José Luis Garci: "I copied 'Casablanca' and nobody noticed"

BarcelonaDuring his visit to Barcelona a few weeks ago to receive the BCN Film Fest Honorary Award, José Luis Garci (Madrid, 1944) met with the press, eager to talk about cinema and enjoying the peace of not having to defend any of his own films. In theory, Garci closed his filmography in 2019 with El crack cero, and he does not seem eager to direct again. “I don't feel like making movies anymore, I prefer a world without meetings –he assures–. Besides, one would have to meet with the platforms, which I don't really know what they are. When I was studying, platforms were what Bogart used to wear to be at Ingrid Bergman's height.” It's clear that Garci enjoys presenting himself as a relic of the past, but then he admits that yes, he is also subscribed to Netflix and to “all” the platforms, but “especially to Movistar+ for football and DAZN for boxing.” And he even watches series. “I got hooked on Succession and I really liked the first episode ofTrue Detective, and also The Penguin. It's incredible that they didn't give Colin Farrell the Emmy,” he says.

In any case, he considers himself a cinephile going against the grain with the present: “Cinema is going down one path and I'm going down another, and I'm the one going down the wrong path, I just can't quite grasp it.” The problem? First, that cinema is now “a combo meal” where everything is mixed. “They no longer limit themselves to making a film about Blackness, but it's also a western with vampires. Genres are mixed haphazardly and I disconnect.” Garci also criticizes the current length of films: “All films have an extra reel, that is, twenty minutes. There's a need to film and film continuously. It must be the influence of series, which never end.”

García not only disagrees with modern cinema, but also with the new critical consensus. For example, with the one that placed Chantal Akerman's film Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at the forefront of the list of the greatest films in cinema history in the major Sight & Sound poll of 2022. When he learned the news, García rewatched the film and reaffirmed his disagreement in the 2024 essay The best? Musings on the greatest film in history (Notorius). “To begin with, Jeanne Dielman would not exist without Buñuel's Belle de jour, because it uses the same idea of the elegant prostitute,” says García. “And the woman is an object of observation as if she were a Warhol painting. When she bathes and masturbates, it's Roy Lichtenstein's Women in bath, . In Akerman, I detect the stillness of Dreyer, which in turn is that of painters like Hammershoi. The tones are very silent: the white of the kitchen tiles, the ochres of the living room... Akerman had studied a lot, she was very intelligent”. In any case, the Madrid-born director attributes the film's triumph in the Sight & Sound poll to the “support of the feminist movement”, but does not refrain from pointing out other female directors whom he considers superior, such as Dorothy Arzner or Ida Lupino. “Jeanne Dielman is interesting, but it lacks something. Why doesn't she have friends? Why has she set up a brothel in her house? And why that ending? Explain it to me”.

Late Vindication

But the changes in critical consensus no longer surprise Garci, who has seen the valuation of his own work revive after decades of merciless mistreatment by the most demanding critics. “I’m surprised, because my films never got good reviews –he admits–. But now there’s a new generation that loves El crack and talks to me about the fixed shot in You're the one or the appearance of Fernando Fernán Gómez in El abuelo. I’m a bit perplexed, because for me the films are the same, but I’m happy. What makes me sad is that Alfredo Landa couldn’t see it, because they always treated him terribly”.

What Garci doesn’t seem to shed yet is the label of filmmaker of the Transition, a fame acquired with his initial trilogy of films, Asignatura pendiente (1977), Solos en la madrugada (1978), and Las verdes praderas (1979), and which the filmmaker wears with pride. “The Transition was a great moment when everyone put Spain first and, although there were tensions, they tried to find a possible path for everyone –he states–. My first films were a reflection of what was happening at that time. But it’s curious, in Asignatura pendiente Pepe Sacristán ends up saying that we can’t spend forty years talking about the previous forty years. And look, we’ve already spent eighty years.” The director attributes the current “tension” to one fact: “Spaniards have been put together, but we don’t like each other,” he says. According to Garci, “Spain is a deteriorated, broken jacket, with its pockets and elbows worn out… A horror”.

Although in the past he already announced his retirement and ended up backing down, now he seems determined that his relationship with cinema will be limited to watching and thinking about it. Which he already enjoys: Garci also voted in the Sight & Sound poll and was convinced that The Godfather or a surprise like Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo would win, but he voted for Casablanca. “Hollywood cinema is Casablanca –he states–. It has everything, it’s the greatest love story and it has a bittersweet ending when many didn’t. I have a special affection for it because I copied it and no one noticed. Asignatura pendiente is Casablanca: a boy and a girl who met before, when they were younger, and meet again with her already married. There is also a complicated political situation, with Franco dying and the regime changing. And in the end they separate again. I took a classic and turned it around”.