ADD THE WORLD ON GOOGLEMake our news appear in your searches
Culture John Malkovich cannot stay at the Danieli hotel in Venice because he does not have the Covid 'super passport' that the country requires
Suddenly, John Malkovich (Illinois, 1953). Probably, the last time the actor made an appearance at a festival was at the Berlinale in 2023 with a film as peculiar as it was exaggeratedly unsuccessful. Seneca, by Robert Schwentke, was him in his most daring, furious and, if you will, perfect version. Wild Horse Nine, by Martin McDonagh and recently presented at the Venice Film Festival, is exactly the same, but in reverse. A cinematic prodigy illuminated by an almost enchanted patience, a slow and wounded lyricism; without surrendering either to the exhibitionism of the always witty phrase or to the laziness of instrumental dialogues; without overpowering with flinty metaphors and without the deceitful impudence of off-screen and the viewer's free interpretation. And in the center, once again, the most risky, furious and perfect version of John Malkovich in one of the most successful roles of his career, but, and this is the important thing, without moving from the spot. It would seem that he has always been, is and will be him and that it is the films that embrace him with greater or lesser success. In this case, the film-actor symbiosis is dazzling. The story of two CIA agents is told in the days before the coup d'état of September 11 in Chile in 1973, that of Pinochet. The two are going to spend the last days of their lives, theirs and that of so many others, on Easter Island. In truth, only one is dying. The other accompanies him. The dying man, so to speak, is Malkovich. Suddenly, his tendency toward acting (let's not call it overacting, for God's sake) acquires the exact meaning of the tremendous, the dark, the radiance that disappears after a single explosion.
The most basic. What does a story like this set in 1973 say about us right now?
I imagine the bottom line is that it's important not to live in a fantasy world.
The answer is too short even for the headline. Do you believe, for example, that the American people are aware of the role of the CIA and its government in the death and disappearance of almost 3,000 Chileans?
I'll respond with something that happened to me the other day. I was watching a talk show. It was on a beach. They asked the bathers about the attack on the Twin Towers. Nobody knew anything about something that happened 25 years ago. That is, no one remembers 9/11 anymore, how are they going to remember anything about the other 9/11, the coup d'état in Chile?
Would you therefore say that we live in a forgetful society?
We live in a time in which not only memory is a problem, but also information. There is still a lot of information that is kept secret, that the State hides from citizens and that States hide from each other. It becomes very difficult to know our own history objectively because it is always told in an interested way. And it would be good to know the history, if only so as not to make mistakes when speaking. Chile is just one example among many.
Recently, elections were held in Chile and the winner was the representative of a far-right party that does not recognize the atrocities of the dictatorship...
Forgetting is something we humans do, at least in part, to survive, but it is often unhealthy.
Again in the cinema of Martin McDonagh is a story about the friendship of two men who confess what they think, what they feel, how extraordinary or unusual do you think something like that is?
I think it's much more common among actors than among other people. Actors are trained to be sensitive. Our work material is feelings. Our job partly consists of transmitting truth. For this reason, and contrary to popular belief, an actor always lies badly. Think that we are paid to be sensitive, to show ourselves vulnerable, crazy... There should definitely be more actors.
"A limited vision of the world has been imposed, where good and bad are simple concepts"
His career is somehow full of characters who are, like this one, antiheroes. Is there an explanation for it?
All in all, there are more antiheroes than heroes in the world. The strange thing is that movies are filled with exemplary characters. Nobody is deep down. On the other hand, no one wants to be part of the system deep down. I don't think there are many people who feel comfortable being part of the machinery that surrounds us. Everyone feels different, so I believe that my characters are very close, although it may seem otherwise, to the common feelings of the population.
In recent festivals, and this one is no exception, there is talk of the lack of presence of the big Hollywood studios. Do you think anything is changing in the industry?
For me, what is usually called Hollywood no longer exists. The great studios you speak of produce very little and no longer occupy the same space in the common imagination, in culture, as they did in the 80s or 90s. Culture right now is almost an obscene word, a swear word. Its space has been reduced alarmingly. Studies are bought and sold, they are merchandise.
Do you think that Hollywood that says it does not exist is afraid to talk and reflect on politics? His film, in fact, is rather an exception in a panorama of quite silence.
I don't think I'm afraid, the new generations simply prefer to look at issues and discuss topics very close to a comfortable space that does not pose problems. A very limited vision of the world has been imposed, where good and bad are concepts that do not give rise to complex stories.
