How do you tell your story without really telling it? That's the question asked by Ruben Alves, director of MissingWhen he was working on his first project: The golden cage. Monday, July 3, 2023, France 3 This terribly moving film airs from 9:10 p.m. The film tells the adventures of Maria and José Ribeiro, a Portuguese couple living in Paris who are in charge of the dressing room of a Haussmann building. Both come from an immigration that is not often talked about in cinema, but Ruben Alves wanted to reveal it to the public, with the addition of a love story. “I saw a report about a Portuguese receptionist in Paris, in the beautiful neighborhoods. She explained her life, what she did. In her last question, the journalist asked her if she planned to return to Portugal one day. After thirty-five years, she answered that, in fact, she was thinking of returning to her homeland, but that she also felt very good in her little golden cage… Her answer crystallized everything I wanted to say.Director Leroy explains the genesis of his film.
The Golden Cage: A very personal story of Ruben Alves, who did not expect such success in France and Portugal
“It wasn’t for me to make an autobiographical film, but to talk about something I know intimately since I was born in France to Portuguese parents. My parents came to France at the age of eighteen, leaving poverty and fascist Portugal. My father did odd jobs, always on construction sites, and my mother was a cleaner.““But he could never have imagined the massive success it would become around the world,” the director says in the film’s press kit. Only in France, The golden cage Surpassed 1 million entries after 5th week of operation It was nominated for the 2014 Cesar Award for Best First Film. In Portugal, it grossed $5 million. Huge numbers that no one expected. In Columns 20 minutesHugo Guillén, a childhood friend of the director and co-writer of the film, welcomes the fact that “Some will watch the movie again four or five times, sometimes with flags or T-shirts.” When it's released. Coming soon.CustomAdmitted on October 1, 2013 “After 1.2 million screenings in France, it is true that the film's success in Portugal is incredible. The film benefited from a very good release date there (in the middle of summer) and an important marketing plan. Ruben Alves, the director, and his actors defended the film well in the press, and given that some of them are famous in Portugal (Joaquim de Almeida, Rita Blanco, Maria Vieira…), this certainly helped a lot..
Why did Ruben Alves wait seven years before making a remake of The Golden Cage after the success of The Golden Cage?
He didn't think he was saying that well. He's close. Firstly In 2020, Ruben Alves returns to this experience. “My desire for cinema came primarily from being behind the camera because I couldn’t fulfill other people’s desires. So I started writing different projects.”He says. After playing in the late 2000s Mrs. Irma By Didier Bourdon and Defense Secrets By Philip Haim, he decided to start designing his first film. “A great personal project linked to my Portuguese origins, as crazy as it may sound,” Pathé Banco told us on the simple pitch. I was even able to assume that most of the main cast would be Portuguese. Even if few people know them in France”“He tells our colleagues. Despite the international success of his first film, the director has refused to put his foot on the accelerator. “My agent was encouraging me to move quickly and strike while the iron was hot. But I didn’t want to. I felt like I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I needed to feed myself with something else.”He admits. We'll have to wait seven years to see him back at the helm. Missinga touching comedy starring Alexandre Witter, Isabelle Nanty and Pascal Arbelault.
