Friday, 19.
Second theory. Gay has become the great fabulator of the love conflict, an urdidor of sentimental material exportable to everyone: Sentimental Its Italian, Swiss, French, Russian, Czech versions have already been released and Hollywood has been shot, with Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Olivia Wilde, who has also directed it. “It is also true,” says the filmmaker. “Fiction is to give layers to things that some people live in reality. You listen, see and from there you are building something else. You lie. Well, you create a lie, which serves as a base for fiction.”
In My friend Eva, The Catalan addresses a new world, that of a woman, a gift that has left in the hands of a superlative actress, Nora Navas. “It was that I had already tired of talking about us. And that the aunts are … now women are in a vital moment, with dramatic possibilities and very interesting stories. With Nora I spoke a lot in the essays. Before they did not dare to do that. Forgiveness, they did it because they had a son of a bitch with whom they could no longer,” explains Gay. For “that” refers to Eva’s action: a worker of an editorial, happily married and with two great children, one day he realizes that she is not in love. A nonsense crosses its path, nonsense that does not give more court, but that makes you wake up. Around him (almost) nobody understands it: there is no lover, there are no fights, her husband (Juan Diego Botto) is perfect. What happens to Eva?
“It doesn’t have to happen to him,” says Gay. “And I know two or three women who have decided to undertake a new life. When they told me it seemed to me of great courage and of some unconsciousness too, because where did they go? My mistake, of course. Women are more authentic in these steps than men. Before there was the ballast or emotional blackmail of the family, of those children who were left behind. Finally, society has placed the society in a place of freedom. It caught the attention that, in this decision, women are very judged by the family, the children, the environment, something that does not happen to us so much. ”
As a screenwriter, Gay delves into the possibilities of the dramaturgy offered by that new path: “We are all in that constant search for happiness and love, right? It is no longer only he who can think that what he finds at home does not passionate, is that he can also and should be her. Our previous generations or the passion in a mature love were raised. Today, why not?”
And to complete the writing, did you think about resorting to a co -speaker? “Yes, I raised it. And I talked to some of them, but I did not feel what you need with another writer with whom you are going to spend so many hours together. My habitual coguionist, Tomàs Aragay, moved to Valencia, and at that time I couldn’t put on this film. Libretto. essays ”.
In addition, he emphasizes that he enjoyed the trio that Nora Navas, Alexandra Jiménez and Maribel Verdú in their preceding film embodied, Stories not to tell (2022). “They and the story starring Anna Castillo made me ask me that if I was having a good time with actresses in those papers, I could extend the enjoyment in a new script.”
Gay does not write thinking about who will play his characters, but once the cast has been hired, he returns to the script. “I force myself a lot to rethink everything. With Nora I knew that I was going to do very well. We have already worked together, he knows me a lot even personally. And she, who has a very dramatic facet, because it is a strong, intense aunt, also houses a very little exploited clown side in the cinema.”
A thread that hooks the public
The director still does not abandon his passion for a seemingly small cinema: “We are accustomed to films with protagonists who do strong things, they say superpotent things … and life does not go like this. Be careful, all movies are valid. My friend Eva Use a small narrative thread. However, I am convinced that people are going to hook that thread, it will not be lost, it will accompany Eva until the end from the most intimate. As simple as this. ”
In My friend Eva, Subtle, Gentrification is faced in a mid -class Barcelona well. “I do not think that the middle class is disappearing. Yes it is true that they now live in small houses, compared to those of us with more than 50. Look, at 20 years I was an unfortunate who had nothing, and like me many colleagues around me, and, instead we lived on a very small floors in the Born, in the Gothic. Why? Because they were made a shit, but they were rented and you You see and the rent does not fall from 3,000 euros per month. ” Obviously, Eva ends up in a dwarf apartment for her change in economic situation.
Gay knows that he is a privileged chaining projects. “I have never made faces, and that has allowed me not to have to fight to raise great budgets,” he explains. “That cheaper place allows you not to suffer so much. Ah, and that nobody gets into my creative life, I do what gives me the whore. When large proposals have reached me, I have rejected them. So I have earned my freedom. Of course I have reduced weeks of filming, in return I define those of trials. The actors understand me, enjoy it and that is why I have the immense luck that many want to work with me.
That is why the following movie is over, 53 Sundays, For Netflix, adaptation of your homonymous theater work. “I feel that there are movies for rooms and others that are better handled in platform consumption, with a duration of 80 minutes. They called me from Netflix after Sentimental, Because it is obvious that it has worked all over the world, it adapts without stopping. Well, they told me: ‘Do you have another Sentimental out there? ‘ And I, who already had to adapt 53 Sundays To the cinema, I sent the work. I’m already finishing the assembly. ”