Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz face their egos in ‘Official Competition’

The Argentine duo made up of Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat has already shown that making use of their ability for satire works. They already did it with the award-winning films The man next door (2009) or the distinguished citizen (2016). Now they come back with official competitiona film to which they have invited another winning duo, the Spaniards Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz, together with the Argentine Óscar Martínez, for the central roles.

The historywhich resorts again to his previous films mentioned, revolves around a cinematographic process that shows the internal adversities that characterize the shooting of a movie, which becomes a pitched narcissistic battle between a businessman turned producer (José Luis Gómez), a director with authorial airs (Cruz), a popular actor (Banderas) and a prestigious actor (Martínez).

The idea for the script —written by directors plus Andrés Duprat— It has been in large part of the Spanish actors, who came up with this comedy to make fun of acting. “This is normal behavior for actors, no. What you see are abnormal behaviors, but they do happen, yes. We have seen them, yes, we have lived them, yes, but they are not usual, ”says Banderas in an interview on YouTube along with the rest of the protagonists.

“I have seen very extreme and difficult behavior. I have seen actors and actresses get along terrible and then, facing the press, tell that they are close friends, that they had connected from the first day and that the shooting had been very nice; and one, who is on the side, holding back not laughing at that moment, because you have seen it all. But it has been very liberating to play a character like mine; she is a character who is unfiltered, who doesn’t care what others think of her, but she is also a character who touches on an important topic, who reveals how much you have to suffer to try to do something interesting; It’s like saying ‘me, the older I am, the less I agree with this’, but sometimes it’s time and things are going to happen that hurt, and you also have to surrender to that, but don’t force it, don’t manipulate it. She forces it on herself and provokes the others. And she believes that only from there can she create something worthwhile, that art can only be accompanied by suffering, even to the point of humiliating the actors,” says Cruz.

Although both appeared in many Pedro Almodóvar films, This marks the first time Cruz and Banderas have headlined the screen together, playing auteur filmmaker and glamorous superstar actor in the comedy. “Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas shine together on screen in official competition. Their chemistry is undeniable and we think American audiences will be thrilled to see them come together in this crowd-pleasing film,” said Arianna Bocco, president of IFC Films, when the film was about to open in the United States recently.

While Martínez says that he has not experienced such extreme situations. “If I were assigned a director like Lola (Cruz’s character’s name), I would resign. I have not the slightest doubt. Submitting yourself as a person is something I have never tolerated.”, says the actor, remembered for his participation in films like wild tales or The distinguished citizen.

in parody official competitionpremiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival and was also shown at the San Sebastian Festival, its protagonists are marked by their ego, but also by the vulnerability of a profession that is often associated with insecurity, which makes them suspicious beings. The film was partially filmed in the auditorium theater of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (Madrid).

The official synopsis of this “cinema-within-a-cinema” black comedy states that, after turning 80 and suffering a small existential crisis, a wealthy businessman decides to shoot a movie, knowing that he has managed to accumulate substantial wealth over the years. his life, but without gaining any respect. He has no interest in art, he just wants his name to be associated with the best of the best, whether it’s a Nobel laureate book he hasn’t even read or a prestigious film crew that’s about to adapt it and at that you don’t even know. Luckily for him, egos begin to collide, while jealousy (as well as some “giant rocks”) threaten to ruin the entire project.

In this film, Cruz, Banderas and Martínez launch into characters who could be close friends. Duprat said in a past presentation that he hates “that moral superiority of progressives” and of actors who consider their work so important that “they are convinced that the public will not understand them.”; he also recognized that vanity and selfishness also make “artists go where ordinary people don’t go. The ego must be dominated, or tamed, as Cruz said.

official competition will premiere this Thursday, March 17 in Ecuadorian cinemas.