There are names behind the most remembered comedies on television, such as 7 lives, where they both overlap. Nacho G. Velilla directed and produced the TV series Mediaset, while Carmen Machi played Aída, the character who would later have her own series. They later coincided with films like Que se muere los feos, Villaviciosa de all lado or Perdiendo el Norte. Now, they’re joining forces again for Mañana es hoy, starring Machi and Javier Gutiérrez. This comedy chronicles a family’s time travel from the ’90s to 2022.
It is the most different project they have done together. Mix comedy and science fiction. The movie was slow to get off the ground. Why? Why?
Nacho G. Velilla: The idea came to me about five years ago. It came about because I wanted to cover another genre of comedy. I didn’t want to do a pure comedy. The production process and the writing of the script were difficult. I also insisted on bringing together two people with complex professional agendas, Carmen Machi and Javier Gutiérrez. We didn’t stop working until we got the script we wanted and the type of production we wanted.
Carmen: You told me about the project next door in Villaviciosa. We shot the movie at La Vila Joiosa in the Community of Valencia.
Is it difficult to get out of your comfort zone in the industry?
NGV: When you have a formula for success that works, everyone asks about it. It can be difficult when you say you’re going to do something different. It’s knowing that you can make projects happen even though it’s part of a guarantee because previous successes give you a guarantee. This is a complicated movie because of the ambition of the cast and production. Content-wise, this isn’t your typical movie where they tell you “You’ve got it tomorrow”. Unlike my other productions like Perdiendo el norte or Villaviciosa next door (laughs).
Why did you want to compare today with the 90s? What conflicts with what we currently have this time?
NGV: The truth is, at first we wanted to compare today with the 80s, but we thought the 90s was a period that was not reflected in Spanish fiction. When we started to take a closer look at the music and the cinema there… The 80s were defined as aesthetically pleasing, but the 90s were a crossroads where we all started to go crazy. We all wanted to do something, so we had very different things in both fashion and music. The new wave was over and there were grunts, but there were also gentlemen rapping, others, new disco music… Nobody knew which cultural path to follow. We found a very cool mix.
How did the 90s live?
CM: I had a great time in the 80s. It was a time when I had fun to the fullest, I was in my twenties. All was great. I even thought it was normal. Then I realized that we are privileged, especially in Madrid, with a wonderful mayor like Tierno Galván who decided to bring all the culture to the streets. I swore that one day I would have a home in Malasaña, like in Gone with the Wind, and it did. I was very happy. He was still alive in the 90s. Cinema captured how the explosion of life of the period was experienced, but not how it was lived on a daily basis.
Were people more open than in the ’80s?
CM: The difference was noticeable, yes.
She plays a woman who experiences the culture shock between the 90s and 2022 in her own flesh.
CM: Its battery is about 50 years old. Live at the same age twice. One of the things that surprises him the most is the normality of talking about sex today, but she’s even more surprised that women do it. Women have taken responsibility for many things at all ages and have come to a position where they are a full part of the business world. It wasn’t so clear that it could work for his battery. However, she is the one that suits the 21st century the best. Women are warriors. we can’t agree. Pili knows how to enjoy freedom, but feels so much pain that she cannot fully enjoy freedom. She does anything to stay alive, she.
Is this the best time we live?
NGV: When we started the documentation process of the movie, we realized that there were 20-30 years in Spain where the rules of the game changed. Public concerns have changed. This encouraged social and cultural transformations. There were about 40 years when Spain didn’t change anything, and from the 80’s it became another country. The movie gave us the opportunity to reflect that. Changes were made so quickly that the generation gap between women was huge, even within the same family.
CM: And you weren’t aware of that. We were a very modern and flexible generation.