USA: ARGENTINE DIRECTOR JUAN JOSE CAMPANELLA TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST FILM "SON OF THE BRIDE" NOMINATED FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR AWARD

Record ID: 392671

  • Title: USA: ARGENTINE DIRECTOR JUAN JOSE CAMPANELLA TALKS ABOUT HIS LATEST FILM "SON OF THE BRIDE" NOMINATED FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR AWARD
  • Date: 2nd March 2002
  • Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MARCH 2, 2002) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DIRECTOR OF "SON OF THE BRIDE," JUAN JOSE CAMPANELLA SAYING OF THE OSCAR NOMINATION: "For the movie before anything is an incredible honour, as you already know the Oscar is the most important award in the world and there is no doubt about it's an amazing honour. Everyone who grows up d
  • Embargoed: 17th March 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA26WP2I4689PBCMST9WRLKZQH8
  • Story Text: Oscar-nominated Argentine director Juan Jose Campanella, whose movie "Son of the Bride" will compete in the best foreign language category, never dreamed his film about Alzheimer's disease, religion and recession would hit the big time.
    Based in part on events in Campanella's own life, the Argentine box office hit deals with the frustrations of an elderly couple who want to marry in the Roman Catholic Church in the midst of the country's economic crisis.
    "For the movie before anything is an incredible honour, as you already know the Oscar is the most important award in the world and there is no doubt about it's an amazing honour,"
    Campanella told Reuters.
    The movie centres on a workaholic in his 40s, played by popular Argentine actor Ricardo Darin, who helps his father, played by Hector Alterio, try to fulfill his mother's dream of a religious marriage after 40 years of civil matrimony.
    "It's a story of love between an old couple in which the woman is sick. Everything that happens in the film is very dramatic.
    Nobody thought this was a commercial project," said the 42-year-old New York University graduate.
    The mother, who suffers from Alzheimer's, is played by Norma Aleandro, who also starred with Alterio in "The Official Story," a drama about the theft of children during the military dictatorship that won an Academy Award in 1985 and helped put Argentine cinema on the world stage.
    A win for Campanella at the glitzy Hollywood ceremony on March 24 would be the icing on the cake after an award-packed year for Argentine cinema. "We are in a very strong creative mood, winning a lot of awards in international film festivals in the last two or three years and I'm looking forward to continue because I can see other markets opening their doors little by little," says Campanella.
    "Son of the Bride" is the fifth Argentine film to vie for the much-coveted statuette. The only Latin American film nominated this year, it will compete against France's "Amelie", "Norway's "Elling", India's "Lagaan" and Bosnia's "No Man's Land."
    "Son of the Bride", Campanella's fourth film, was named the Best Latin American Film at the International Film Festival in Montreal and won a top award, the Espiga de Plata, during International Film Week in Valladolid, Spain.
    Campanella's tale beat out, among other films, another home-grown success story - "The Swamp", a drama by up and coming Argentine director Lucrecia Martel - to win the nod to join the five-strong Oscar category.
    When Campanella was shopping around, screenplay in hand, for producers for "Son of the Bride", all of them doubted the film's chances of success.
    Other Argentine films previously nominated include "Tango" (1998), "Camila" (1984) and "The Truce" (1974).
    -ENDS-
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