FRANCE: MEXICAN ACTOR GAEL GARCIA BERNAL DISCUSSES HIS LATEST FILM THAT PREMIERED AT CANNES

Record ID: 854148

  • Title: FRANCE: MEXICAN ACTOR GAEL GARCIA BERNAL DISCUSSES HIS LATEST FILM THAT PREMIERED AT CANNES
  • Date: 25th March 2006
  • Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 15, 2005)(REUTERS) SOUNDBITE (Spanish) ACTOR GAEL GARCIA BERNAL SAYING: "All I can say is, that as a result of this journey my convictions were reaffirmed. My point of view on what is necessary was reasserted and at the same time enlarge in the way I still do not understand a lot of things. I would like to explore and understand certain things, like fo
  • Embargoed: 9th April 2006 13:00
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  • Location: CANNES, FRANCE
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  • Country: France
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  • Reuters ID: LVAF3BBM5O7PC3TOJQTIMA4SR14G
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  • Story Text: Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal discusses his latest movie that
    premiered at Cannes.

    British director James Marsh's first drama feature film gets its
    world premiere at the Cannes film festival on Sunday (May 15th). Marsh's film
    tells the story of a young man who, only days after being honorably dismissed
    from the navy chooses to settle down in the city to get to know the father he
    never knew.

    Pastor David Sandow's (William Hurt) quiet days as a christian preacher
    in Corpus Christi, Texas, are over, when 21-year-old Elvis Perez (Gael Garcia
    Bernal) comes to town.

    Elvis is the preacher's illegitimate son, result of a relationship more
    than twenty years ago, before he turned to be a christian. Confronted with his
    past, Sandow rejects Elvis during their first encounter, forbids his wife and
    children to talk to him, but offers his phone number to arrange a more
    appropriate date to talk.

    But instead Elvis finds another way to get closer to the family: he
    seduces Malerie, the pastor's teenage daughter Maleria (Pell James). When her
    18-year-old brother Paul (Paul Dano) detects Elvis sneaking out of their house
    at night, he goes to motel room and challenges him, asking never to see his
    sister again. From that point onwards a drama unfolds, that holds truly
    biblical proportions.

    British film-maker James Marsh, director of the documentary Wisconsin
    Head Trip, says, he wanted to make a film that was informed by very basic
    narrative stories like fairy tales and bible stories. "That was our
    starting point, something, that was very naturalistic in the foreground, but
    behind it, in the background, with something much more mythical and primal and
    primitive." So he and co-writer Milo Addica, who co-wrote the
    Oscar-winning "Monster's Ball", had the idea of picturing a
    christian family in contemporary America involved in a twisted and evil tale,
    Marsh added.

    For mexican-born actor Gael Garcia Bernal, Cannes and it's Red Carpets
    are no new turf. During last year's festival he starred in two films: the much
    applauded "Motorcycle Diaries" about Che Guevara's famous trip
    through South America and spanish Director Pedro Almodovar's "La Mala
    Educacion".

    "The characters are in a state of emotional crisis to be
    recognized within the story", he characterizes the roles he likes to
    choose. "This is something that attracts me a lot to the characters and
    at the same time it also attracts me to tell the story."
    And obviously he is so good at it, that co-actor William Hurt speaks in
    high esteem about the younger colleague. "He's got balls", he
    laughingly said asked about his collaboration with Garcia Bernal. "He's
    got a lot of guts. Of course you want to work with people who help you find
    your own career, it's mutual. The better the player you play, with the better
    you are. He is just remarkably talented and it is wonderful to see him in
    front of the camera."
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