Desktop Style

It's been clear for a long time that in this part of Spain we are not fond of recognizing things. What's really cool here is to flagellate oneself in a "to bother the one next to me I put hemlock in the common pan" way. We criticize senseless our work, patrimony and projects, we talk disdainfully about those who work to change the course of our province while we think about ourselves waiting for God to send us the manna, and we don't even pray!. Just then a star comes, but one of those who really shines, watch it!, not that fake kind of guy with a very expensive dirty look and a Ché T-shirt (what would the friend Ernesto do to them if he could...) that, just see how things stand!, he hangs in wardrobes of Serrano or Santa Engracia (tr. note: chic, trendy streets of Madrid), although what they really like is showing off their rancid discourse at the forums of the intellectual suburb. Well, getting back to what I was going to say, Viggo Mortensen comes and says to the father of Alatriste that the hero has to be from León, that there's no other way, and he is seen at "Valderas" bookstore buying books about Valdeteja, and at the Auditorium, and fishing in the Leonese rivers and...hey!, the guy launches a book about León in the mecca of the world with a flag of the Ancient Realm on the table!. I could go on and on, but I think it's clear that Viggo's love at first sight with these Spanish outskirts is more than a momentary infatuation. Ask Miguel Ángel Nepomuceno, his buddy in the province. The fact is that the actor has already said that he will come in September to launch the film. It wouldn't be a bad idea that the city council and/or the county council approve to grant him the title of Adopted Son, or Honorary Citizen (sorry I don't know a thing about protocol issues) or the golden medal of the city and/or the province. Thus, we would also recognize we are kind-hearted. If neither Amilivia (tr. note: León Mayor) nor García Prieto (tr. note: chief of the county council) want to do the honours, I'd be delighted to do it.

Que por esta zona de España somos poco dados a reconocer las cosas hace tiempo que quedó claro. Aquí lo que de verdad mola es flagelarse en plan "para que se fastidie el de al lado pongo un poco de cicuta en la olla común". Criticamos sin sentido nuestra obra, patrimonio y proyectos, hablamos con desdén de los que trabajan por cambiar el rumbo de la provincia mientras nos miramos al ombligo esperando que Dios envíe el maná. ¡Si ni siquiera rezamos! En esto llega una estrella, pero de las que brillan de verdad, ojo, no ese tipo titiritero con aspecto guarro carisísismo y camiseta del Ché (lo que el amigo Ernesto les haría si pudiera) que, ¡ay que ver qué cosas tiene la vida! cuelga en roperos de Serrano o Santa Engracia (aunque a ellos lo que de verdad les va es pasear su discurso rancio en los foros de la banlieue intelectual). Bueno, a lo que iba, que llega Viggo Mortensen y le suelta al padre de Alatriste que el héroe tiene que ser de León, que no hay otra, y se le ve en la librería Valderas comprando libros de Valdeteja, y en el Auditorio, y pescando en los ríos cisastures y oye, mira que va el tío y presenta un libro sobre León en la meca del mundo con ¡una bandera del Viejo Reino! sobre la mesa. Podría seguir y seguir, pero creo que está claro que el flechazo de Viggo con este arrabal español es más que un enamoramiento momentáneo. Qué se lo pregunten a Miguel Ángel Nepomuceno, su cuate en la provincia. El caso es que el actor ya ha dicho que se vendrá allá por septiembre para presentar la película. No estaría de más que Ayuntamiento y/o la Diputación aprobaran concederle el título de hijo adoptivo, predilecto (siento no estar al loro en cuestiones de protocolo) o la medalla de oro de la ciudad y/o provincia. Así, reconoceríamos además que somos bien nacidos. Si ni Amilivia ni García Prieto quieren hacer los honores, yo me presto encantada.

IM: I wanted to ask you, Joan, what are we going to see in the exposition?

JM: The work of 6 years, the book and comic illustrations, the role-play game, the complete first chapter of the comic, there are some oil paintings and the rest are Indian ink and watercolour paintings.

AP-R: They are also preparing the outlines of a design for T-shirts, at the request of the publisher, to sell them in bookstores; they'll try to bring them out along with the film.

IM: I've heard that Eduardo Noriega is splendid in the film...he's splendid, the Count of Guadalmedina was like that; Noriega is a wonderful guy, a gentleman, very polite, very nice, and he's extremely good-looking als ; when he turned up at a rehearsal one day and I was there I said, "If I were a girl I would devour him". That's a lure for women, because there are lots of handsome men; Viggo, who looks tremendous; Enrico Lo Verso, the villain Malatesta...when he was filming the girls at the shooting said "we like him more than Alatriste!" ; he's a skinny black-eyed Italian, with a tough guy face, a very interesting look; and then there's Unax Ugalde, I think he's going to be the great find of the film. I didn't know him, I said "well, he's a Basque actor, from Oñate, like the character", that was funny, but I didn't think he was so good; people will talk about this guy a lot; and the girls are also good...

AP-R: Well, some are better than others...

And Echanove plays a great Quevedo; for me that's the best part of the film, the characterization; and Blanca Portillo is amazing; Javier Cámara playing the Count-Duke of Olivares, who represents the power, the man who managed countries and kings with one hand. Eduard Fernández plays Copons, a friend of Alatriste's, who follows him from Flanders to Rocroi, where Alatriste dies. Don't worry! Alatriste's death won't be seen in the movie, but it's known that he dies in Rocroi.

There's a moment, when they are in Rocroi, you see Iñigo is writing, and when the French cavalry charges Copons tells Iñigo: "If you survive this tell what we were", and all the members of the crew were moved to tears. One of my favourite scenes is when the French are attacking the Spanish Tercio, when they are about to be wiped out, a French negotiator goes over to the Spanish field with a white flag, and tells them: "The Duke of Enghien admires your heroic resistance and offers you an honourable withdrawal", or something like that; and then the captain steps forward and says: "Tell the Duke we are very grateful for his words, but this is a Spanish Tercio"... It's a very touching farewell.

Everything is very good, there are things I like more and things I like less; I especially like the dramatic, dark, moody vision of it. At the beginning of the film you see a large map of the world with all that was the Spanish Empire marked in red, and a voice-over says: "In the 17th century Spain still dominated the world. Flanders, America, and so on joined the Portuguese colonies... all that vast empire was supported thanks to the professional armies, whose principal group were the Old Tercios of Spanish infantry; this is the story of some of those men". Camera fades to black, and you see a Dutch canal, at night, in the fog...and the armies, all dirty, are waiting to slit the throat of a Dutchman in a surprise attack...

IM: People are quite worried about the fact that Captain Alatriste has to die...

AP-R: We all die...How could Alatriste not die?. The adventures begin in 1623 and end in 1643. Those are 20 years of Spanish history, 20 years are enough for a lot of things, I can write all the books I want as long as I don't kill him yet...We know he has to die in Rocroi, but there's still history left; so if some day I want to tell his death, I'll tell it. What I mean is that Alatriste has to die in Rocroi because of what Alatriste represents. Rocroi is where the invincible Spanish infantry is finally destroyed and so the Spanish hegemony ends and the French one begins. In that battle the Old Tercios let themselves be destroyed for reputation. Instead of fleeing they decided to fight, and they were holding their positions, in formation, fearless, without capitulating, for reputation; eventually those who survived surrendered. I loved that way of being destroyed for Alatriste, because he represents the end of the Spanish empire, therefore he had to die there.

IM: Joan, do you have the image of a dead Alatriste in mind yet?

JM: No, not yet. I tried once...

AP-R: But he has already drawn him old. A young guy sent me a letter saying, "You haven't realized, but Alatriste posed for Velázquez, Alatriste went to Velázquez' studio and he needed a model, so Alatriste posed for him...he painted him as Mars, Alatriste is Velázquez' Mars, in age, look, everything.."; so you realize there are things the readers know and you don't, and Joan has painted the scene where Alatriste is posing for Velázquez...

JB: I wanted to ask you about the promotion.

IM: We have something in our favour, that we are working with a trademark, Alatriste is a trademark.

AP-R: Alatriste is a registered trademark. The level of bitchiness in this world is so high...one day I was told, "Have you realized that anyone could use Alatriste to name a chain of hamburger restaurants?"; so I registered the name.

IM: Now we are working on promotion. The web site is about to come out...an official web, fantastic, out of the ordinary, it's beautiful. But then we are going to do the typical campaign, since Telecinco is the principal co-producer we'll make good use of the channel to do the campaign. Besides all that is the publicity, we are trying to do a travelling exposition with all the materials we could gather, clothes, cannons... in order to do something beautiful that can be seen all over the country. And we will also do the promotion with the actors, Viggo is coming to go on tour in Spain, promoting the film, going to premieres, etc...

AP-R: There will be Alatriste everywhere! By the way, there's an Alatriste site on the Internet. Some wonderful guys, I don't know who they are, have one of those unofficial sites, where they have put pictures and information during the whole shooting. It's a fantastic site, they had everything about the film before anyone else did. Since there's always some infiltrator - I presume there will be one here today, there's always someone from that site - you can tell on my behalf that I'm very pleased with it.

JB: What public is the film suitable for?

IM: In this film people kill, slit throats...so it isn't recommended for kids under 13.

AP-R: If they aren't 13 years old, could they go with their parents?

IM: There's no prohibition, it's just a recommendation.