In conversation Ana Belén and the Javis: "We have gone from censorship by horrible gentlemen to self-censorship"

Luis Martínez Madrid

Madrid

Updated Saturday, February 3, 2024-21:29

• San Sebastián Ambrossi and Calvo leave behind the burden and stigma of 'the Javis' in the outrageous series 'La Mesías'

• Los Javis Interview: "We have an atrocious fear of death, we wish we had the faith that we don't have"

"There were three of Elena's daughters. There were three of them and none of them were good." It is not the case. Ahead of the Spanish proverb is the evidence, power and even goodness of the number three. Pythagoras came up with his theorem after studying a given three-sided polygon. Three is the symbol of divinity; three, the powers of the soul, and four times three the total of the apostles. For Hegel, synthesis comes as the third in discord between thesis and antithesis. And if we stay in the cinema, there are few comedies as round as, precisely,

One, Two, Three,

by Billy Wilder. Thus, the next Goya Awards gala to be held on February 10 in Valladolid will be presented by the trio composed of

Ana Belén (Madrid, 1951), Javier Ambrossi (Madrid, 1984) and Javier Calvo (Murcia, 1991)

It's good news. Even necessary, whatever the proverb and Elena herself say. On the one hand, those responsible for the Spanish audiovisual phenomenon,

La Mesías

; on the other, the most recognizable actress, singer and even myth of cinema, theater and the Spanish stage of all time. Three by three.

ASK.

What does Ana Belén envy about Javier and Javier's generation?

ANA BELEN.

Above all, freedom. The freedom that creativity has given them above all else. Every day that passes I get to know them better and admire them more. Do you remember that we met at a proclamation?

AMBROSSI.

Yes, at Pride.

ANA.

From the moment I saw them appear on stage so free, I was fascinated.

ASK.

And vice versa, what do you miss about the generation that she represents?

ANA.

There is little to envy about my generation.

BALD.

Not at all. I tend to be pessimistic and, sometimes, I think that the immediacy in which we live today, with networks and mobile phones always so present, is taking something away from us. We have lost or are losing the ability to reflect. We live in a world so full of stimuli and continuous validation that I miss the mystery, the learning... I have the impression that time was more appreciated before.

ANA.

Don't think there was much reflection before either.

AMBROSSI.

After meeting Ana, what I admire and what I do miss about what she transmits is her solidity, her principles. Our generation lives in a hurry due to the need to be here and there everywhere at the same time. She is a person very anchored to the ground, very calm because she knows what she thinks. That is no longer seen.

We live in a world so full of stimuli and continuous validation that I miss the mystery, the learning...

Javier Calvo

ASK.

Perhaps freedom is more appreciated when you fight for it, which is what happened to the people who lived through the dictatorship and the Transition...

ANA.

I was referring to personal freedom and a life lived without prejudice. And then there is the other freedom that, it is true, was fought for. The fantastic and normal thing is that there are generations that are now born in freedom. That's good. No one has to have known censorship, those gentlemen who sat down and could prohibit you from everything. It is not worth forgetting that the night before you premiered a play, two horrible men would arrive and sit next to the table with the director's lamp and you would see them crossing out what could not be seen or shown. It was terrible. There is no merit in having known censorship.

BALD.

Hope that's not coming back. Many autonomous communities have censored plays. It is very sad that we return to what Ana says.

AMBROSSI.

And then we have social media censorship, which is the censorship of our time. We have gone from censorship by horrible men who cross out scripts to self-censorship where we do not say what we think for fear of being vetoed, of being disliked... That seems extremely dangerous to me. I am in favor of saying what I think and being wrong. I find that right now there are many actors who don't want to do interviews for that reason, for fear of the headline. I feel sorry for that.

I left the military in 1981 and it hurts me a lot that the term communist is used as an insult.

Ana Belen

ASK.

It is striking, in line with what we are talking about, how the meanings of words in Spain seem to have changed. A communist has gone from being synonymous with a freedom fighter to an insult in the mouths of some...

ANA.

Some concepts are perverted. I have been a member of Franco living underground and you felt that that was the place you had to be. Because you weren't alone. There were people like, for example, Juan Diego and you wanted to be where he was. Turns out he was at the game. We just called it the game. I left the military in 1981 and it hurts me very much that the term communist is used as an insult. And it hurts me for everything it meant to be one at that specific moment. It's not fair, it's very ungrateful.

ASK.

On the contrary, there are words that have been earned. Although some miss ladybug jokes, the word homosexual can now be said loud and clear...

AMBROSSI.

I was thinking that I have not lived the world that Ana tells, but I have been homosexual before the Gay Marriage Law. I was a child and a teenager in Spain where being homosexual was being a second-class citizen and I have lived that transition which, for me, is the true transition, the important transition, which I feel is personal. As a child, I went to

school

where in my mind it was deeply internalized that being gay was bad. And from that day on, when the law was approved, I watched television and said to myself: "Wow, maybe it's not bad." Thanks to that law I made my transition to thinking that my sexual inclination was healthy.

ANA.

And I remember the Law of Vagrants and Criminals...

BALD.

No matter how much the freedom of the Movida is idealized, at that time being a faggot was a stigma. You heard it on the street and at family meals. I remember that I started doing a series [Physics and Chemistry] and I will not forget the day when the kids at school told me: "Don't look cool because we know you're faggot on TV." And I remember thinking: "What's going to happen to me now when it airs?" And from today I give my 16-year-old self a pat for the bravery she had, although I also have to confess that deep down I wished no one would see it and they would cancel it right away.

ANA.

Poor.

BALD.

I won't forget that I arrived at school and everyone was looking at me. It was four years of building my gay character for television while I was building myself as my gay self and discovering myself.

I was a child and a teenager in Spain where being homosexual was being a second-class citizen and for me, the Gay Marriage Law is the true transition.

Javier Ambrossi

ASK.

Is there something like a Spanish cinema where what Ana Belén has done and what Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi do fit in?

BALD.

Absolutely.

AMBROSSI.

I feel that the films of Almodóvar, Saura, Erice or those starring Ana Belén are part of my education. I have learned things in the movie theater that I did not learn at school and that my parents did not explain to me.

ASK.

But you are aware of that label of "It's a film so good that it doesn't seem Spanish"...

ANA.

That label is terrible and unfair. How can you say that about directors like Gutiérrez Aragón, Olea or Saura without counting Berlanga or Buñuel? Or, further back, Nieves Conde or Rafael Gil. They did what they could with what they had and that must be valued.

BALD.

I will only say that as a teenager I bought a collection of Spanish films that a newspaper sold and I remember the shock of seeing Pepi, Lucí, Bom... or Bigas Luna's films. I saw all this with my grandparents in front of me.

ASK.

Let's talk about abuse. What needs to be done so that Carlos Vermut does not happen again?

ANA.

We are going to make it clear at the gala. Of course we are going to show solidarity with the victims, but cinema is a reflection of society. This must be made clear. Those of us in cinema work with vulnerability, with desires, with emotions... And all of that is the perfect breeding ground for power to be more hateful and disgusting than anywhere else.

AMBROSSI.

You always have to be next to the victims and you have to talk and enter into debate. And do what we do. In our production company, more than half are women and in positions of responsibility. We also attach great importance to care. Each one has to take responsibility for their small portion. That is the way.