05 · 16 · 10

Alejandro González Iñárritu on the red carpet

Clara Sánchez desde Cannes

When asked what it felt like to be on the red carpet, Javier Bardem, who stars in the film, responded, “I feel like it’s the entrance to a big circus.”

Personalities like Gael García Bernal, Naomi Watts, Agnès Varda, Meg Ryan, Tim Burton and Isabelle Huppert were invited to the gala and world premiere of Biutiful, which started at 6 p.m. Actresses Maricel Álvarez, Diaryatou Daff and Martina García, all part of the cast, also joined them.

Before the gala, there was a press conference in the morning where González Iñárritu and Bardem, as well as Maricel Álvarez and Diaryatou Daff, were also present.

Iñárritu said that the themes in his film, like that of death, are always recurrent. “I can harvest apples in different ways but at the end they continue being apples,” he added, metaphorically.

When asked if he might cut Biutiful, which is two hours, 20 minutes long, the director said, “This is the only film that I’ve made that I feel is complete, nothing superfluous, nothing lacking.”

He called his film “hopeful” even though some members of the press call it depressing. He explained: “It is a very human story. The problem is that we don’t like to look at ourselves and so when we are shown our reality on the screen we think the film is very depressing.”

González Iñárritu added that Biutiful addresses the biggest sickness society confronts today: hate. “Contrary to this, Uxbal (Javier Bardem) is a man who always tries to do good within the context in which he lives.”

Referring to Bardem’s work, he said, “It’s hard to say how he does it, but the fact is that he transmits many emotions that you don’t know how to define but you feel they are there, like what happens when a ghost is present.”

Bardem said the character he portrays is very intense and that in the same way the process of constructing him was very intense. “The compensation is that [the character] made me grow as an actor. I think Alejandro is one of the best directors in the world and for that reason I felt I could trust the person who was behind the camera.”