• Rodrigo García interview: "My father was not a silent God"

He does not appear to be bothered by the omnipresence of the father in every interview. Nor does he refute any doubts to the contrary with his loquacity. More than pride in his status as a 'son of', which also, that of Rodrigo García (Bogotá, 1959) is, rather than resignation, realism. Now the director of intimate and precise gesture in films such as 'Things I would say just by looking at her' and '

showrunner

' of such verbose series as 'In therapy' premieres

'4 days',

with Glenn Close

(his fetish actress) and Mila Kunis. And he does it while immersing himself in an authentic celebration of his father. It is enough to mention the name of Gabriel García Márquez and everything else is superfluous. In short, on May 20,

it is published

'Gabo and Mercedes. A goodbye'

(Random House),

where the son recalls the last days with the two of them, and, a little later, the embarrassment of platforms in which we live will give birth to a new version (there is already a bad movie) in series format of

'Chronicle of a death announced '

and, above all, the highly anticipated

'

One Hundred Years of Solitude '.

On the other side of zoom, from Argentina where 'Santa Evita' rolls according to the prodigy-novel by Tomás Eloy Martínez, García talks about the paternal or maternal filial relationship.

That is what his latest film is about, that is what a large part of his filmography is about, that is what the book he publishes talks about and that is what every interview he answers is about.

This one too.

Why this insistence on the argument of the father-mother-child relationship? I am not looking for anything, it is the themes that haunt me. I always say that one does not choose the arguments, but that they are the ones that choose one. When I read the article that told the story of a mother and daughter's struggle to get out of drug addiction, I quickly felt that he was questioning me. Why? There are few arguments more interesting than those inevitable human relationships that you cannot cut. Even if you want to, there is no way.

What unites a mother or father and their child is indissoluble.

And indeed, whatever happens, I always end up there, with exceptions like his previous film,

'Last Days in the Desert',

generally his universe is a universe of women ... I never think in those terms. I am intrigued by the mother and daughter relationship, even more than that of father and son. It is always strange and magnetic. It is also very complex, even if it is a happy relationship. In this case, what makes it different is the world of drugs. The addiction stories are all very similar, but each time the tragedy is unique. It's a drama about years of wear and tear. There is affection, love, hope ... but, above all, there is fatigue. It is not a relationship loaded with good intentions.

The mother is addicted to hope.

Hope is addictive? Yes, definitely. And more now in these hard times.

We are all addicted to hope.

You wake up every morning and tell yourself that you have to continue to avoid living in absolute denial. This is the third time you have worked with Glenn Close. What does she have that the others do not? She dances very well (she laughs in reference to the '

perreo

' that was marked at the Oscars ceremony). She is a very good friend and very intelligent. It works very intuitively. Also, as it has become clear, it is very funny. How much of your own relationship with your parents is there in each of your films about parent-child relationships? A lot, obviously. When I started directing, in each of the interviews I did, the issue of my influences came up. I had prepared a list of directors and artists that it was clear to me that they had marked me. But over time you realize that this list is a formality.

No one has influenced me more than my parents.

They and my brother, my daughters, my wife ... Intimate relationships are the cement of life and it is impossible not to return to them again and again.

Mila Kunis, Rodrigo García and Glenn Close on the set of '4 days'. AP

A book like

'Gabo y Mercedes. A farewell '

, what exactly is it: a tribute, a reckoning, a celebration? That's what the title says: a farewell. It is fired because they left physical life, but, in truth, it is impossible to say goodbye to your parents. The death of the parents is not the end of anything. Not a day goes by without me thinking about them. The last few weeks with my father and all this past year with my mother made me reflect on what it means to say goodbye to your parents. My parents both died at 87 years old. They both had long and good lives ... but it doesn't matter. It does not even matter how large it is compared to others, to its readers around the world.

For a son, the death of a father is always a catastrophe.

García Márquez is also a bit of a father to all his readers. How do you live to share your father in this way? There is a curious duality. I am aware that my father belonged to me and everyone else. I am aware that if my father were not the one he was, I do not know what interest the book could have. In all the interviews I have done in my life, I have always been asked how and how much my father has influenced me and I always bite my tongue so as not to give the only true answer:

"My father has influenced me the same as yours. ".

It doesn't matter whether your father is a famous writer or a taxi driver, a father is always a father. You have directed

'In therapy',

I can't resist asking the obvious question in couch therapy: have you ever felt the need to kill your father? There is too much written on the subject to venture to say anything new. The irony is that all children need parental permission to grow up and to kill them too. That is the great contradiction of parenthood. In addition, there is the fact that when parents get older their children end up being parents to their parents. It is unavoidable.

Life has a tremendous sense of humor.

I am fascinated by that time when your children grow up and become independent as their parents grow old and need you. And what role does the feeling of guilt play? There is always a contradiction: you feel guilty and at the same time it makes you angry that your child thinks it is your fault. Do you think:

"I feel guilty for what happened to you but don't blame me for what happened to you."

It's like feeling guilty about feeling guilty. The guilt feelings of mothers in the world in which I have lived is much more common than that of fathers. It is common to hear a mother say that she is a terrible mother and that she feels bad. In any case, I think you have to try to forgive yourself as much as possible. Were you ever jealous of your father's success? Fame came to my father when I was older. It was a global success after the Nobel Prize and with the support of the internet. All that no longer grabbed me as a child. It certainly had its impact. But it's not the same. My childhood and adolescence passed between Mexico and some years in Barcelona.

So, he was known, but I didn't feel like the son of a rock star.

Anyway, I would not change my situation for nothing. I could have had a less successful parent who had less to share with the world, but it would have been worse. I wouldn't change what I got at all.


Your father confessed that he would have liked to be a film director, was he jealous of you? I don't think so. He didn't do badly with the books (laughs). I boasted a lot about my films and invited everyone to the screenings.

It was more of a love without jealousy.

Are the screen adaptations of two of your father's most iconic books that are now being carried out an outstanding debt? It is a responsibility without a doubt. But I am very satisfied with what I am seeing and reading. From

'One Hundred Years of Solitude'

I've already read the scripts for the first three chapters and everything is fine.

The right decisions have been made and, most importantly, everything is being done at your own pace, without rush or pressure.

Gabo and Mario

Two twinned books bring García Márquez back to storefronts this spring;

in both, he appears with his colleague.

friend and nemesis, Mario Vargas Llosa.

Two solitudes.

A dialogue on the novel in Latin America 'transcribes an almost academic talk recorded in Lima in 1967.' Historia de un deicidio ', for its part, was Mario's doctoral thesis on Gabo.

The two books are edited by Alfaguara.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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