Rosa Diaz |
Barcelona (EFE) , to narrate, in parallel, a love story as a couple and another of love for art.
In an interview with EFE, the prestigious Portuguese filmmaker has acknowledged in Barcelona that, in these times, “in which surprise and sensory experiences are mostly sought”, it is swimming against the current to invoke these two great masters of cinema of the century XX, lovers of the word and of giving time to time.
To see this film, which opens in Spain today, May 5, Azevedo recommends having “a willingness to enter into a different proposal.”
She is convinced that, with this attitude, Rohmer’s theatrical text and the film adaptation that she has made “can be fascinating.”
“El trio en mi bémol”, a feature film that has received excellent reviews at festivals such as the Berlinale 2022 and in recent editions of the Seville European Film Festival and the D’A Film Festival, narrates the encounters between Paul and Adélia, two former lovers played by Pierre Léon and Rita Durão, who meet regularly to philosophize about their past as a couple, chat about her new love affairs or discuss music.
The subtlety and ambivalence of the works of Éric Rohmer
“I have wanted to work with a text by Rohmer for a long time -explains Azevedo- because his words have a profound subtlety and ambivalence. When the pandemic broke out, I saw that this work was very appropriate, because the two protagonists are confined within their relationship.
In this cinematographic version of the play, Azevedo has given himself freedom and has introduced two other characters: a lunatic film director named Jorge and a ‘script’ who helps him shoot, in a luminous coastal house, an adaptation of “El trio in E flat”.
The idea of introducing a film within another film had been on Azevedo’s mind from the beginning, she recounted, but the fear of falling into the cliché held her back, until she decided to propose to the Spanish filmmaker Ado Arrieta that he play the director.
“At that moment I saw it clearly,” he recalled. Ado Arrieta is someone you don’t know what to expect from, it’s so improbable that he makes sense of everything”.
The fourth character in the film is played by Olivia Cávez and she is a young ‘script’ “who doesn’t understand the director very well, who is very crazy, but believes in him”.
Manoel de Oliveira sneaks through the cracks of “El trio en E bémol”
“The position of serving a project, of serving a teacher, seems very beautiful and noble to me”, added the Portuguese director, who had this same position with Manoel de Oliveira when she met him.
In fact, when he talks about the relationship of the character played by Arrieta with the ‘script’ in “El trio en E bémol”, Azevedo cannot help but mentally travel back to the old and fond memories he has of the filming of “Francisca” (1981). , in which she was Oliveira’s assistant.
“I didn’t know anything about cinema at that time -she recalls-, but I was delighted and got everywhere, giving ideas and helping in everything I could”.
“I’m still the same,” he adds. I get everywhere and I don’t like that there are watertight compartments within a shoot. We all have the same goal, we’re all painting the same picture, from the makeup artist to the sound guy.”
A succession of miracles as a result of the pandemic
A cohesion that has been achieved in this film especially because it was shot in a pandemic with a very small crew and a minimal budget.
“This film is a succession of miracles -he assures-. It was created when we were all locked up at home without being able to make movies. We all had a crazy desire to create and everyone was very generous.
The cinema united the film crew in the same way that the music unites the two lovers in this film, which is a score with its own tempo.