Almodovar, Cecilia get together after a decade

By Maria Luz Climent Mascarell

It has been more than a decade since the two worked together on a film, but the bonds Pedro Almodovar and Argentinian actress Cecilia Roth forged in the 1980s, when both were starting their careers, remain strong and he thought of her when putting together a cast for his latest wacky comedy, Los amantes pasajeros (I’m So Excited!).

It has been a while since ‘All About My Mother’, a drama that earned Almodovar an Oscar for best foreign film and gave Roth a European Film Award in 1999 for best actress, but director and actress kept in touch despite the distance.

“We never stopped seeing each other, writing to each other. Ours has been basically a professional relationship but we share very important years in our lives,” Roth said.

Roth took leave of a play she is performing in Buenos Aires to travel to Madrid for the presentation of ‘I’m So Excited!’

Other members of the cast include Javier Camara, Blanca Suarez, Lola Duenas, Raul Arevalo, and Carlos Areces. There’s also Hugo Silva, Guillermo Toledo, Miguel Angel Silvestre and Jose Maria Yazpik, as well as Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in a cameo role.

They are all members of this rowdy, slightly mad, amusing comedy set on a flight to Mexico in which the crew and passengers contribute to the craziness. In Spanish the title, Los amantes pasajeros, can be translated into “Temporary Lovers” or “Passenger Lovers”.

Roth, who is set to appear soon in another movie Matrimony’ began her film career in Argentina and then moved to Spain at the end of the 1970s. There she had a role in a famous movie ‘Arrebato’, directed by Ivan Zulueta and in Almodovar’s first feature film Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom.

“Seeing Pedro again is also recovering part of youth, glorious, memorable moments,” Roth said. She added that perhaps Almodovar’s work has become darker over the years, “but he is also more profound.”

“Pedro was always absolutely coherent in his universe and he transfers that universe to everything he does,” said Roth.

 “When he needs to tell it in a comedy, he tells it as a comedy, and when he needs to tell it as drama he tells it as a drama. He has always been a person who has set his own path, he has never imposed anything on himself as an artist,” she added.

 “There might be some things that I like better than others but there is always honesty there,” she said. “One has to be very careful when looking at the work of someone as respectable and admirable as Pedro Almodovar.”

Roth added that in I’m So Excited! Almodovar “returns to that lightness that is characteristic of him and which he evidently has not lost. He has returned to this style with the same freshness he had” when he started. In the film Roth plays an actress who garners more attention because she is privy to many secrets in show business than because of her artistic talent.

Many critics say the role is inspired by real life Spanish actress Barbara Rey. But Roth bristled at the comparison and said that the movie is a lot more playful than that. “Of course my character (Norma Boss) refers to others, but all of the characters do. I did not just want to imitate” a real life figure, she said.

Almodovar has said he chose Roth for the role of a film star facing rough times because she is at the height of her abilities.

Roth agreed, saying she is working in television, film and theatre and all of it is satisfying to her. “I’ve rejected many things. But everything I do, I chose to do, it is not because there was no other option. It is a huge fortune and I’ve worked very hard for things to be like this,” she said.