Catalan director Dani de la Orden makes his debut ‘test‘ is a rather black comedy with a starting point that invites the audience to join in its satire and question its own moral values: What do you choose, 100,000 euros now or a million euros in ten years? The two couples who were part of this experiment, Blanca Suarez Y Albert St. Johnexemplifies professional success (and money), and Look Ibarguren Y Carlos Santos, for whom things did not go so well. Let the game begin.
“I was very interested in the starting point (based on a play by Jordi Vallejo). It gave me the opportunity to talk about capitalist society, the neoliberal world we live in, and how the system is driving us., how we can succumb to it despite ideals”, Dani de la Orden says in a phone call the same day of the premiere. One day when another of his movies was on the billboard, ’42 seconds’A drama based on true events about the Spanish water polo team during the Barcelona Olympics starring Álvaro Cervantes and Jaime Lorente.
The pandemic has brought with it these little paradoxes, and it is precisely the director who has suffered some of the consequences. ‘Until the wedding separates us’, which premiered shortly before the prison, had to delay the broadcast of ‘Mother o pope’ for a year, and now there is this interesting coincidence on the billboard. “Two completely different films, so each will find its own audience. The only reading I can do is that, despite fears about the future of cinema, a comedy, a sports drama, and a movie by such a unique director as Albert Serra were released in the same week.
Success or failure at the box office is precisely linked to one of the film’s backbone themes. The ‘exam’ in which the concept of success or failure associated with economic power is all-encompassing. “I’m so curious about what success really is, I think it’s become a generic word associated with work. I am clear that it is not shooting two movies in the same day or shooting a lot. I think it has more to do with working inside, building yourself and enjoying what you do, finding your vital gratifications. When I was in my best professional moment, I was in my worst personal moment, and that makes you walk away from things.
Last year, Spanish comedy didn’t seem to favor the public (except for ‘Padre no hay más que uno 3’ by Santiago Segura). Having proven his expertise in this field, Dani de la Orden believes film works when there is a connection with the public. “Where there is laughter there is hope”, comment. And certainly the most enlightening moments in this case are about unmasking the characters’ appearances and showing their smallness. “They are all indefensible, quite dark, and a very bad game of domination is being set up between them. But then you gradually realize that other things are going on, and that causes the conspiracy to move into other areas.”
The director always jokes that most of his movies are remakes. In this case, ‘Hand test’ is not and has an original script by Jordi Vallejo, who adapted his own play. “We had to change some things from the original material, because if I’ve learned anything with ‘Litus’ (by Marta Buchaca), it’s that the jokes in the scene don’t work the same way when they’re transferred to the screen. . So some are funnier on stage and some are funnier on film.” But what he’s very proud of is his leading quartet. Carlos Santos describes it as a scenic chameleon, Albert St. John as ‘pure charisma’ Blanca Suarez as a player with pure blast and Look Ibarguren“She acknowledges that she has a natural grace and magnetism,” she repeated after working with him on ‘Mamá y papa’. Kind of like Will Ferrer in our country.”