Fernando León de Aranoa remembers Celso Bugallo: “The question is whether God believes in us” | Cinema: premieres and evaluations | EUROtoday

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“The question is not whether we believe or not believe in God; the question is whether God believes in us.” The phrase was uttered by Amador, very drunk, leaning on the bar of La Naval, the bar the place a bunch of shipyard employees with out work met. Mondays within the solar. The first time I heard Celso Bugallo say it was on the casting assessments we had completed in Vigo a couple of months earlier than. I had written it, however I used to be overwhelmed to listen to it on his lips. From the second I stepped foot in that room I felt like I used to be already a part of the movie. In his deep gaze, in his sullenness, in his arms and in his sturdy, sculpted options, I assumed I noticed these of Amador that day, his energy and his dignity as a employee, his lucidity, his wounds.

When Celso confirmed Amador’s excesses, his unnoticed loneliness, his dangerous wine, the whole lot grew to become actual. Rarely have I seen a lot reality, a lot depth, on digital camera. I keep in mind with emotion an evening shoot, a scene with Santa, the character performed by Javier Bardem within the movie, each of them sitting on the ground, laughing like two kids, like two males. Like two Siamese brothers, that is what they have been in spite of everything: classmates, employees. If one falls, all of us fall, Amador informed him who was as soon as his disciple, and in doing so he reminded him of the place they arrive from, who they’re, the place they belong.

Celso knew find out how to transmit tenderness, ache, humanity to the character; and that delicate stability, that of dignity in defeat. Through him he embodied the loneliness of the bars, the ashamed silence, the desperation of those that stroll alongside that dying row of civil life that’s unemployment.

Then we did Amador collectively, with Magaly Solier. And just some years in the past The good boss, the place he performs Fortuna, a devoted man, who works together with his arms, loyal to the purpose of submission. Much of the load of the movie, together with its ending, fell as soon as once more on his burdened, guide employee’s again.

His gesture, his look, the way in which he spoke, the way in which he was silent: the whole lot about him was true. The reality of an actor who labored and not using a internet, who confirmed his viscera, and to whom I owe a few of the most fun moments I’ve skilled on a set. On the opposite aspect of the size, giving which means to the whole lot, its simplicity.

This Monday within the winter solar I can solely have a good time his frank laughter, the corporate he has been, his kindness. He leaves as he lived, elegantly and quietly, however all of the characters he has been stay with us without end.

https://elpais.com/cultura/cine/2025-12-25/fernando-leon-de-aranoa-recuerda-a-celso-bugallo-la-cuestion-es-si-dios-cree-en-nosotros.html