Luc Dardenne in On the images, fromario of life and cinema just published by the Saggiatore, on the eve of the costume rehearsal of the film Two days, one night, on April 24, 2013, he noted an imperative: “Disiconize Marion Cotillard! ». A star broke into a microcosm governed by its own rules. She had to be traced back to her human dimension of hers. Let’s wait to see The immensitythe fifth film by Emanuele Crialese, in competition at the Venice Film Festival and then at the cinema on September 15th, for confirmation. But we suspect that the Dardenne question for the Italian director has not arisen. The superstar who entered her microcosm, “after all, a film about family, the innocence of children and their relationship with their mother”, it is Penélope Cruz, the “ubiquitous” diva as the French daily recently defined her Libérationon the occasion of the passage of a documentary dedicated to her on the Arte channel.
Ubiquity is certainly one of its qualities (at the exhibition we also find it in the Horizons section, in Spanish En los márgenesin recent weeks he is in Italy on the set of Ferrari by Michael Mann, in which she is Laura Ferrari, Enzo’s wife).
Penélope Cruz, like Sophia Loren
Another quality she does not lack is timing (she confirms it in this interview). Always at the right time: when Spanish cinema was regenerating, when Hollywood opened its arms to migrant talent in the late 90s (and Penélope will be then the perfect Latin diva for every market, Brazilian, Colombian, Mexican), when worldliness became an indispensable ingredient of the status of diva (the union with Tom Cruise, the re-marriage – to remain in the canons of classic cinema – with colleague Javier Bardem, known on the set of Ham ham by Bigas Luna), and then the 4 Oscar nominations and victory for Vicky Cristina Barcelona by Woody Allen.
Make yourself loved by Europe and conquer America, without ever really leaving. If there is a story that resembles hers, perhaps it is up to look at the parable of Sophia Loren. The social class of origin, the dazzling talent, the rise, the impeccable management of the career, between big movies and auteur cinema, red carpet and millionaire advertisements, Hollywood glamor and earthly material, conscience, painful history are similar.
Penélope Cruz in The immensity by Emanuele Crialese. The immensity is a Wildside production (a Fremantle Group company), Warner Bros. Entertainment Italia, Chapter 2, Pathé, France 3 Cinema. In theaters from September 15 distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Photo by Angelo Turetta
The meeting of Emanuele Crialese with Penélope Cruz
Emanuele Crialese wrote of his film that “it could only come to life in the artistic and human encounter with Penélope Cruz, with his sensitivity and his extraordinary ability to interact with three very young non-actors who had never acted before”. Another great actress (but who herself rejects that definition), Tilda Swinton, using a sports metaphor when she talks about her work, concludes: «I’m a receiver. It is in listening that ideas come to me, not in the enclosure of a hotel room with the script in hand. My brain starts working in conversation with others ».
Penélope, The immensity, declared Emanuele Crialese, is his most desired and most personal film, “the film that I have always chased: it has always been” my next film “, but each time it gave way to another story, as if I never felt ready, mature, confident enough ». How do you enter the intimate universe of an author?
Emanuele and I met in London for the first time and a great understanding immediately took place, it was like being in front of an old friend. 40 minutes immediately became 3 hours. In an instant I felt that I could trust. I realized how important this film was to him, but it was also important for me to become part of this team.
Luana Giuliani and Penélope Cruz in a scene from The Immensity. Photo by Angelo Turetta.
The talent of a family
In the 1970s, when the film is set, she was a child. These have been years of transformation, of hope and of lost illusions. What memories do you have?
I was born in 1974 and I remember that, especially at the end of the decade, when I had more awareness, those were years of dreams for me. I was a great dreamer, I was planning my whole future life. At home there was music and we watched a lot of movies, my father recorded everything in super8, took photos and videos. None of us children thought of becoming an artist at the time (Cruz has a sister Mónica, an actress and dancer and a brother, Eduardo, a musician, ed), but at the age of 4 I started attending ballet classes, and I was a big fan of opera, while my father was crazy about cinema. Those years coincided with the realization: I wanted at all costs to represent something within that world. And if I succeeded, I owe everything to my family and to that historic moment.
Penélope Cruz in The Immensity.
The film focuses on the relationship between a mother and a daughter. And the desire of both of them for a different life: an alternative to the family for the mother, another identity for the daughter. What did he bring to the character?
I don’t know if I can answer this question. To the hypothesis that I could have conceived this story differently if I were not a mother. I am who I am, with the life I have led, what I have behind my back, the lessons I have learned, the traumas I have suffered, the relationships I have had, everything that has made me who I am today and that gave me the look I have on this story. And Emanuele allowed me to see all this from a place that is mine, especially the relationship, because, to answer his question, it’s true, mother and daughter try to escape reality, they both feel in prison. This is what creates the connection between them, especially in the music scenes where they imagine themselves to be different. Scenes that were even more moving for me when I saw the finished film: during that screening I felt that those were the saddest scenes in the film. Because as a spectator you see where those two people want to go, how far they deserve that freedom, how creativity is part of them, the desire to be what they truly feel they are intimately. This is one of the movies I cried the most for, watching it I cried at least 10 times!
Michael Mann and Penélope Cruz on the set of “Ferrari” in Modena. (Photo by MEGA / GC Images)
Today he is speaking in English, but I remember how in Do not move spoke our language well. Is it possible that the Spanish accent you keep when you speak English represents a departure from the Hollywood universe of which you are a full part, but with the status of a European actress?
Having an accent when I work and working on the accent to turn it into something different is one of my favorite things about my job. For example now in Michael Mann’s film I act in English with an Italian accent, but I have also refined Spanish with a Cuban, Colombian accent … I have made films in 4 languages in my life, and in each of these languages I have had to work on different accents . The language of a character is one of the most delicate characteristics an actor has to take care of, it takes months of preparation and concentration when I shot. Do not move by Sergio Castellitto, I had to work on it for months, and for many hours a day: I was playing an Italian woman with an Albanian accent, I had to completely cancel the Spanish accent. Many have tried to discourage me. They said to me, “You can’t do it,” but I was happy that all that work was well spent. In The immensity I am a Spanish woman who has lived in Italy for a long time, so I don’t have to hide my Spanish accent for once.
The character, like a puzzle
Have you ever heard that the status of icon, so rare, reserved for a few and a few both in Europe and in America, concerned you? And what intimidated those who work with her?
Icon… I don’t know, I never ask myself when I prepare a character. Every time I start from scratch, I say to myself: “We create this new human being that comes from the written page, especially if it is written well, we start from the void”, and this includes everything, even the way it appears physically, there can be no whims , the character needs everything he needs to move around the world, walk, talk, get dressed. Every detail is a piece of the puzzle, a layer, an answer to the questions we ask ourselves, it cannot be: “How will I look?”. It must be: “How can I give you more truth?” Therefore, even a decision on which shoes to choose becomes very important, because it will influence the way you walk, move and therefore be. If it’s the wrong shoes, the character will pay for it and I’ll pay for it. The question is never “will they fit me or not?”, It is always “will they be the shoes you would have chosen?”. So I think it would be dangerous to feel like an icon. I feel grateful and lucky to be who I always wanted to be: I am an actress, I have interesting job opportunities, I still feel like a student, I learn every day. Yet when I dreamed of this girl’s life I thought it was an impossible dream.
Penélope Cruz and her husband Javier Bardem at the Oscars ceremony. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic)
A documentary, Penélope Cruz, les reflets de la passion by Charles Antoine de Rouvre, and a book, Penélope Cruz by Ann Davies, tried to explore her path. How do you feel at the thought of having become a subject of study? Having been an important and new presence at the time when Spanish cinema was changing, with Bigas Luna and Almodóvar, was crucial in its history. What memories do you have?
I haven’t seen the documentary and I haven’t read the book. I am convinced that the authors had the best intentions when they made them, I have nothing to do with those projects. But regarding my presence in the Spanish cinema of the 90s it is wonderful to have been part of the world of those authors. Bigas died too young, but I made two films with him and we were very close. With Pedro we are in 7 films together, and I hope we will do many more, he is a very important person in my life, I love him, he is part of my family. When I was a child I dreamed that it would happen, but it is difficult to make such specific dreams come true. Instead it happened. I remember precisely the first time they looked for me. After the audition they sent me home saying: “You’re too young, but we’ll call you back.” There and then I told myself that maybe it was an excuse, that those are the things that are said. Instead they didn’t lie, they both called me back years later to ask me to make a film with them. It all started like this.
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