It is never clear whether a career award (whatever that may be) is the opening of a will or the celebration of an inheritance. Probably neither of those things. Or both at the same time. «I never look back. It would depress me a lot. “I prefer to think that I am still seven years old, although at the same time I know that I am not,” he says. Isabel Coixet (Barcelona, 1960) at the same time completely happy and slightly overwhelmed by a prize that receives the cheeky name of European Achievement in World Cinema Award (something like an award for European achievement in world cinema). “In any case, reality puts you in your place because, despite everything, you still have the same financing problems as always to carry out your projects,” he continues and, immediately afterwards, so that it does not seem like a pose, he reasons it: «At first you have problems because you are new and now you have them because your experience makes some producers distrustful. There are those who feel threatened if you show that you know more than them. It is clear.
Either way, the prize is yours. Already. Without surprises and without competing with anyone. “That’s calming,” she says. Initially, the idea was for him to receive the honor in the company of his admired Vanessa Redgrave, designated as the honorary protagonist of the evening that hosts the 36th edition of the European Film Awards at the Arena in Berlin. She couldn’t be. The coincidence of one and the other had its particular and even hidden meaning. Coixet likes to remember that the first time cinema impressed her to the point of leaving her literally speechless was during the theoretically contraindicated screening for her age of her then of her (she was just a child, perhaps the seven-year-old girl from before). ) of Isadora, by Karel Reisz. “I did not understand anything. But I saw how the protagonist burned her parents’ wedding certificate. And he had countless lovers. And it was Vanessa Redgrave,” he recalls. It cannot be due to health problems of the actress. But the memory remains there forever, perhaps next to the unmistakable flavor of the Darlins candies that were sold at the Texas cinema on Bailén Street in Barcelona where her grandmother was a box office clerk. Time has these things.
But let’s not get lost. Coixet arrived at a cinema without quotas and without more references for women in direction than… «In truth, I paid more attention to the people who started with me than anyone else. I think of Cédric Klapisch, in France, or the American Hal Hartley. Of women directors, my only reference then, when I was taking my first steps, and much later, when I met her as a jury at Cannes, was and still is Agnes Varda», he says, takes a second and continues: «From her I learned above all practical things. I remember her telling me that she would take care of me from owning my negatives. “I didn’t do it and I regret it.”
And what does Coixet feel as a reference (things of time too) for many of the directors who today are responsible for the change that Spanish cinema is experiencing. “It seems fine to me, but the important thing is not to relax and stay active,” she says. At the end of the 80s, when she made her debut with Too Old to Die Young, no one paid attention to gender parity or percentages. “When I started,” she says, “being a woman and being young were definitely a challenge.” handicap. Now it’s an advantage. At least to a certain level. It is still a problem if what you aspire to is to make a big-budget film that is not even Wonder Woman in Barbie, but for the rest it is undoubtedly an advantage. What if I would have liked to start now and not when I did? Yes, without a doubt, I would have suffered much less, but you get your time. There is no other and there is no point in regretting,” concludes.
Be that as it may, regrets aside, Isabel Coixet can now boast of her European contribution to world cinema. It’s like that. Attest to this, in addition to the current award, four participations in the Berlin Festival with My life without me, Elegy, Nobody wants the night y Elisa and Marcela; one in Cannes with Map of the sounds of Tokyoand another one in Venice with the secret Life of the words … That and up to eight Goya Awards from a total of 16 feature films. «The first time I visited a filming, with Pilar Miró, I was impressed by how much people shouted there. They were all imperative orders. I saw clearly that I couldn’t be that. I am not so. And so on until I discovered that the important thing is to find your own method, your way of doing things », she says. And what is that system? «I believe in everyone’s contributions. It doesn’t work for me to scare actors. nor do I think it is necessary to do 79 takes. I am not afraid of the team’s contributions or of going against what I had very clear. What is the worst thing that can happen to you? What do you have to rectify? Isabel starts, she says, now. Just turned seven years old.