"What a pity not being able to be there savoring this award!" Carlos Saura, who died yesterday at the age of 91, left a message for the Goya gala knowing that today he was going to receive the Honor award for his entire career. A message conveyed to the public by his wife, the actress Eulàlia Ramón, accompanied by Antonio and Anna, two of the filmmaker's children.
"We are here as he wanted. Our father left yesterday. He taught us that you have to live until the last moment, do what makes you happy and promote culture, which is our legacy. We have feared the fate of being with him until the last moment and we are immensely lucky to share his legacy and to be remembered. Thank you dad," said Anna, the director's youngest daughter.
While his brother Antonio has recalled "how important the four women in his life were in his cinema". "My mother, my wonderful stepmother Geraldine Chaplin; Mercedes, who was the calm after the storm and gave her peace of mind to explore other things, and for 30 years the wonderful Eulàlia who also gave her my wonderful sister, Anna Saura. All they made my father the wonderful person he was," he stressed.
Eulàlia Ramón has intervened to thank the president of the academy, Fernando Méndez Leite, "for the support of the last few weeks". She has also thanked "Elsa, her caregiver, and the health personnel that she has treated in Villalba." "Everything was very sad and very beautiful," she added, later emphasizing that "public health deserves to be taken care of as her staff has taken care of us." "Carlos, I know you're seeing me, I don't know where, but here we are," he said before reading a message from the director: "I've been very lucky shooting 50 movies, I've had six sons and one daughter, several grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. I'll be there. I'm happy if my cinema has served today's directors. What a pity I can't be there savoring this award with all of you".
Carmen Maura, who starred in ¡Ay, Carmela! under Saura's orders, she was going to give him the Goya de Honor. Tonight she was in charge of opening the gala with a speech in which she highlighted "how tender, funny and understanding" Saura was. "You know that I would never have called you for a movie of mine, but in this one you will be fine because you communicate with the public, he told me at the beginning of the filming of Oh, Carmela! and it seemed to me that this sincerity was fine, I wanted it from that moment" , has pointed out the actress.
