(Alejandro Amenabar, above.)[We're continuing with our flashback series of interviews. This interview with filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar originally appeared in Venice Magazine in 2004. Several years prior, Amenabar directed Abre los Ojos, which would be remade as Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe, with Tom Cruise in the lead role, and Penelope Cruz reprising her role from both films. My biggest peeve with Vanilla Sky is that when Cruise has the disfiguring accident that is supposed to ruin his life and any possibility of real romance...he still sort of looks like Tom Cruise, but with some scars. Some guys would still be happy looking like that. When the disfiguring happens in Abre los Ojos, the same character looks only slightly more handsome than the Elephant Man, and the accident was far more effective as a plot device, consequently. HIS life is devastated. Anyway, here is Alejandro Amenabar from 2004.)
By Terry Keefe
For a relatively young man of 32, filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar seems to spend a lot of time thinking about death. He first truly made his mark on the international film scene in 1997 with his second feature, Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), the story of a handsome playboy who is horribly disfigured and takes his own life, only to find himself in a virtual reality-induced dream world. In 2001, Amenabar would cross over into Hollywood studio filmmaking with The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, a film about a haunted house which, for this writer at least, provides an extremely convincing portrayal of what being a ghost would actually be like. Amenabar's newest production is The Sea Inside (El Mar Adentro), which is a departure from his previous work in that it doesn't contain any horror elements, although questions about death again form the center of its theme. The film is based on the true story of Ramon Sampedro (played by Javier Bardem), a Spanish man who has been paralyzed in bed for thirty years and now seeks the right to die with dignity. Where The Sea Inside fits into the themes of Amenabar's prior filmography is that, although it deals with the nature of death, the film also uses death to reflect what life actually means to the living. Although Ramon wishes to die, he has the uncanny ability to brighten the lives of everyone around him. Two very different women, a lawyer named Julia (Belen Rueda) and a local woman named Rosa (Lola Duenas), both fall madly in love with Ramon. Rosa, who has encouraged Ramon to change his mind about wanting to die, must ultimately make her own decision about how much she really loves him and whether she will help him achieve his one greatest wish.
For a relatively young man of 32, filmmaker Alejandro Amenabar seems to spend a lot of time thinking about death. He first truly made his mark on the international film scene in 1997 with his second feature, Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), the story of a handsome playboy who is horribly disfigured and takes his own life, only to find himself in a virtual reality-induced dream world. In 2001, Amenabar would cross over into Hollywood studio filmmaking with The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, a film about a haunted house which, for this writer at least, provides an extremely convincing portrayal of what being a ghost would actually be like. Amenabar's newest production is The Sea Inside (El Mar Adentro), which is a departure from his previous work in that it doesn't contain any horror elements, although questions about death again form the center of its theme. The film is based on the true story of Ramon Sampedro (played by Javier Bardem), a Spanish man who has been paralyzed in bed for thirty years and now seeks the right to die with dignity. Where The Sea Inside fits into the themes of Amenabar's prior filmography is that, although it deals with the nature of death, the film also uses death to reflect what life actually means to the living. Although Ramon wishes to die, he has the uncanny ability to brighten the lives of everyone around him. Two very different women, a lawyer named Julia (Belen Rueda) and a local woman named Rosa (Lola Duenas), both fall madly in love with Ramon. Rosa, who has encouraged Ramon to change his mind about wanting to die, must ultimately make her own decision about how much she really loves him and whether she will help him achieve his one greatest wish.
Born in Santiago, Chile, in 1972, Amenabar's family fled to Spain in 1973 to escape Pinochet's coup d'etat. He began composing music as a child to accompany short stories he had written. (As he has with all of his features, Amenabar also composed the score to The Sea Inside.) Amenabar grew up in Madrid and, as a teenager, enrolled in the city's Complutense University. He quickly tired of school and fervently began making movies. By the age of 19, he was winning awards for his short films, and at the age of 23, he directed his first feature, Thesis, about a film student who stumbles onto a snuff film. Many consider Amenabar the modern era's heir to Hitchcock because of his taut, suspenseful narratives which often have twist endings. The Sea Inside doesn't fall into the Hitchcockian category, yet its structure is extremely tight, and is filled with surprises. And like Amenabar's previous productions, there is an element of the world of dreams which pervades it, as Ramon imagines himself flying out of his bedroom window and living the life he wishes he could live.
When did you first hear of Ramon Sampedro's story?
Alejandro Amenabar: I saw him on TV, and I was interested in the case, but I wasn't thinking of making it into a movie, because it was so shocking what he was asking for. And at the same time, the way he expressed himself, so relaxed, that impressed me. I knew he had written a book (Letters From Hell), and I got it, and it was basically a philosophy and poetry book. There were very clear concepts about life, death, and love. But, again, I couldn't make a film of that, because it was abstract. In the book, though, he describes the accident that paralyzed him, and I thought that was very interesting because, during the accident, he says that he saw his whole life flashing before his eyes. I realized that he had been a traveler in his 20s. Then I started researching his private life and began hearing about all these women falling in love with him. It was then that I thought he would be an incredible character. I wasn't sure how close I would be to the facts [in a movie version]. So I interviewed a lot of the relatives. They told me facts and anecdotes about how Ramon's life was. I thought then I wouldn't need much fiction to make it work as a film. We had the sense of humor, we had the idea of looking out the window, the idea of a world of dreams, the relationships with all the members of the family. So I knew we could make a drama out of that.
(Javier Bardem in The Sea Inside, above, right before his fateful dive.)Did you look at a lot of actors before you settled on Javier, or did you know that he was the one you wanted right from the beginning?
He was the only choice. After I finished the script, I called him and asked him to consider playing the part. Because I think he's very talented, and I think he's the most gifted actor in Spain nowadays. But he didn't have the features of Ramon, or the age of Ramon. That was the main problem, the age, but I decided to trust completely in his talent.
Did you leave it to Javier then to develop the basics of his performance?
Yes, we discussed the character and the script for a few days. He was like a journalist, taking notes, asking me questions about what I meant by this or that scene, where the character was going. Once he got that information, he said, "See you in a couple of months." So he prepared himself and one day he came into my house, and laid on my sofa, and played Ramon.
What was your reaction to what he showed you?
That it was very good. But we still didn't know how it would work with the make-up. So we didn't really know until the second or third day of shooting, when we realized he had completely incorporated the character. It was a perfect interaction between the make-up and his performance. You could completely believe him.
Both you and Ramon had the challenge of keeping the audience interested in a film which revolves around a character who can only move his head. How did you tackle that?
In terms of Javier's performance, he had to concentrate his energy in the eyes and in the voice. In my case, it was the writing. We thought it wasn't about moving the camera, but about moving the feelings. In the film, there are these people coming around [Ramon], and I wanted to see life from their point of view. And then I actually wanted to get physically out of the room, so we created "windows" for the audience to get out of the room.
Javier must have been very uncomfortable sometimes on the set. He spends most of the movie in bed.
He's an angel. Maybe because he incorporated the character of Ramon Sampedro so well, but he never complained. He waited and waited and was very patient. He made a lot of jokes. He can be hysterical and he made us all laugh a lot. And I think his sense of humor connected somehow with Ramon's sense of humor.
I understand that you used improv more on this film than you ever have before.
I would say that I've been trying to free myself more and more. So that now, I don't see the lines in my scripts as verses in a poem that cannot be changed one single comma. Now I encourage the actors to change things, so that [lines] may be said in a more natural manner. That doesn't mean that they were improvising all the time, but the text wasn't untouchable.
The Sea Inside had a lot to say about love as it relates to the possession of another person.
That was in Ramon's writings. He talked about loving, but not possessing someone. To be able to accept not owning a person. At the same time, he felt that he owned his own life, but he also didn't mind getting rid of it.
Do you share the opinion of Ramon, that people should be allowed to die with dignity if they so choose?
Well, my personal opinion is that it should be contemplated by law. I think it's a very sensitive matter and we're talking about living and dying, so we have to be careful. On the other hand, I consider that cases like Ramon's are very clear to me.
Did the film provoke a lot of discussion at home in Spain, about the right to die?
No, it actually hasn't provoked [that type of discussion], although the film has had a huge impact in Spain. I think the film deals with life, actually. I want the audience to feel sad for Ramon, because he's leaving us, and we loved him and admired him, but at the same time I would like people to feel alive and ask themselves how much they love their lives. So, at the end of the day, I hope that's the type of thinking, and rethinking, that people will do. Rather than just saying, "Let's approve euthanasia."
Let's talk about some of your earlier films. Did anything in particular inspire Abre los Ojos/Open Your Eyes?
I started developing the idea in the middle of a fever. [chuckles] I had a cold and spent a few days in bed and it was there that I started developing the idea.
(Penelope Cruz in Open Your Eyes, above.)How did you feel when you heard that the film would be remade by Cameron Crowe, and starring Tom Cruise, as Vanilla Sky?
I felt very honored and very excited. Actually, when we were writing the Spanish version, I remember that we thought, "If this were in America, Tom would play the lead role."
Do you want to offer an opinion on how the remake turned out?
To me, it's been weird because watching the same story done with a completely different tone, it was so weird. I remember when I saw the film for the first time, I kept thinking, "Well, I would have done this differently." But then I realized, "Well, of course, I've already done it!" [laughs] So that's the point that's interesting to me. He [Crowe] really made his film. It's like the same song with two different voices. That's what I appreciate about it. Plus the buttload of money.
Is there anything about dream worlds that attract you so much as a filmmaker?
Actually, I don't dream too much, or I don't remember what it is I dream. But I guess that the world of perception, and the world of perspective, and the world of desire, interests me. And that has to do with dreams. And actually, going to the movies is like dreaming, isn't it?
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