2024-02-29 03:01:00
“The main theme of the film is memory”. The words of the Spanish director (Bilbao, 1963) Pablo Berger may seem strange to anyone who faithfully follows the widespread prejudice that the animation film It is simple entertainment for children. Can a movie starring a dog and his robot companion reflect on friendship, love, loss, memory and several other things? It can, indeed. And that is the case of My robot friend (Robot Dreams is its original title, like the graphic novel on which it is based), the first animated feature film – freehand, old-fashioned – by Berger, which debuted last year at the Cannes Festival and will have its premiere in cinemas. cinema of Argentina this Thursday the 29th, a few days before the awards ceremony Oscars, where she is nominated in the corresponding category. The competition will be close, since in addition to being accompanied in the section by blockbusters from Hollywood like Spider-Man: Through the Spider-Verse y Elementthe favorite film so far to win the statuette continues to be the last opus of the sensei Hayao Miyasaki, The boy and the heron.
As the work, published in 2007, by the American writer and cartoonist Sara Varon on which it is based, My robot friend is the fable of a little dog (his name is simply Dog) who is somewhat lonely in a New York that is going through the ’80s. One night, while he is hanging out in front of the cathode rays, perhaps a little jealous of the cuddling that a neighbor couple enjoys, bombarded by the incessant TV advertisements, he decides to purchase the latest fashion in robotics. company, the Amica 2000. Once assembled and launched, Robot becomes his inseparable companion for the days and nights to come, although a trip to the beaches of Coney Island at the end of the summer season leads to inevitable separation.
The distance will be hard for both of them, and the adult gaze quickly enables the possibility that this bond of friendship will be a little more complex in sentimental terms. Will Dog and Robot meet again, or will fate have in store for them the melancholic memory of something beautiful and fleeting that could not continue? One thing is certain: every time the catchy melody of “September”, the Earth, Wind & Fire classic, plays on a radio or cassette player, the sad remembrance of that dance on roller skates, on an unforgettable sunny afternoon in Central Park, It will run through your veins again, whether they are made of biological or synthetic material.
In exclusive communication with Page 12 From Madrid, where he is returning after spending two weeks of hyperactivity in Los Angeles, Berger thinks that “that first trip before the Oscars is important.” “It’s what they call the nominees luncheon, the nominees’ lunch, which is like a rehearsal for the delivery. There you meet some of your idols and understand how the system works, so when you arrive at the gala you are not star-struck. And also, well, it’s part of the campaign; “You do a lot of presentations, colloquiums and interviews.” Remembering the origin of the project, the director of Torremolinos 73, Snow White y Abracadabra He says he didn’t think about making a movie as soon as he finished reading the graphic novel for the first time: “I read Robot Dreams in 2010, but it was only in 2018, after having made Snow White y Abracadabra, that the idea really started to take shape. I had never dreamed of making an animated film, but when I started thinking about what my fourth film would be – a normal day, having coffee – I reread the comic. When I did it, when I got to the end, I was so moved that tears came to my eyes. I had never had such a shock reading a graphic novel. It was at that moment that I thought ‘there’s something here’. And I had to analyze that something, and I discovered that it was very profound. Reading it for the second time reminded me of a lot of loved ones who are no longer with me. That was the reason for making this film: My robot friend It talks about memory, and is a tribute to those people who are no longer here. If I had felt all that when reading it, I thought that viewers could feel the same when they saw the film.”
No dialogue but a rich, complex soundtrack and a deceptively simple visual stylefar removed from the homogenization of 3D animation present in the global mainstream, My robot friend It arose by mutual agreement between Berger and Varon, and the circumstances that led things to start bear the marks of personal desire. “You could say that the beginning of the relationship with Sara was a consequence of one of those things of destiny,” recalls the director. “During the same period in which he had begun to think about a possible adaptation of Robot Dreams I received an email from the Chicago International Film Festival to be part of the jury. I accepted the mission and made a stop in New York, using all my seduction skills to convince Sara that I was the right person to take her graphic novel to the movies. It worked and we really got along great. It has been an incredible relationship. She gave us carte blanche and although she did not participate in the creative decisions, she was informed of all the processes. Sara visited us in Spain and toured the studios, although she saw the finished film for the first time when it had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Her reaction was very positive, to the point that we both felt like we had told the same story, but in very different ways.”
-What were the greatest difficulties and challenges when adapting the history of the graphic medium to an audiovisual one?
-The biggest challenge, beyond the adaptation itself, was of another nature: setting up the animation studio and producing the film. That was the great difficulty. These are cartoons, and today there are very few artists and animators in the field of hand drawing, in traditional animation. In addition, there was a time when the production was going to be in charge of the Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, the people responsible for films like Wolfwalkers y The Breadwinner, but when we were about to start, the pandemic arrived and we could no longer continue with them. Suddenly we had financing, a producer and a director, but no animation studio. So we had to create it from scratch in Madrid and Pamplona, and bring in animators in the middle of the pandemic. That was the biggest difficulty. I thought that the evolution – from cinema with flesh and blood actors to an animated film – was going to be much more complex, but the truth is that it was a natural process. Maybe because in all my previous films I had already spent a year drawing the storyboard, so I was somehow familiar with all of that. Furthermore, directors do not have to know everything. You don’t have to be an animator, director of photography or actor. The important thing is to have a criterion, a vision. I was new to the world of animation, but I surrounded myself with a very experienced team that helped me overcome that challenge.
-The relationship between the protagonists can be seen as a deep friendship or as something more, although this will depend on the age and/or maturity of the observer.
-It is a film open to viewers of any age and, although it is made from an adult point of view, it is designed to embrace the child. But treating him like an adult, with respect, not looking down on him. And although it is also a cinephile film, it can be enjoyed by the weekend viewer, the one who goes to the multiplex. Somehow, My robot friend It is atypical for children, and I think that more parents and grandparents will choose to go see it with their children and grandchildren. As a father, the amount of unspeakable movies that I have swallowed because my daughter or my son took me to the cinema based on those massive advertising campaigns, as if it were a local fast food. This is a small, independent film, and there will be parents and grandparents who may read this interview and think “well, that looks good.” Children can see it and enjoy it, but the point of view will always be different from that of an adult. It is also true that the concept of gender in this film is open to all interpretations. The robot can be male or female, same with Dog. Emotions and feelings have no gender, and I like the idea that in a film like this, where the characters are drawn, as if they were icons, the viewer can make substitutions and identify with those characters that interest them.
-Does the choice of “September” as a musical leitmotif have a reason beyond personal tastes?
-In a film like this, which has no dialogue, the music is the voice of the protagonists. A way to take emotions a little further. “September” was already in the first draft of the script. The story takes place over a year, from September to September, and a song had to be found to accompany that concept. It also had to be a song funky, that the characters could dance in Central Park while using the skates, and that it was also going to appear other times throughout the film. If you look at the lyrics of the song, it begins with “Do you remember, the 21st night of September?” “Do you remember”, that is, “do you remember?” The main theme of the film is memory. Without a doubt that was fundamental. I take this opportunity to highlight the work of Alfonso de Vilallonga, who composed the original soundtrack for the film, and with whom he had already worked on Snow White y Abracadabra. Here he has composed music based on jazz rhythms with a quartet, which is absolutely original and full of emotion.
-My robot friend It has no dialogue, but the sound design is really another character. What was that creative process like?
-It is not a silent film, of course, but it is a film without dialogue. I like to think that, in that sense, it is close to the universe of Jacques Tati. The sound world of New York is very present and that issue was very important. It is a very noisy city, full of sounds that distinguish it from other cities in the world, and in a film like this, which is period, we had to do sound research: what car alarms sounded like in the mid-80s. , police cars, firefighter sirens. It was important that the experience be immersive, not only visually but sonically. I would like the film to be seen as a journey through time and space, to a New York that no longer exists. A New York that I knew, because I lived there for about ten years. In that sense, My robot friend It is also a love letter to the city.