Viggo Mortensen
By : Suzanne Philips
Egyptian Theatre
Hollywood, CA
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Photos by Suzanne Philips
The American Cinematheque kicked off it's Salute to Recent Spanish Cinema
last night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood with a double feature of
ALATRISTE and SALVADOR. Stars Viggo Mortensen and Unax Ugalde were on hand
to introduce the film and answer questions after the film was over. Also on
hand were Dennis Hopper, Hank Mortensen (Viggo's son), actor/musician John
Doe, and Mark Ordesky (Executive Producer LORD OF THE RINGS). 
Viggo remarked that he felt that director Agustín Díaz Yanes has done for
Spain what Peter Jackson did for New Zealand in LORD OF THE RINGS - using
the natural beauty of the country as a backdrop for the film and causing a
tourist boom for the area. Unax Ugalde, who plays Inigo in the film, said
that ALATRISTE is the biggest film ever to be made in Spain and Viggo said
that it was a thrill to be working with a lot of the best actors in Spain
all in one film, as this very rarely happens.
ALATRISTE used parts of several of the books by Arturo Perez-Reverte to make
up the screenplay. The film covers about 20 years of the character's life.
Viggo was able to get legendary fight choreographer Bob Anderson(LORD OF THE
RINGS, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN) to come on board and he did a wonderful job
of making the fight scenes flawlessly realistic.
Viggo did a lot of research into the character before shooting began. He
went to art galleries to study the paintings of Spanish painter Diego
Velazquez and was able to find both his and Unax's characters in several of
the paintings. He also studied Flemish art as well to get a feeling for the
period.
When asked why the film hasn't been released for American audiences, Viggo
said that the film has done
wonderfully well in Spain and Europe, (it won
several Goya awards which are the Spanish equivalent of the Academy Awards
and was in contention to be the Spanish entry for the Oscars), by the time
it premiered at the Toronto film festival, the studio had not arranged for
any American or Canadian press to be there so there were only a few European
journalists there to cover it. Viggo feels that it was poorly marketed at
that point, but he is hopeful that now that the film is opening in Mexico
and South America, that hopefully it will be able to come into this country
through the back door and find an audience that way.
Viggo and Unax stayed after the Q&A to talk with attendees and sign
autographs.
ALATRISTE is currently playing in the U.S. at selected film festivals and
the studio is hopeful that it will come out sometime this year.