Part Two of Interview with Inés Paris - Director and scriptwriter (Link back to Part One of Interview) It is said that the image of women in Spanish movies is set by Almodóvar. What do you think of this? I am going to end up getting a very bad reputation for criticizing Almodóvar! What I believe is that Pedro Almodóvar - who is a great creative, whose movies I admire enormously- has a very special and unique universe of his own. Therefore, I do not believe that Pedro Almodóvar's work is the set example for extraordinary and liberated female characters. I don’t believe this at all. Some of his movies have horrified me. When, for example in "Hable con ella” (Talk to her) the protagonist is a woman in a coma who is raped by another main character, a man called Benedicto - this becomes very signifcant because the woman becomes pregnant and as such is brought back to life. Benedicto is unjustly judged for what he has done, expelled and in the end eventually commits suicide. I have heard Pedro strongly defend that he is only telling stories. I believe that we, as creators, do not tell stories innocently, we generally have a point of view. Sometimes it might not be clear what that point of view is. But I believe that if one is telling a story about a man falling in love with a woman who is in a coma, and does not provide a proper understanding of his life and what has created such a deep desire in him that he would get her pregnant and bring her back to life, etc., etc., etc... then this way of story telling does not contribute at all to help us as women to liberate ourselves from a myriad of precepts and issues that do nothing to serve us anymore in this day. So that is why I am very critical with certain contents of the movies by Almodóvar. Especially with this idea that here is a genius who only tells stories which have no real meaning. What is your idea of transgression, how do you see it as a way to wake up audiences? What I think is that transgression serves simply in a comedy. Transgression should not be an intention. Yes it is true that a movie for me has to tell something original, and when one tells something original, it is actually telling something with a new point of view about reality. And the points of view usually are transgressors, because they tell us that reality is one way, but when you contribute something different to the perception you already have, then your world is turned upside down. In a comedy, I especially like putting the world upside down. There is another version of comedy where one would want to achieve a complete conventional universe, such as the discovery of love and marriage as a happy ending. But I am interested in something beyond comedy, something that makes us laugh at ourselves and at the world that surrounds us. And it is in this sense that a transgressor element can exist. You have said before how difficult it was for you to become a director. Is it more difficult for women? I believe in the fact that we are educated with certain values – which would seem a lie nowadays- because they are opposite of what is needed to direct movies today. To direct you have to have so much faith in yourself, because it is very difficult nowadays in Spain. You have to be completely convinced that you are very good and that you are going to do it very well. And we as women are very critical of ourselves, terribly critical. You have to be sure that it is the most important thing in your life, sometimes more important than children or family. Or at the same level at least. It is a complicated profession to combine with the daily life. It seems to me that we are not educated for this. The other day I was reading an interview with an Argentine director, Maria Luisa Bember, who was saying: "they had told me that the most creative act that a woman could do was motherhood. And it is not true. When was I pregnant, I asked my obstetrician that if I read often to, played classical music for and spoke to this child, would an especially educated, creative creature be born?" And he said: "Absolutely!" Motherhood is the act of procreating and does not take into account that education is indeed a much more creative and remarkable pursuit; (motherhood) is not the most creative accomplishment which a woman can look forward to. There are many creative acts that a woman is capable of doing well - painting, writing, directing movies, teaching courses and many other activities. If we are taught only how to be mothers, if that becomes the entire culmination of our existence, then of course we are left with little time to do much of anything else. ~Part three of interview coming soon~ **Translated by Mariela |
| Photo from Revista Digital UNO |
| _________________________________________________ For original article and video of interview (in Spanish) visit Revista Uno Universidad de Oviedo - 27 July 2006 _________________________________________________ |
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