SynopsisA hired killer who doesn't kill in a film with roads, dogs and guns.
Buenos Aires. On the top floor of a hospital, a Spaniard that has lived half his life in Argentina realizes that he is dying. This old hired killer -tough, funny and tender- runs away with a happy load of morphine, and starts a trip up North, heading nowhere in particular. A girl he finds on the road will be his loyal companion along five thousand kilometres of black comedy.
José SacristánThe filmography of José Sacristán is as long as that of John Ford or Allan Dwan; it’s immense, both familiar and unknown. Sometimes things are too close for us to see them. Sacristán has starred in some of the best films in Spanish cinema, films by Fernán Gómez, José Luis Garci, Gonzalo Suárez, Eloy de La Iglesia, Adolfo Aristarain, Paco Regueiro, or the latest film by David Trueba. He has gone through all the changes of our cinema from the 60s on. In the 2000s he focused on theatre: he was not enthusiastic about the films he was proposed.
He started as a supporting actor in comedies by Mariano Ozores or Sáenz de Heredia. Later, in the 70s, he represented the complex face of Spaniards who were living the Democratic Transition.
Sacristán was always a box office success, but he was never given a Goya Award neither was he recognised in large festivals. He associated with unorthodox directors, and starred in controversial films, made in a contradictory era.
José Sacristán never hid: behind his characters’ make-up, there was him, with a clean face. His acting mixes realism and modernity with absurd and with all the savoir faire of silent movies. And, always, humour. His very peculiar humour, merging both the ridiculous and the grotesque. All this, seasoned with an impossible tenderness (he plays a hired killer), is contained in his interpretation of Santos in “The dead man and being happy”.
Years are very flattering on him.
Roxana BlancoOnly an actress like Roxana Blanco, with her tenderness and her ferocity, with her sense of humour, could be able to counterbalance someone like José Sacristán. Roxana Blanco is the most important and famous Uruguayan actress of her generation, the most awarded interpreter in the history of her country's cinematography. She is specially photogenic has an special fotogenia and a silent beauty, and her interpretations, chameleonlike and simple at the same time, have garnered her awards in festivals all over the world. She starred in films like Alma Mater, by Álvaro Buela -one of the biggest box office successes in Uruguayan cinema-, Matar a todos, by Esteban Schroeder and La demora, by Rodrigo Pla. She is part of the permanent staff of the prestigious Uruguay National Theater.
Jorge JellinekThis guy bearing an unforgettable appearance turned into a surprising actor for many cinema goers; he both astonished and delighted us. But Jorge Jellinek is, above all, a very important film critic and a famous cultural journalist in Uruguay. He starred in just two films, after his debut in Federico Veiroj's A useful life (La vida útil, 2010). He has shown himself to be an interpreter of a misterious charisma. An unreapeatable actor who, much before the writing of The dead man and being happy, was meant to be a fundamental character.
Lisa CaligarisAlejandra, another pretty young woman.
Valeria AlonsoPretty young nurse.
Carlos LecuonaÉirka's father.
Crew
CREDITS
Directed by Javier Rebollo
Produced by José Nolla, Lola Mayo, Damián París & Luis Miñarro.
Co-produced by Álex Zito, Vero Cura, Jérôme Vidal.
Written by Lola Mayo and Javier Rebollo, Salvador Roselli.
Executive Producers José Nolla, Vero Cura, Luis Miñarro.
Camera Operator & Director of Photography Santiago Racaj.
Edition Ángel Hernández Zoido. Art Direction Miguel Ángel Rebollo.
Assistant Director Luis Bértolo. Casting Cendrine Lapuyade.
Sound Recording Daniel Fontrodona. Sound Edition Pelayo Gutiérrez.
Mix Patrick Ghislain. Foley Artist Álex F. Capilla.
Costume design Marisa Urruti. Hairstyle and Make-up Dolores Giménez
A Spanish-Argentinian-French co-production: Icónica, Lolita Films and Eddie Saeta (Spain), in co-production with Utópica Cine (Argentina) and Noodles Productions (France), with the associate production of Itela & Ronald Melzer, with the sponsoring of ICAA, Televisión Española, TV3, the financial support of ICO and the support of Cinemage 6 and Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha.
TECHNICAL DATA
Production year 2012. 94 min. 16 mm. Color. Scope 2: 35. Dolby Digital. V.O. Spanish
Premiered at San Sebastián International Film Festival. Official Competition. September 23rd 2012
Director
Javier Rebollo was born in Madrid in 1969, while Jean Renoir shot Le petit théâtre de Jean Renoir and Truffaut La siréne du Mississippi. From 1995 on, through his production company, Lolita Films, he shoots a series of short films co-written with Lola Mayo and starred by the same character and the same actress, Lola Dueñas. In 2006 his first film Lo que sé de Lola (Ce que je sais de Lola) premiers at San Sebastián International Film Festival. The film obtains the FIPRESCI Award at London Film Festival and is nominated to the Goya Award to Best New Director; this feature, shot in France and starred by Lola Dueñas, closes the cycle of films made by the director and the actress.
Rebollo's second film, La mujer sin piano (Woman without piano, 2009), is awarded Best Film at Los Angeles AFI Film Festival, receives the Silver Shell to Best Director in San Sebastian and is voted Best Spanish Film of the Year by both Cahiers du Cinéma Spain and daily newspaper El Mundo.
El muerto y ser feliz (The dead man and being happy) is his new film.
DOWNLOAD all the stuff from "The dead man and being happy"
Contacts:
Iconica: jnolla@iconica.es - Eddie Saeta: eddie@eddiesaeta.com
Festivals:
Montse Pedrós: montse@eddiesaeta.com - Lola Mayo: lola_mayo@yahoo.es
International sales:
Urban Distribution Int: eric@urbandistrib.com - Arnaud Bélangeon-Bouaziz: arnaud@urbandistrib.com
Press:
Sonia Uría: suria@suriacomunicacion.com + 34 91 434 21 34 / + 34 686 639 650