The authors Mariano Cohn and Gastn Duprat strip the work of acting and directing from any intellectualistic assumptions and demystify them by revealing the background
The ambitious and demanding goal: to tell not so much how to make a film, spying behind the scenes and revealing the power games, between envy and money (as Hollywood has done magnificently, for example with The brute and the beast o The protagonists), as much as revealing the mechanisms and psychological springs that are at the origin of the artistic creation itself, that of the director and the actors. But the way all of this told is surprising. A very pleasant way must be said right away, because Finale a sorpresa – Official Competition (where the subtitle – who knows why in English – is the translation of the original official competition) uses the tones of comedy rather than those of drama. And he does not stop making irony where seriousness and commitment could have been expected. It all stems from the ambition of the 80-year-old Don Humberto (Jos Luis Gmez), a pharmaceutical industrialist with an exaggerated fortune but without any prestige. How to win that admiration that is lacking? Having discarded the idea of giving a bridge signed by an archistar to the country (or perhaps just put aside), he is convinced that producing a film could be the right way, but not just any film, a great film with a great director and with famous actors, the best.
Said and done: no one to money knows how to resist and so, bought the rights to rivalthe latest novel by a Nobel laureate, the task of translating it into film is entrusted to Lola Cuevas (Penlope Cruz), a lioness with red hair, underarm hair and a critical-proof curriculum, starting with her debut with The reversed rain and consecration with Hoar. And who better than the pop idol Flix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) and the more intellectual among the defenders of pure art Ivn Torres (Oscar Martnez) to play the two brothers Pedro and Manuel who hate and fight each other? The problem now will be to make two such opposite personalities coexist (not to mention that of the director) within a single container, starting with the rehearsals where everyone will learn to know the others. The stages of the work are the traditional ones – first readings of the text, psychological appropriation of the respective characters, video evidence, motivations and identifications – but the way in which the screenplay by Andrs Duprat and the two directors Mariano Cohn and Gastn Duprat addresses all these passages that surprises and conquers. Because it strips the work of acting and directing from any intellectualistic presupposition (you can already hear Stanislavski turning around in his grave) and uses irony and satire as sharp double-edged weapons, unleashing laughter but at the same time pulverizing any attempt to ennoble or exalt the art.
There is, of course, the clash between those who want to enter the character by inventing antecedents and genealogies and those who claim to have to stick to what they read in the script, but to hear Penlope Cruz asking Antonio Banderas to make him feel the different nuances with which he can be drunk on a scale from 1 to 10 and seeing it done – more or less always in the same way – grade 3 then grade 5 and finally that 6 and a half is one of the most exhilarating pundits of recitative intensity. As well as the exercise to understand the metaphorical weight that the act of acting entails can only take place under a gigantic boulder lifted by a crane. And all this while Flix accumulates delays for the most superficial reasons and Ivn is looking for a way to give him back tit for tat. Thus, between a joke and a spite, between an arm wrestling and a surprise (the proof of the kiss with the producer’s daughter, which of course must have a part in the film) the film continues, keeping a balance between the rules of comedy and the didactic ambitions, between the desire to snatch new smiles and that of demystifying art and artists. Then not everything will go as planned, the search for Don Humberto’s prestige will have to deal with the imponderability of the case (and the impatience of his two stars) but the final surprise will be a new, beautiful lesson on how to really do it. movies.
April 16, 2022 (change April 17, 2022 | 11:32)
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