They connected instantly, from their different life paths. Coixet (63), with three decades of good films, a 25-year-old daughter, Zoe, and her current partner, Reed Brody, a dictator-hunting lawyer. Costa (38), in an effervescent stage: mother of a girl and pregnant again, with 12 years of career on the rise, which she took off in the international spotlight and established herself with the acclaimed Cinco wolves.
Both came to the cinema from advertising, Costa by chance. Coixet was inspired by her for her Foodie love and Un amor has brought them together again. A story that manages to combine the essence of the novel and the Coixet DNA. It explores the complex feminine desire and adds two outsiders to the filmmaker's catalog of characters: the distraught Nat (Laia Costa), a translator in an office for the admission of refugees in life crisis who settles in a small town, and Andreas the German (Hovik Keuchkerian), a wounded soul who has chosen solitude. Mansplaining, hypocrisy dressed in kindness and suspicions intersect in the film, which lands in theaters.
The actress is already immersed in the filming of The wheel of time (Amazon Prime) and Coixet in the adaptation of The days of abandonment, by Elena Ferrante, with Penélope Cruz, and in a series for Arte (France). They arrive separately at Outumuro's photo shoot. The filmmaker has a bad cold and will show a good dose of patience during the promotional toll hours.
What comments about the film surprised you during your time in San Sebastián?
I am surprised by the vantage point from which the protagonist is judged. There are many people who identify with Nat, especially women; But before those who judge her, I think: so, you have never made mistakes, you have never pursued something that you saw was not right but something drove you there? That moral judgment towards many victims. She is criticized for her exchange with the German. We live in a society where capitalism is structured by the vulnerabilities of women.
It also raises the precariousness of young people, the hostile environment...
Why does he settle in a ruined house? Because you can't afford another place. And that old man who says to Nat: “It's not against you, but we don't want you to be seen with us”… This has literally happened to me in this city and not that long ago. Or the character of neighbor Piter and his lessons. An advantage of age is that you are taught less.
Is it a kind of revenge towards people who have made your path difficult?
That's how it is. I know who they are; I don't know if they know, I don't care. The work moved me precisely because they are situations that I have experienced. And sometimes from those who I thought were my friends.
The film addresses female desire...
The complexity of that desire, the hormonal influence... Women can feel desire in situations that, in theory, rationally, are not sustained. It works differently than the male one, it is more mysterious.
And contradictory, sometimes?
In my case, what I don't contemplate is feeling desire for someone with an ideology completely opposite to mine. Not that (laughs).
In One Love, the German is honest...
Yes, he does not hide his cards, he is direct. He doesn't know how to articulate feelings and no matter how much she asks him, he can't give them to her. They are two outsiders, but Nat falls into vulnerability.
She, as sometimes happens, starts in one way but then wants more...
And that's when you screw up... That hope makes us vulnerable.
Do you understand the world better through the camera?
Unfortunately, I understand it more every day. We are moved by an unhealthy mixture of stupidity and evil. Given this, I choose not to screw up the lives of others and help without expecting anything in return. I believe in gratitude. Beyond that I don't know what can be done, it's a cheap consolation, but I have no other option.
How is your age?
With dignity. You know how to protect yourself better. They give you a prize, great, they don't give it to you, great, they give birth to you, what are we going to do. I try not to take everything so personally.
What is your best virtue?
The imagination. Allow me to run away! I'm on a train, for example, surrounded by people, with the typical guy with his legs spread open or talking nonsense at full volume...and I run away, of course.
What would you like to change?
I am hypersensitive by nature: sometimes it is a blessing, but also a burden. That empathy when they tell you something and you almost live it, physically, is something tremendous. I would like to know how to say no without feeling guilty.
How do you feel at this stage?
Look, I'm happy, calm, fulfilled... I will never be. I am constantly evolving and it is exhausting. Physically I have energy, but to go to Uzbekistan and shoot a documentary, not for general bullshit...
And sentimentally?
I am in a relationship with a very interesting and fun guy. We met after divorces, with grown children. It is an advantage. You don't have to play pin and pon families... (laughs). You already know that you will not change the other. We share the good, and the bad too, but without tension.
Have you gotten where you wanted?
Nobody really gets where they want. Now I have projects that excite me and I hope I know how to say no to the brown ones. I'm having a great time. It is a nice feeling to master it in a calm way and know how to surround myself with great people.
Do you regret anything?
Of having taken seriously people who didn't measure up to the soles of my shoe. Of having been too innocent, gullible. Speaking honestly is punishable. They have hurt me a lot! But look, I think what I think and whoever doesn't like it...I don't like them either.
What scares you?
That this cold continues makes me panic! I have a phobia of cockroaches and rats. Fear that next year we will have a higher temperature. I am concerned about desertification, the climate should be a central issue.
Do you detect a certain social anesthesia?
That society feels this anesthesia is almost natural. We are humans, focused on our shitty comfort. But what about politicians and that empty ideological debate? Governments are there to solve problems. Money and time is wasted on bullshit.
Who do you trust?
I have always voted socialist, the least bad option. I don't even want to talk about the extreme right and its populist, conspiracy messages. I do not accuse those who believe them. There is a breeding ground that leads to this and using common sense and ethics costs more, between ignorance, precariousness and fear.
It raises the pain of the refugees in the film. Do you claim a solution?
I know some African countries in depth. There are people with such a lack of hope that they embark towards a hostile country and demonizing them seems unworthy to me. If we optimized resources there would be capacity to house them and give them an opportunity.
Laia Costa arrives at the session. She walks slowly, observing the space where the portraits will be taken, captivated. She joins the conversation.
What have they connected on?
Laia: More like: why don't we connect? To sum up, I want to be like her. Very intelligent, generous and very curious, essential because over time I see that the illusion is lost and that saves you. She is curious about everything, food, art, cinema, reading...
Isabel: Gossip, which I love.
Laia: My boy jokes: “You guys who like deaf-mute movies without subtitles”… But then she watches First Dates!
Isabel: And Love is blind... You must see it!
Laia: My challenge is to recommend a book that you haven't read yet. That day I have a party.
Isabel: What's up...! Laia is extraordinary, she is humble but she knows how to value herself. And she has a sense of humor, especially the Catalan scatological one.
Laia: Ha ha... I love it.
Isabel: I wrote Foodie love thinking about her. I saw her in Victoria and in hers three movies of her in the United States: she ate the rest of the cast.
What is your best virtue, Laia?
Minimize everything, make myself less important. And it's not easy. This job has dynamics that drag you. Just entering a film set they offer you coffee, a chair... It's absolute unreality.
The good weather at the 'Coixet shoots' is always praised. How do you achieve it?
Isabel: I'm like the aunt.
Laia: I don't know how he does it, it flows smoothly. She makes us feel super comfortable. Create that environment from enjoyment. I remember being in a scene and watching her ask someone, “Hey, do you know if so-and-so hooked up at the party yesterday?” I was leaving, of course! she (she laughs).
Isabel: Poor Luis Bermejo was horrified with his landlord character, he, who is a calm, measured guy, who recites Chekhov. Or Ingrid (García-Jonsson) super different from her role. It was one of those shoots where everyone is very connected.
Do you identify with Nat, like Isabel?
Laia: At first I felt very different from her, but as you peel away the layers you see traits common to all of them. Who hasn't gotten hooked on a toxic, sentimental, family, or friendship relationship? This is an uncomfortable story and you end up judging, it is a spring, a defense.
He has said that Isabel “does sex like no one else.” Did she feel modesty?
Laia: Not at all, I had complete trust in her. In those scenes I saw myself from the outside and, how angry, I couldn't help but judge the character. On the other hand, when I was Nat, I wanted to act like her. I have never felt such empathy for a character. Women have to give ourselves permission to be lost, to make mistakes. We are too self-demanding.
Isabel: The one who was scratched was Hovik, who had not filmed scenes of this type. I think he was afraid of getting an erection, in fact he said it himself, and thought it was more real.
Do they have a different vision of love and sex?
Laia: Each one has her experiences, but I feel very close to her.
Isabel: I'm a little more cynical... I see her as much more focused, with her feet on the ground. She is a super mother! She's going to have another baby!
Do you hope that the film will help detect certain microaggressions?
Isabel: I wish! I have already lost hope of changing the world with my films, but I can at least explain it. And if thanks to that someone identifies certain situations and escapes from them, that would be fabulous.
Laia: When you start to detect them, you won't stop seeing them. The film also addresses the hierarchy of pain…
Isabel: That's right, that situation in which Nat is telling him something essential in his life and Andreas responds: “But me more so.” It's something I can't stand. It is devaluing the other person.
Coixet says goodbye, he must prepare for the photos and we finish the talk with Laia.
What hurts you most about how the world is going?
It is very difficult to answer. You read the newspapers and question whether to have children. To build Nat's character I had a talk with Reed, Isabel's partner and activist, you know, and I asked him: If you had to say if the world was good or bad, what would you say? I left very sad, I won't say more. If you empathize with it, you won't be able to eat breakfast. Emotional anesthesia allows us to move forward.
Which politicians give you confidence?
I prefer not to answer, for me it is a work in progress, I am the least expert to talk about this.
A defect to eliminate.
Laia: Not knowing how to set limits, something very important.
In Cinco wolves and Els charmings she addressed motherhood and its difficulties. How does she reconcile?
I do not council, I do not know anyone who achieves it. You cheat. If you have a tribe you have more help, but the socioeconomic structure is not set up to reconcile.
She had her daughter at home and has been a doula. Will you repeat the experience?
In my first pregnancy I fell in love with the biological process, it is amazing. I lived in Miami and got a doula certificate. I accompanied future mothers, online, in a pandemic. My birth was very hard, 52 hours, but I prepared a lot, with hypnobirthing. Some fear is inevitable, but I had the right medical team and very supported. I will repeat, yes. It was magical.
