Spanish directorial duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi are the talk of the town in Cannes this morning after the joyous reception for their Cannes Palme d’Or contender La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) and 22-minute ovation.
Revolving around the interconnected stories of three men in three different eras of 1932, 1937 and 2017, the picture is inspired by Alberto Conejero 2015 play La piedra oscura (Dark Stone) and an unfinished work by poet and playwright Federico García Lorca who was murdered in the early days of the Spanish War.
“It’s a movie about how not being able to communicate to each other is the way to violence, and we have different contexts, the pre-civil war in ‘32, the civil war in ‘37 and a kind of present, 2017, where being a gay man is very different because you can express yourself, but you find other difficulties,” said Ambrossi.
“There’s a physical inheritance in the movie, like the black ball Federico used as a metaphor, of our fear, the shame you have inside,” added Calvo, referring to Lorca.
“It’s something we feel we’ve inherited as gay men and LGBT people and queer people. There’s this black ball that comes through generations, and there’s something about that connection that talks about inheritance, talks about the art that survives through time. It about the inheritance of the shame and the pain and the black ball.”
The cast combines three openly gay actors in the lead roles, singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau and Carlos González, with stars Penelope Cruz, Glenn Close and Lola Dueñas.
“I don’t think it has to be mandatory, but I think it’s very special when it happens,” said Ambrossi of the casting of openly gay actors for the lead roles.
“We tried to make a casting with gay actors, openly gay actors, and behind the cameras, with a lot of LGBT people, making a queer movie, because at the end it’s a tribute to Federico Garcia Lorca, who is the most important gay man in Spanish history,” he said.
“It’s a tribute to him, and I’m sure this makes it very special. When gay people and queer people watch La Bola Negra, I’m sure they’re going to connect and feel the truth, also gay actors, they know how to express what it’s like to be rejected, what it’s like to be given the black hole in your life, and we wanted to do that.”
At the same time, he said, the casting of Cruz, Dueñas and Close gives the film another, wider, universal dimension.
“We wanted to make a big movie. We had enough of this feeling that LGBT stories should be small because LGBT stories can talk to anyone in the world… we wanted to make it big, and to have Penelope is like a dream, because a lot of people will be like, ‘Oh, Penelope is there’ and willl connect with the story also”
To see the full conversation, click on the video above.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.
