Alejandro Amenábar is visiting Barcelona where this Friday he attended a discussion lunch at the Cercle del Liceu with the former Minister of Culture of the Generalitat Santi Vila to talk about his cinema. Under the theme The importance of freedom to tell stories and surrounded by members of the private club located on La Rambla, the winner of nine Goya awards and an Oscar for Mar adentro has just released the adventure miniseries La Fortuna "a leap into the small quantitative but not qualitative screen" said in his own voice, as recalled by the vice-president of the Cercle del Liceu, PepeGarcía Reyes, who added that it is "a fresh, entertaining, truthful and professional story".

Amenábar wanted Vila, with whom he has a friendly relationship, to talk with him about the subject. The politician and historian underlined his admiration for the career of the director of Los otros, highlighted two moral virtues of the honoree, "authenticity and praise of the truth" and thanked him for presenting his book Vencer y convincer in Madrid at one of the " reputationally most delicate moments of my career" and which coincided with the premiere of While the war lasts, a tribute film to Unamuno by the director.

Amenábar, who has visited the Liceu theater on several occasions, has stated that he likes music and that he was linked "to film music before cinema because I was impressed as a child by the great orchestral masses that I saw in the films that John Williams put music to, one of them Superman, and I started buying records and cassettes. And the first reason I ended up doing the music for one of my shorts was because it was free." Then he has composed most of the themes for his works himself.

The director and screenwriter has remembered his mentor José Luis Cuerda, "the person who gave me my first opportunity" and who produced most of his shorts and films. When asked by Vila, where is the author's freedom given the rise of platforms, he considers that "there are many open fronts and that everything that is happening with the world of platforms is very exciting. Obviously the market is changing and my mentality When I started at university, I was always a mercenary because I knew I had to earn a living. Later, over the years, I have realized that for me, expressing myself is not only a way of earning a living, but of claiming myself and telling what I want to convey and freedom has become a very important element in my career".

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Over the years I have realized that for me, expressing myself is not only a way to earn a living but also to claim and tell what I want to convey and freedom has become a very important element in my career

He added that he is "expectant because after the pandemic people are returning to theaters but not as much as they would like, and on the other hand, more fiction is being consumed than ever (...) I like to tell stories and it's great that there are platforms, the problem is that platforms like Netflix that plays with so many millions of subscribers and takes into account the algorithm, to what extent am I going to be able to put creative energy when Netflix already knows what it's going to work or not". He believes that it is not as ominous as some because "the introduction of technology, of big data, is going to reach other sectors before the artistic one".

The author of Thesis defines himself as "a man from before, from the 20th century" and it is something that "comes for a profession that was born and has its peak in that century" and feels that the art of storytelling becomes more collective, "it's harder to find the author." If in his student days everyone wanted to be a film director, he believes that "now everyone wants to be an influencer" and he continues to claim that authorship of the last century. "All this together with the fact that I have tried to participate in social networks a few years ago and I have ended up leaving all of them, makes me think that I am from the 20th or 19th century," he admitted to the applause of those present.

I tried to participate in social networks a few years ago and ended up getting out of all of them

When asked if it is profitable to make movies today, Amenábar commented that 30 years ago his parents "became They were upset" when he decided to study at the Faculty of Information Sciences, "I was a disastrous student but I started making shorts. At that time we were experiencing the traditional and endemic crisis of Spanish cinema and now I would say that the tables have turned because cinema It is still in crisis. But there are the platforms that have caused that in that merciless fight that they have between them to position themselves, unemployment in the sector right now I would dare to say that it is zero. Getting people for a production of a series or movie on a platform it is very difficult because everyone is working in Spain", he insisted.

The Chilean-Spanish director has also referred to the level of stress that is generated in a filming and that sometimes "I have exploded". He has not denied that he has come across the status of stars like Nicole Kidman in The Others, with whom he also had a language barrier because at that time "he spoke very bad English", although he acknowledges that his big problems have not been with actors and actresses. but with some Hollywood executive or producer.

As a director, his goal is for the performers to "have fun, play and I know that they often have a point of madness" due to the avalanche of fans they awaken. He of his filmography admits that he was not very satisfied with Abre los ojos, of which Hollywood made a remake with Tom Cruise as the protagonist.

As a director, I want the actors to have fun, to play and I know that they often have a point of madness

In regards to his next projects, he assures that "I don't usually chain one project after another. I get obsessed with one and then I fallow and move on to the next project. In that process they can take weeks, months or in my case years and what I try is to control that process is more rewarding instead of seeing the negative".

Now he is working on a project with Mateo Gily "I don't know if it's going to lead us to a good port, but it's part of the process to be patient until we find something. I remember that from Ágora to Regresión a few years passed, but then you see others directors who go through the same thing and you don't get too overwhelmed. I don't have children to support and I'm getting by", he concluded.

I get obsessed with a project and then fallow it. It can take years until the next project and I try not to get overwhelmed