http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/cultura/2011-10-29/ricardo-darin-para-verlo-y-vivirlo-tienes-que-ir-a-cuba/ Ricardo Darín: To see it and live it you have to go to Cuba In statements to JR, the renowned Argentinean actor says he is very impressed by the eagerness Cuban audiences have shown for the seventh art in every Film Festival he has attended in Havana. Kaloian Santos Cabrera / kaloian@juventudrebelde.cu October 29, 2011 - 19:51:32 CDT A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. BUENOS AIRES.– An habitué of Havana’s New Latin American Film Festival for more than ten years, Argentinean actor Ricardo Darín is no doubt one of the Cuban people’s most admired and followed foreign artists, known to them for his leading performances in movies like El hijo de la novia (Son of the Bride), Kamchatka, Nueve reinas (Nine Queens), XXY and El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), among other outstanding titles. Argentinean actor Ricardo Darín (Photo: Kaloian Santos Cabrera) Darin was recently awarded the Konex de Brillante Prize of the sociocultural organization Konex Foundation, which since 1980 has honored outstanding personalities and institutions from all branches of Argentinean can-do. This time he won such a distinction for being selected as the best performing artist of his country in the last ten years. On the springtime evening following the ceremony, Darin was faced with dozens of journalists, cameras and photographers who fell on him like a hungry pack competing for his attention. Used to being hounded by the press and surrounded by noisy crowds, he dealt with the volley of questions with his usual kindness and exceptional sense of humor, at all times in control of what fame unavoidably generates and skillfully leading the exchange in the right direction. Ricardo Darin is well-known in these parts for his roles as much as for being a cool guy. He is said to be always polite with his fans whenever they stop him in the street or ask him for his autograph, either in Argentina or in other countries like Spain or Cuba, where he is no less popular. In the middle of the racket we were able to take him aside and he agreed to talk for a few minutes with JR and state his admiration and affection for the Caribbean nation. “I get on well with the Cubans, not for being famous or popular, but because of my close contacts with the people there,” Darin revealed as soon as he realized the origin of his interviewers. “They always treat me very well; I’ve had a wonderful time every time I’ve been there. In one of my trips I went all over Cuba with a friend, listening to your good music, visiting towns and meeting a lot of great people,” said the man who’s been in front of a camera since he was five years old. The thing is that, as far as Ricardo is concerned, “what makes you love a place is its people, not its geography. Beautiful places, you can find all over the world. What happens in Cuba’s case is that many foreigners only know Havana or Varadero Beach and miss the rest, which is also wonderful,” he points out. In his thank-you speech for the Konex Prize, Darín remarked: “I owe this privilege to the fact that I’ve been lucky to star in movies people have received very well”. True enough, but on top of that sort of “luck” come his professionalism, charisma, ethics and good acting skills, a combination that always goes down well with moviegoers, critics and directors alike, and mainly the former, who both in Argentina and Cuba, instead of mentioning the title of a motion picture where he performs usually say, ‘Let’s go see the new Darin movie’ or ‘It must be good because Darin is in it’. With these letters of introduction he’s been present in the world’s top film festivals, but still declares his preference for the one in Havana. “I always say it’s the most beautiful one. I’ve never seen people as fond of and eager to watch movies. I saw Son of the Bride in 2001 at a Karl Marx Theater packed with 5,000 people. Amazing! The big film companies have shrunk movie theaters to small screening rooms with only 200 seats or so. But things are different in Cuba, where I never saw TV programs devoted to gossip and show business and spent all my time meeting with Cuban colleagues, journalists and ordinary citizens. You don’t see that anywhere else in the world. You have to go to Cuba if you want to see and feel that.” Directed by Juan José Campanella, Son of the Bride was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002 for Best Foreign Language Film, and so the cast got to walk down Hollywood’s red carpet. The Oscar went to another movie, though. Then, in 2010, the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences went for another film by Campanella, The Secret in Their Eyes –again with Darin playing a leading role– and this time the director won the statuette. However, the actor chose to ignore his official invitation and stay home to watch the award ceremony on TV. “All this about the Oscars is obviously market-oriented. I’m not denying the importance of the award, but to me it’s not been a sign of quality lately,” he recently admitted to a local magazine. In this connection, he told JR that “I’ve had a much better time at the Film Festivals in Havana than in the Academy Awards ceremonies. And this is not necessarily a political, but an existential and human statement. Every time he attends the Film Festival in Havana, Darin is impressed by the Cubans’ hunger for the seventh art, he told JR. “We went to the memorial service for 9/11, and we saw everybody was paranoid, trying to avoid eye contact, distrustful of one another, as if a bomb could explode at any time. Human contact and personal treatment in Cuba are on a different and quite warmer level. That’s why I say that everything depends on the place.” Rather than prizes or social recognition, every day Ricardo Darín appreciates the opportunity of enjoying a unique privilege. “I do what I like and can work with. And I’m lucky, what with so many people everywhere who hate their job,” he remarked almost at the end of our dialogue. But he finished with the following words: “I’d simply like to tell the Cuban audiences that I love them very much and always wish them the best. I’d love to work in Cuba if they made me a job offer.” In case you didn’t know… Ricardo Darín was born in Buenos Aires in 1957 and grew to become a famous actor whose main incentive to work, he says, is a good story. He also stresses his preference for characters as different from him as possible. About his debut on the stage he said in an interview: “I started to act when I still was an elementary student, but both my teachers and classmates took it quite naturally, just as I did myself. I was born to a family of actors, so it was as common to me to be in a play with my parents as it was to any other kid to help his dad at the pharmacy. At school I would perform or sing in a choir together with the rest of the students. “I never attended any workshop, seminar or drama school. My learning was neither formal nor technical, but based on the observation of those who with more or less willingness introduced me to the trade. I call my teachers all those who let me learn from them at some point, even if only by showing something or talking to me about what they did. “My parents were cherished in this world, and I don’t mean by show-business people but by those who worked they way through the stage, the ones that gave me the chance to be close to them and get it all under my skin. Therefore, my training was almost imperceptible, rather sensorial. Thus you learn from people’s kindness, as much as from their lack thereof. You should always be grateful to those who disagree with you, because from them you learn very quickly and clearly what you don’t want to be like and you don’t waste your time with them.” |
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