It is already a tradition that Santiago Segura visits the La Vanguardia newsroom every July to present his summer film. The director fulfilled his annual appointment on Tuesday, because today he premieres Father there is only one 3, a comedy that has nothing to do with summer, since it takes place at Christmas, but it does have a lot of comedy.
Segura, director, screenwriter and protagonist, recovers the family that gave the blockbuster in 2019 and that continued in 2020 with The arrival of the mother-in-law. For the third time, the director plays Javier, a computer scientist who is already a father of six who, after making a splash with the creation of an application, Conchi, to organize family chores, has been left in the care of his family while his wife, Marisa ( Toni Acosta), works as an interior designer.
Christmas arrives and the children do their pranks as always, although now Javier has an added problem, the adolescence of his eldest daughter, Sara, who has taken a boyfriend, named Ocho, somewhat unique, although he also flirts, to horror. of his father, with a famous rapper.
"I wanted to convey to the viewer the concern that seeing his daughter as a sexual person can cause in a father," explains Segura, whose two daughters, Calma and Sirena, are part of the cast of the film, although they are not plugged in: "They wanted going out in Padre there is only one, I did a casting with my mobile and sent it to Sony, who selected them”. The Segura girls have not done badly as actresses. Sirena even has a fan club.
And Calma, who plays the, as far as it goes, judicious Carlota, "complains that nothing happens in her plot", although she is the one in charge of solving the problems of the mischievous brothers and already has a suitor, but he doesn't quite like it because of "the difference in age", since he is a classmate of his younger sister, who is played by Luna Fulgencio.
The little ones orchestrate their misdeeds at Christmas and that is something that Segura was very clear about, because “I like Christmas, it excites me, I would stay to live in Christmas forever with its lights, its gifts, the family... and the Christmas classic ”.
“Americans have How beautiful it is to live (Frank Capra, 1946) and they see it every year, I would love to do the Spanish Christmas classic,” says Segura, although he is aware that at the moment the local cinematography already has La gran familia ( Fernando Palacios, 1962) to which he pays homage in a scene from Father there is only one 3 when the youngest daughter gets lost in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, the same thing that happened to Chencho, but with much less drama, because What Segura wants is for his film to be “a little box of smiles”.
The new adventures of Javier and Marisa's family arouse smiles and some laughs, although they also have their exciting moment, but filming, in the midst of the covid pandemic, was not a bed of roses. Segura states that “it was the most complicated of my life. Among other things, the actor who played the role of grandfather caught the coronavirus shortly after it began and was in the hospital in a coma, so we called Carlos Iglesias, who joined the project, but some scenes had to be repeated.
The problems did not end there, because "the rehearsal time also had to be reduced". That has stuck with Segura like a thorn, because the film starts with a dance in which he and Acosta emulate Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, who didn't have time to practice their steps: "I was like a dizzy duck, but Toni, who is a bright actress who is always in a good mood, was happy with her outfit.”
The dance continues to be another nod to the seventh art, because "you can call me weird or a movie buff or whatever you want, but I have always been a great lover of cinema and, furthermore, I am in favor of being able to see films in theaters, because it is much better and more refreshing”, adds Segura, who before the screening of Father there is only one 3, “emulates Tom Cruise” and asks viewers not to stop going to the cinema.
In addition to going through the writing of La Vanguardia, Segura has another tradition that he has been fulfilling for years: that his summer film (although the same goes for winter films) leads the annual box office. The two previous installments of Father there is only one led the ranking of the most viewed films. To all train Destino Asturias maintained that custom last year and saved an exercise in which Spanish cinema suffered economically from the coronavirus.
“I have been very lucky with the box office, Torrente 4 was the third most viewed film on the entire planet the weekend of its premiere. Cinema is a risk sport, each film generates the concern of whether people will go to see it or not”, concludes the director, who does not rule out a new installment of the character “when something fun comes to mind, perhaps Torrente, president”.
