How do you tell your story without really telling it? This is the question asked by Ruben Alves, director Mrs.When he was working on his first project: Golden Cage. Monday, July 3, 2023 France 3 This terribly moving film airs from 9:10 p.m. The film tells the adventures of María and José Ribeiro, a Portuguese couple who live in Paris and are in charge of the dressing room of the Haussmann building. Both come from immigration that is not often talked about in cinema, but which Ruben Alves wanted to reveal to the public as, as a bonus, a love story. “I saw a report on a Portuguese concierge in Paris, in the beautiful districts. I explained her life to her, and what she had done. To his last question, the journalist asked her if she intended to return to Portugal some day, after thirty-five years. She replied that, in fact, she had thought of returning to her homeland, but she also felt comfortable in her little golden cage… Her answer crystallized everything I wanted to say”The director explains to tell the genesis of his film.
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The Golden Cage: A very personal story of Ruben Alves, who did not expect such success in France and Portugal
“The question for me was not to make a biographical film, but to talk about something I knew intimately since I was born in France to Portuguese parents. My parents came to France when I was eighteen leaving behind poverty and Portuguese fascism. My father did odd jobs, always on construction sites, and my mother was a cleaner“says the director in the film’s press release. But he could never have imagined the massive success it would have across the world. in France alone, Golden Cage It exceeded one million admissions after its fifth week of operation It was nominated for the 2014 César Award for Best First Film. In Portugal, he made five million dollars in earnings. Huge numbers that no one expected. in columns 20 minutesHugo Guillen, a childhood friend of the director and co-screenwriter of the film, welcomes the fact of this “Some will see the movie four or five times, sometimes with flags or T-shirts.” in its product. fromassignedadmitted on October 1, 2013 that After 1.2 million admissions in France, it is true that the film’s success in Portugal is staggering. The film had a very good release date there (in the middle of summer) and an important marketing plan. Ruben Alves, the director, and his cast defended the film well in the press. To the fame of some of them in Portugal (Joaquim de Almeida, Rita Blanco, María Vieira…), it certainly helped a lot”.
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Why did Ruben Alves wait seven years before making a movie again after the success of The Golden Cage?
And he didn’t believe well. it’s close Firstly In 2020, Ruben Alves looks back on this experience. “My desire in cinema was first and foremost to be behind the camera because I could not fulfill the desires of others. I had to take matters into my own hands. So I started writing different projects”, He says. After playing in the late 2000s Madam Irma by Didier Bourdon extremely confidential by Philip Hamm, he decided to embark on the conception of his first film. “An overly personal project linked to my Portuguese ancestry. As crazy as it sounds, banco in simple pitch,” Pathé told us. I was even able to assume that most of the main cast would be Portuguese Even if few people in France knew them.He tells our colleagues. Despite the international success of his first film, the director refused to set foot on the metronome. “My agent encourages me to chain up quickly to hit when the iron’s hot. But I didn’t want to. I got the impression I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I needed to feed me something else.”, he admitted. It would be necessary to wait seven years to see him back at the helm Mrs.a touching comedy starring Alexander Witter, Isabelle Nanty and Pascal Arbello.
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