Gael Garcia Bernal, the Mexican star of The Motorcycle Diaries and Y Tu Mama Tambien took time out from mentoring aspiring film makers at Doha's Qumra industry gathering earlier today to offer up some helpful tips about his experience of world cinema.
In a career spanning 24 years as an actor, director and producer, during which he has amassed awards from BAFTAs to MTV Awards, Bernal has worked in every corner of the globe, so would-be professionals may want to take notes as he gives the lowdown: “In Italy they don’t know how to shut up,” he begins. “When people say ‘silence,’ they all go ‘OK, yeah silence, yeah, OK’ and nobody stops speaking.”
He continues: “In Spain if you want to change someone’s position, maybe the director says ‘I dunno, the script person maybe isn’t that good, maybe we should hire another person,’ then somebody from the crew comes over and says ‘if you take her out, then we all go,’ and all of a sudden your film is kidnapped. I’ve seen it happening many times, really. It gets very complicated.”
One can’t help suspecting a hint of bias on his homeland, which comes out of his critique relatively unscathed: “In Mexico you get the best crew, you get the best everything,” he laughs. “For example in Mexico there is a party every weekend. Saturday is a half day shoot, and it’s like a syndicate law that you have to throw a party every Saturday. The film has to bring in Tacos and beers and there has to be a party.”
The US is next up for assessment: “In the United States there’s always people shouting, going ‘OK, guys — 15 minutes to go,’ then ‘10 minutes to go.’ I’m like ‘OK guys, I got it. I’m eating. Your food’s like 45 minutes, it’s not some proper sit down thing.”
Returning to Europe, it’s bad news for Scandinavia too: “In Sweden, of course, they work only eight hours, including lunch, so shoots go on for, like, 15 weeks,” he says. “They’re like ‘OK, that’s it. Cut. We’re done for the day,’ and I’m thinking ‘done for the day? I just got my whole make up on. It takes a while.”
Bernal returns to Latin America, where it seems not everyone is doing as well as Mexico: “In Argentina, you get people saying ‘Eyy, oh no, here we don’t do things this way,’ as if you were from Finland,” he explains. “‘Here it’s very complicated,’ they say. ‘You have to take care.’
“I’m like ‘guys I’m from Mexico, I know how it is, come on.’”
He adds: “In Brazil you have to tell the person that’s come to tell you that it’s time to shoot ‘OK — let’s just shoot,’ because they just start to talk about everything. ‘Did you see this, and did you see that? How’s Mexico?’ You just have to go ‘OK, OK. Let’s just go to the set.’ It takes a long, long time to do things.”
Returning to Europe, the French fare well faced with Bernal’s acerbic wit: “In France they really know how to do things. France is actually quite good.”
Bernal still has time for one last jibe though, this time at the expense of France’s cross-channel next door neighbour: “And in England? Well — the food, the food,” he groans. “You know, they go ‘OK — it’s time for lunch’ and you go ‘oh, no, no.’”
He concludes jovially: “I think overall that about covers world cinema.”
cnewbould@thenational.ae