The cinema of Isaki Lacuesta has always been in some way related to the musical element, especially since The legend of timein which he blurred the boundaries between documentary and fiction to pay tribute to the figure of Island Shrimp.
Now he addresses another legend, that of The planets, although from the first moment on the screen it appears written that “this is not a film about The Planets.” What it is about is the relationship between three friends who have formed a cluster and they are in the process of decomposition. And, in the midst of that chaos, after the bassist (May Oliverembodied by Stephanie Magnin) and the drummer completely abandon the project, the only two members, the singer (Daniel Ibanez) and the guitarist (Crystalline) will have to compose an album to fulfill the record company’s plans.
It may interest you: Cinema and songs, the fever for musical biopics: from Los Planetas to Amy Winehouse through Locomía
Second prize was born from the hand of the screenwriter Fernando Navarroand in principle I was going to direct it Jonas Truebabut he ended up leaving and it was Isaki Lacuesta who took charge of him, co-directing with Pol Rodriguez.
And, as has happened in practically all of his work, which takes us through both Golden Shells of the San Sebastian Festival what he got for The double steps and Between two waters to the intimate recreation of the jihadist massacre of Bataclan in the extraordinary One year, one night, in this case we also find a mutant film, full of layers, that is lost, sought and found through three voices that will trace different itineraries, some of construction, creation and others of self-destruction. The film got the Golden Biznaga in the past Malaga Festival and the awards for best address and to best assembly of Javi Frutos.
Question: Screenwriter Fernando Navarro first wrote a script with Jonás Trueba and then another with you.
Answer: I think a lot of different movies could have been made. The film by Jota, by Florent, by May, by Eric (the original components of Los Planetas)… What interested us was to capture a collective vision. Because, deep down, each character has their own way of looking at things. The film begins with May playing with her back turned and her eyes are directed away from the rest. There are four characters who look at different things and offer those four looks to the viewer. It seemed to me the most realistic way to approach the film, based on false memories, with very detailed and literal things that fans of the group will surely recognize and others that are invented from top to bottom.
It may interest you: ‘The Last Late Night’: A live demonic seance that challenges the limits of terror
The film begins by pointing out that it takes place almost in another time, in the 20th century, as if it were a vestige of the past.
Of course, it was a different world in which people listened to records by inserting a needle, and to talk to someone you had to put a coin in a machine that didn’t usually give you change. All of this is almost from a remote time.
To what extent do you think this is a generational film? More than the pre-technological aspect, I am referring to a way of seeing the world.
We have been told a lot about it being a generational film, it was like an instant adjective from the first screenings of Málaga, but the truth is that neither Pol nor I put it that way. But there is something that interests me about this question, the particularities that the 90s had. I have always thought that there is a pendulum movement between one decade and another. In some, viewers or listeners need more order, calm, and in others, surprise, novelty, originality are urgently needed. This was the case in the 20s, the 60s and also the 90s, which are very clear moments in which a certain radicality was opted for. Now we are installed in the opposite, in the need for security, perhaps due to the constant economic crises, due to the difficulty in accessing housing. You prefer to watch a series after a shitty day.
Comfort zone.
Yes, and in the 90s it was just the opposite, suddenly there were new sounds, ways of telling films in a different way and, even though they were indies, they reached a large audience. Ferrara, Jarmusch, Tarantino premiered. It is perhaps the best example. His scripts at the beginning of his career now would not go through any workshop, because they would change everything, as an example of everything that is poorly done according to the conservative codes that prevail now.
At the end of the day, ‘Second Prize’ also contains that idea of being a film with a certain degree of experimentation, but one that is designed for mainstream consumption.
From the beginning I had identified a lot with something that Jota said, that he had ambition to reach the largest possible audience but, at the same time, he did not want to do anything that could change him as an artist to achieve it. I identify a lot with a scene in the movie in which the singer and the guitarist argue about whether it is better to reach a larger audience or a smaller audience. It’s a conversation I could have with myself or my colleagues.
And where would this film be located?
I like that the particular and the massive are confused. For example, noise is a reaction to the dominance of clean digital sound. And the distortion, now, begins to have a deliberate expressive and emotional value. The Planets made noise and also hymns that could be chanted with a very radical and visceral force. In that sense, we wanted the film’s photography not to be pristine 4K, but to have something random and different, not dirty, but with unexpected tones.
In that space that separates ‘indie’ from ‘mainstream’, the decision not to feature well-known performers is also a declaration of intentions.
A very conscious and deliberate decision, yes. We were clear that the actors in the film had to be musicians, because for us it was a fundamental question to find real energy. They couldn’t make soundtracks, they couldn’t not know how to play the instruments.
None of his films are like the previous one.
I try to do things I haven’t done. For example, on this occasion I have written a song with Alondra Bentley and that would be the Goya that would make me most excited to win for this film. It’s the first time I’m going to do self-promotion for awards season.
You mutate according to the characteristics of your projects.
Of course, because we are never equal. I am not the same as when I started and I have always been eager to learn. I like what you say, because I want to make films that change, like the songs change rhythm all the time. An album is not asked to have the same unity of style and I believe that a film should not be required to have that either. Therefore, every time we change characters in Second prizethe shape and style change.
However, there is a certain type of documentary look that prevails in each of his works.
I think that in this film is where my realistic and fantastic sides are closer, even in the same sequence, and that is why the change of register is more abrupt. I am constructing a discourse that I am changing: that I have made a vampire movie, a ghost movie, or a B movie, like the ones that Los Planetas liked so much. But it is also a love movie, a movie about the team, about teamwork. It’s also a disaster movie.
