Cruz, Bardem bring Troubled Marriage to Venice
Spanish actors Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, one of the most glamorous couples in the film industry both in real life and on the big screen, are presenting the long-awaited feature film Bunker at the Venice Film Festival. The film tells the story of a marriage in crisis against a backdrop of paranoia surrounding the climate crisis and deepening inequality, AFP reports.
The feature, written and directed by French filmmaker Florian Zeller, has been eagerly anticipated for months, given the similarities between its fictional characters — who have been together for 17 years in the film — and the two actors, who married in 2010, CE Report quotes AGERPRES.
“From the very beginning, what also interested me was having them together on screen. I thought it would be a unique way to capture something special from a real couple,” the director explained at a press conference on Tuesday.
Asked what he had brought from his own marriage into the role, Javier Bardem replied: “Nothing.” “We are both truly gifted when it comes to fiction. Otherwise, we wouldn’t survive in this profession,” the Spanish actor continued.
Bunker tells the story of Miguel, a renowned architect who is considering accepting an offer from a billionaire in the technology sector who wants to build a bunker in Hawaii. His wife, Sofia, is not pleased with the lucrative project, as it raises a series of doubts in her mind about her husband and their 17-year relationship.
The film opens with a scene in which Miguel tells his friends at a restaurant about his first meeting with Sofia, who watches him closely.
“Even the most beautiful stories can begin with a misunderstanding,” one of the guests then remarks.
Florian Zeller, whose feature-film debut The Father won two Oscars in 2021, envisioned Bunker with Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz in mind. He drew inspiration from another famous film about a couple in a tense situation: Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
The French director said he was intrigued by the fact that the two Spanish actors had never played a married couple in a film project.
“I wanted to tackle a subject that interests me, namely the burning authenticity of truth,” Florian Zeller revealed on Tuesday, while emphasizing that he nevertheless drew a line “between reality and fiction.”
“I had no doubts. Because it was Florian, and from our very first meeting with him, we both loved his script,” Penélope Cruz said.
Javier Bardem, 57, and Penélope Cruz, 52, have appeared together in nine films, from the sensual Jamon, Jamon (1992) — their first project together — to the thriller Everybody Knows, released in 2018.
“There is a good balance in the way we talk about work. Obviously, when we are preparing a film together, we talk about it a lot, but we haven’t done it very often. Everything has happened naturally, roughly once every five years,” Penélope Cruz continued.
The two Spanish actors also attended the most recent edition of the Cannes Film Festival in May, but with two different films: Javier Bardem played an authoritarian father in The Beloved, while Penélope Cruz portrayed a cabaret singer in La Bola Negra.
Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, both winners of Academy Awards for supporting roles, are regulars at the Venice Film Festival. She won the Best Actress award, the Volpi Cup, for her role in Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers (2021), while he won the Best Actor award for his performances in The Sea Inside (2004) and Before Night Falls (2000), a double achievement that few actors in the world can boast.
Photo: Instagram/bunker.thefilm
