Jornal da Mostra

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Javier Bardem

JAVIER BARDEM: FROM THE ANXIOUS WOODY ALLEN TO THE CONTEMPORARY PARANOIA

According the newsletter NotiCine ( http://www.noticine.com ), Spanish actor Javier Bardem has been the reason for two pieces of news recently: his talent, and the paranoia of today’s world.

Bardem was confirmed for the next, but still untitled flick by prolific (and now international) Woody Allen. It seems that Woody is trying to find the inspiration working really hard, as usual, but away from New York, home for his dramas. Before this, he only traveled overseas for his musical ‘Everybody Says I Love You’ (96), with location in Paris and Venice. He has recently made three movies in London – Match Point (05), Scoop (06, to be released in Brazil on March 16th) and ‘Cassandra’s Dream’, still in post-production.

Woody will now shoot in Barcelona, promoting the reunion of two of the most international stars in Spain, Bardem and Penélope Cruz. Both have been the only Spanish stars nominated for the Oscar (Bardem for ‘Before Night Falls’, selection of the 24th Mostra; Cruz for ‘Volver’, 30th Mostra) and they haven’t worked together since Bigas Luna’s ‘Jamón, Jamón’ (92, 18th Mostra), the first internationally famous movie in their career. Allen’s comedy drama will be shot during the summer in Europe, with dialogues in English and Spanish. This work follows a series of three others of international importance, indicating a promising moment in Bardem’s career. He starred in Milos Forman’s ‘Goya’s Ghost’ (06) and in two titles still in post-production, Mike Newell’s ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’, inspired by Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ literary masterpiece, and also in the Coen Brothers’ ‘No Country for Old Men.’

Besides, in mid-February, Bardem was in the Berlin Festival introducing the documentary series, ‘Invisibles.’ This series, produced by himself through Pinguin Films, is about the action of the “Medicos Sin Fronteras” (Doctors Without Frontiers) org concerning the tragic epidemics, forced migrations and the violence against children and women. This ambitious humanitarian work has five parts, and was filmed in third world countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo and Uganda. It was directed by renowned moviemakers such as Fernando Leon de Aranoa (‘Los Lunes Ao Sol’/’Monday in the Sun’, 27th Mostra, starring Bardem), Isabel Coixet (‘La Vida Secreta de las Palabras’/’The Secret Life of Words’, 30th Mostra) and Mariano Barroso from Spain, Javier Corcuera, from Peru and settled in Spain and Wim Wenders from Germany, a veteran in the Mostra.

Before flying back to Madrid, Bardem was stopped at Tegel airport in Berlin for several minutes because the content of his carry-on was identified as a possible bomb. The police were called and the actor was arrested – he was not even allowed to smoke a cigarette in the appropriate area. Spaniards present at the scene were astonished. After all, he is a famous international star. When the matter was cleared up – it was just an amplifier for his iPod – he was released and Iberia airlines upgraded his economic class ticket to executive. Not so bad, at the end of another extreme episode that nowadays assumes fear in the name of safety.