He has a dog named Sarita Connor, a theater in his house and a movie, “blondi”, where she makes her directorial debut but also stars alongside Carla Peterson, Leo Sbaraglia, Rita Cortese and Toto Rovito. She also breaks it.
“She is called Sarita because she is small but strong,” he says Dolores Fonzi about her dog and that description might fit her perfectly. It was from “Summer of 98” to “In therapy”. She played Diana in “El Aura”, directed by the well-remembered Fabián Bielinsky and lit up Cannes with “La patota”, renamed Paulina after her character. There she was directed by her partner Santiago Miter, together with whom she also built that memorable daughter of Ricardo Darín in “La Cordillera”. Dolores Fonzi’s career is as extensive as it is diverse and reckless.
He says that he likes creating projects with Mitre, working with his friends, enjoying shared achievements. She thinks about the answers, gives a high five, plays with a phone she bought from the Salvation Army and puts on a jacket for the photos: “Oh, you act like Annie Hall,” she says, looking in the mirror. And like her character in “Blondi”, it’s impossible not to feel close to her.
Still shaken by the repercussion of “Blondi” at BAFICI, anxious for its theatrical release and future release on Prime Video, Dolores thinks about future projects. A new collaboration with Laura “Chachi” Paredes, a script by Mariano Llinás and something that she cooks over low heat together with Violeta Urtizberea. She sounds Lou Reed in this matchup with NEWS.
News: With the appearance of new female directors there is a kind of unspoken demand and that is that their films should focus on important issues. Is comedy a shortcut to talk about the issues that matter?
Dolores Fonzi: I think that in my case comedy was the tone that was comfortable for meIf the drama had turned out better, I would have gone that way, but I listened and went with the way I know of telling things, laughing at everyday tragedies, you can talk about difficult topics without solemnizing them, something that I think was understood at BAFICI. The award for the cast of “Blondi” was an incredible mime, because acting and directing and that your actors stand out for that comfort they had at the time of filming seems beautiful to me.
News: There is a feeling that there are now many more female directors and that the balance of power in the film industry has shifted. Is that real or are there more women working but not necessarily in decision-making positions?
Fonzi: Totally, the fact that there are more women working does not mean that they are in positions of power. There is like an intention, a gesture of change, but for now it is just that, power remains in the same hands as always, nothing changed. Hopefully we are in a moment of transition, no one can do the same thing for so long, at least I hope so. There may be more awareness, a decision to fulfill our desire, but that does not mean that they give you financing for a film.
News: “Blondi” reminded me of something from “Hi-Fi”, what Rob Gordon says about how passion for records is often seen unfairly as a sign of immaturity. How did you work on that relationship between this woman who was anchored in her adolescence and music?
fonzi: “High fidelity” was a reference to make “Blondi”. And musically it meets the highest expectation we had when we wrote the script. We always had two songs in mind, the one at the beginning and the one at the end, “Sunday morning” by Velvet Underground and “María” by Blondie, that was our intention. Later on the assembly I worked with Eugenia Blanc who did something incredible, she proposed three different songs per scene, like a musical storyboard.
News: The songs we listen to speak of us. Which would Blondi and you choose to reflect this moment as a director?
fonzi: It is true that with music you stay in one and Blondi is anchored in her 15 years, that’s where her life froze. It was somewhat inevitable, her adolescence was cut short, a son at that age broke everything. For me she was listening to that Velvet record when she got pregnant. A record that is also emblematic in my life, I remember when I was 19, when I listened to it and began to discover the experimental cinema that Lou Reed made in “La Fábrica” with Andy Warhol… All that world of self-management came with Velvet. When you listen to those songs that refer to a time in your life, there is something in you that activates, it happens with “The Guardians of the Galaxy” and I enjoy it. Or Batman that starts with Kurt Cobain and fascinates me. To reflect this moment I choose a song from Velvet, “All Tomorrow Parties”, which is in the film. And some regaetton by Bad Bunny or Joaqui, something else from today which is what my children bring me, we put that on when we want to dance.
News: Did your children Lázaro and Libertad see the film?
fonzi: Yeah, they loved it! My daughter has already seen it three times, poor thing (she laughs). My son saw it for the first time at BAFICI and told me that he wanted to act in “Blondi 2” (laughs). There were claims, she asked me why he had not been my son’s character, but he is 14, he did not give.
News: Continuing with the family, the credits include the Fonzi. How was that participation?
fonzi: Towards the end there is a shot that goes through a recital, the band that is seen in the background is Tommy’s, my brother Diego playing the drums and a friend, Roncha, with whom they had a band in Adrogué and I told them: “Come on.” They played amazing! It was divine to have the energy of the family, that day my mom and dad came to visit the set. The movie has a lot of me, my grandmother is Rita Cortese to full. There are also nods to my daughter like inventing long names. When my relatives saw it, they felt honored and present.
News: They say that you always go back to your first love, I don’t know if it’s true, but taking into account “Plata quemada”, “En terapia”, “El campo” and “Blondi”, do you always go back to Sbaraglia?
fonzi: If you’re lucky, yes (laughs). Maybe he has spent so much time in the profession that we put together a number of shared jobs with Leo, with Ricardo Darín, with Dani Hendler… Leo is barbaric, he rips it apart in the film. I asked him for the favor of doing that character, he is an actor who obviously does bigger things, giving the go-ahead to this start of mine as a director was very generous.
News: One of the most remembered jobs they shared was the couple from “En terapia”. Will there be a place for something like this on television today?
fonzi: It seems difficult to me, today you have the content at hand, literally, because everything is on the phone so you can see it at any time, the platforms have become the new television and autonomy reigns. There are exceptions like the madness that “Succession” arouses, which premieres an episode every Sunday. A few years ago we had six national fictions on TV, now there is only one. Do you know what is the only program that I watched every day? Masterchef! And of course, how could I not see it if my brother was there! (series). I still confess that I had already been looking at him and when he was my brother… that is, I fainted. He would tell her, “Please, I’m dying!” (pronounced Susana Giménez type), it was the best.
News: Now we are with the premiere of “Blondi” but he comes from accompanying his partner Santiago Miter on that kind of world tour with “Argentina, 1985”, from Venice to the Oscar. How do you come back from that?
fonzi: Everything you saw, the start in Venice, the trips around the world, the campaign, Santiago working day and night for the film, is something that surprises you at first and then you begin to naturalize. The first time you see Cate Blanchett you say: “Oops!”…then you realize that the same ones go to all the events, the fifth time you say: “Well, this one happened”, I’m with my friends eating a pizza ” (laughs). The social issue is very intense because you talk to people you will never see again unless you are a great lobbyist and keep your contacts to yourself, I don’t know how to do that. It’s kind of weird, you can laugh with your friends about something that happened, but then you want to take off your heels and go to the hotel to order a hamburger in your room. It was intense, beautiful, we had a great time but it was good to come home.
