Gael García Bernal

Gael García Bernal will talk about his career to date on 30 October 2005 – 14:00 at the National Film Theatre, London

Rejection, religion and revenge make a powerful combination when Mexican-American Elvis Valderez arrives in town looking for the father he never knew at the start of The King.

Gael Garcia Bernal in The King

In his first major English-language screen role, Bernal (working with British director James Marsh) brings a plausibility to a complex role.

But his father (William Hurt) has moved on and doesn’t want a relationship.

Now a ‘born again’ Pastor at the local Baptist church, he can’t - or won’t - face the results of his actions twenty-one years previously.

Rather than embrace his firstborn, his reaction is to warn him off - and to stay away from his half brother and sister, the children from the Pastor’s marriage to Laura Harring’s perceptive mother.

But while Elvis - who has just been honorably discharged form the US Navy – may have been the very model of a modern sailor (he still practises his drill alone in his motel room and shows a frighteningly impressive ability to ‘tidy up’), he nevertheless pursues an ungentlemanly, incestuous relationship with his sister who has no idea that the newcomer is already so closely linked to her.

Garcia Bernal is a study in how good intentions can metamorphose into something altogether much more disturbing.

As he becomes gradually more involved with Malerie (Pell James) it is hard not to think ‘surely this has to stop somewhere?’ but the chain of events sparked by one man’s decision has been set in motion.

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Meanwhile, Mexican writer/director Carlos Reygadas’ new film Batalla En El Cielo (Battle in Heaven) opens this week…and it isn’t for the faint hearted.

Set in the same contemporary Mexico City as Amores Perros, Reygadas uses novice actors to tell the story of Carlos, a driver for a high-ranking military officer, and his wife who kidnap a baby from a neighbour.

The child dies and Carlos confesses to his boss’ daughter (played by Anapola Mushkadiz) who works as a prostitute from a discreet ’boutique’ in one of Mexico City’s most expensive neighbourhoods.

Reygadas’ film is a visceral portrayal of a man in crisis. As we see the city around him through his eyes - Reygadas’ huge, lingering panoramas take in all the rooftops and scenes that busy city-dwellers ignore or take for granted - we see the painfully slow internal collapse of a man whose motives remain unclear.

The graphic sex scenes at the start of the film may disturb many people - it caused even more of a stir when Reygadas cut them when the film was shown at the Morelia International Film Festival recently “just to piss people off”, he told Mexicanwave - but the brutally harsh realities of life in the megalopolis - at least as Reygadas sees it - linger long after the credits roll.

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And finally…

Amat Escalante may not be quite so well known as Reygadas but Escalante, who worked as Reygadas’ assistant director on Battalla En El Cielo is hoping that his own feature, Sangre, will also go down well with Mexican film fans.

Sangre, the story of an ordinary man with a sexually demanding wife, will also show at the London Film Festival on Wednesday 2 November at 16.15 and Thursday 3 November at 18.30.

EM

Screenings of The King will be at the Odeon West End, Leicester Square, London on 28 October at 15.30 and 29 October at 18.00.

Battle in Heaven…opens at the Curzon Soho, London on 28 October. 

I was lucky enough to get tickets to treat my friends to see the Mexican screen actor Gael García Bernal, who has made his debut on the London stage in Federico Garcia Lorca’s passionate play of a bride’s escape with her childhood sweetheart.

Unfortunately, some of them were left wondering what hold the perfectly formed Mexican could possibly have had over his rival, who opened the show’s dialogue in a macho posture wearing a sexy vest and jeans. I don’t think the relative worthiness of the two men is the point, though.

The whole point is precisely the pointlessness of the violence of the honour killing, and the relentlessness with which we skid towards the bloody end; tragedy seems as inevitable and unstoppable as a rushing river coursing the dry land.

The Mother of the groom’s lament on …los muertos llenos de hierba, sin hablar, hechos polvo, dos hombres que eran geranios… brings in the portents from the opening scenes, and the pressure gives no respite though the marriage negotiations and the preparations for the night of climax.

García Bernal, playing the distracted Leonardo, was supported by a mixed cast.

In this version, Death is first on stage in an inexplicably camp incarnation - as though we would not have judged that something terrible were going to take place from the Mother’s already portentous words.

Played by Thekla Reuten, the Bride’s Dutch accent was vaguely distracting for a hispanophile (and at times even Gael’s beautiful Spanish-marked English fell into a confusing cowboy-style American accent).

The pathos of the Irish Mother worked better, however, and there was an excellent performance from the Maid, with a beautiful voice almost upstaging the Bride on every occasion.

A nude Moon was a provocative, if slightly disconcerting and uncomfortable interpretation.

The claustrophobia of the setting was well portrayed, as was the use of screens and shadows to convey and multiply action. There were also some unexpected comic moments thanks to a new and effective translation of Lorca’s aphorisms.

In general, the language between the characters is brusque, musical and oblique, delighting in metaphor and earthy allusions. Speeches of love enter for the first time in this love story when the lovers are finally together, already doomed, and even here they are intermingled with doubt and guilt.

Apart from the use of the largely non-Latin cast to stage such an essentially Spanish play, I was left to dwell on the use of the female skeleton on the poster used to promote the play. Is this a play on the Mexican Day of the Dead, or a hint at the skeletons in every family’s closet?

Answers on a postcard, please…

SM

Steve Bridger adds…
The combination of Gael and director Rufus Norris (whose production of Festen at the Almeida was a huge success and transferred to the West End) helped to make Blood Wedding a hot ticket.

Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre), directed by Rufus Norris, designed by Katrina Lindsay, lighting by Tim Mitchell, sound by Paul Arditti and music by Orlando Gough.
at the Almeida Theatre, London.
6 May – 25 June 2005

Cast:

• Adjoa Andoh
• Gael García Bernal
• Jason Baughan
• Paul Bhattacharjee
• Daniel Cerqueira
• Rosaleen Linehan
• Hylnur Haraldsson
• Maria de Lima
• Lyndsey Marshal
• Jess Murphy
• Thekla Reuten
• Sue Roderick
• and Assly Zandry.

Originally uploaded by pequeña

Gael Garcí­a Bernal receives a deserved British Academy Award nomination for his role in The Motorcycle Diaries.

The Observer has published an insightful interview with Gael García Bernal, who portrays Che Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries, a new film which is released in the UK on 27 August 2004.

Based on the memoirs of the iconic Cuban revolutionary, the film charts Guevara’s journey across South America in the early 50s with best friend Alberto Granado.

Introducing Lila Downs and Brazilian Caetano Veloso before their performance of Best Music (song) nominee “Burn it Blue” at last night’s Oscars ceremony, boyish Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal criticised the war against Iraq. “If Frida Kahlo was here tonight she would be on our side… against the war”, declared Gael, the lead in El Crimen del Padre Amaro, itself surprisingly overlooked in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The film is set for release in the UK in May (view trailer).

Less of a surprise was the failure of Salma Hayek’s Frida to convert many of its six Oscar nominations. Nevertheless, by capturing two minor gongs – for Makeup and Best Original Score – the project has been a personal triumph for Hayek, who has herself received numerous award nominations for her performance as Frida Kahlo, including for the Bafta and Golden Globes as well the nod from the Academy. Hayek had earlier applauded Gael’s remarks.

Finally, Alfonso Cuaron – the Mexican co-writer/director of the third Harry Potter film now in production, has to be content that Y Tu Mama Tambien received an unexpected nomination for Best Original Screenplay.