An Interview with Loreto Mauleón: The Making of “The Stillness in the Storm”

Elena del Olmo Andrade

Last Tuesday, May 9, three days before the premiere of The stillness in the storm, I had the opportunity to interview the actress Loreto Mauleón. With projects like The secret of Old Bridge, Patria and the film adaptation of The crooked lines of GodMauleón plays his first leading role in the feature film by Alberto Gastesi. In the Ocho y Medio specialized bookstore, in the heart of Madrid, I sat down for a few minutes with the actress and listened to her impressions about the filming of the film, the concerns of her character and her vision of the film industry. .

Elena del Olmo | What was your first impression of the film? Whether it’s when reading the script or talking to the director for the first time.

Loreto Mauleón | The first thing was a call from Alberto and I didn’t know what he was going to send me but I knew I wanted to do it because I’ve known him for a long time and I know how he thinks, what he wants to say, the things he likes to tell and I like them too a lot of movies like that. Also, I think there is a need lately to get down to earth a bit, not to run, to listen a bit. Life drags us to go running and we all have a tremendous need to slow down, so this makes you go down, and I knew that somehow it was going to count something like life itself. And when I read the script I already said: okay okthis was.

From the role of Lara specifically, what caught you?

I knew it was going to be a film made with a lot of love and care.

There was some similarity with me that interested me a lot in the sense that it doesn’t tell, but when I was twenty years old I also lived in Donosti, I studied there and I moved around those places where she moves. They are common places for the three of us and then I came to Madrid and I’ve been here for a few years but when I’ve come back, when I come back it’s like I feel like I’m seeing the city with different eyes but because I’m different, of course. This attracted me a lot, how Lara comes home and how she sees everything in the streets, all the places, the memories that she brings back. I don’t know, I was very attracted to this part. I knew it was going to be a film made with a lot of love and care. It is a very familiar film, we are all friends and in fact it was very noticeable when making the film because it is a film that we have shot in three weeks, it is a very short time to make a film and that is not because there is a very strong team and very that is rowing towards the same place that does not come out.

The production was very fast, as you said.

Yes, we shot in June and presented at Zinemaldia that same year. There came a point in which the editing of the film was simultaneous to the shooting.

How have you lived this experience? As exciting as it is demanding when it comes to working and keeping you focused on your role.

I don’t know if it’s because we had been talking about it for a long time or because we already knew the characters a lot because even if there was a change in the text, you knew where you were going. Despite going fast, I don’t feel like it was a fast shoot, that is, I do feel that it was a fast shoot, but I enjoyed it anyway. There are times when in a hurry it is impossible to enjoy the shooting, but this time it is.

Do you think that your experience in serials, in some way, helped you to adapt to the pace of work?

I always think so, all the experience is useful when it comes to shooting, with speed, but it is true that shooting a daily series, for example, has nothing to do with shooting this. But yes, always, everything goes well.

The aesthetics of the film caught my attention: the black and white, the chiaroscuro, the format, the geometry… Did you know these decisions from the beginning? Did it change your vision of the film?

This story told in a more conventional way would not be the same

Yes, I knew that Alberto wanted to tell it that way. The image he had was of the floor in black and white, so at no time have we imagined it any other way. For example, when we were looking at the wardrobe, everything was how it will look in black and white, it changes a lot. So there was already something so integrated that it was going to be in black and white, and it suits the city so well, that I can’t imagine it any other way. This story told in a more conventional way would not be the same.

Watching it I have thought of countless movies that touch on the same themes. When building Lara, did you have any reference or something that inspired you?

No, I didn’t have anything concrete. Yes, we talked about movies or we talked about ideas, but I didn’t have anything specific. I understand it very from me, from me but very different at the same time. I let myself go, I trusted Alberto and that also made me really enjoy it. There is also an attempt at veracity that is achieved from this.

There is one scene in particular that caught my attention. During dinner with friends, the men talk for several minutes without asking their partners anything or including them directly in the conversation until finally they have to start a side conversation. Do you think that Lara is also characterized by what she does not say?

I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or that there is also a part that I like, I am very interested in that, right? See what the character has beyond what he says yes, then well I like that you have seen it. On the other hand, there are two very powerful scenes, very long, and that they are sustained while being so long… There the script is essential, what you want to tell and how I think there is no, as they say, verbiage, that is, there is no more , and that is what makes you need your silences, your times and your glances and that the text is what it is and that’s it.

How did you experience filming with the director? Was there room for contributions or improvisation in certain scenes?

Yes, Alberto has a lot of flexibility and at the same time he knows very well what he wants to tell and how then there was a very comfortable dialogue between actors and director, a very comfortable dialogue because we also know each other a lot and respect each other a lot at the same time. There are times when friendship can also be dangerous when it comes to work but there was no problem in that aspect and it was very good. Of course there are times when you say: “Well, I see it more like that” but it’s always to improve, I feel that way. He would roll many times with them.

Characters are a very powerful identification vehicle. Have you thought about what you want the audience to take away from your character or from the film in general?

Life is this, it is making decisions and it is also leaving other paths

That is important to me, it is important to me because I think it is what leads me to the movies. Going in and out with something removed somehow. Sometimes it’s for the better, sometimes it’s for the worse, but something has touched you, something has done to you. It’s so special to go to the movies, I’m so in love with the experience, I get emotional. What I like about this film is that a lot of people go in thinking they’re going to see something, I don’t know what they think they’re going to see, but they leave more touched and thinking a little about one’s life, connecting a little. Who does not identify with any subject we are talking about and we are talking about an age, but I believe that you ask these types of questions at any age. Constantly in life you are considering: “What if I had done such?”. What I think is different is that at twenty you see it in a way, you see that life is slipping away from you, at thirty you see it a little less and then it’s like this is how good life is, it’s making decisions and it’s also going Leaving other paths If people leave the cinema wondering a bit, connecting with themselves, I think it’s done.

Connecting with what you said before about the need for this type of cinema, I have also thought about Five beads, For example. There is a lot of concern about these issues right now.

Yes, I think we are dragged and we are going like a chicken without a head, we are running. I think we all feel the need to stop but we get carried away by society and everything. Then, suddenly, when you go into the cinema and stop because there is no other, you put your phone on silent even though there are people who don’t, and you really disconnect but connect with yourself and give yourself that space. And you ask yourself “Why don’t I do it more?

As a person within the industry, do you see that people go to the movies less?

Yes, yes I see it. The other day I went to see the 20,000 species of bees, I loved. I went to see her at the Renoirs and we were six people in the room. It suddenly made me sad. How is it possible for a film of this caliber to have six viewers? And in Madrid, people supposedly move around a lot. Although, well, there are the platforms with the option to watch at home, which obviously makes people go less, but we can’t blame that either, I think there’s room for everything. There is no comparison between watching a movie in the theater and watching it at home. It’s totally different, I can watch a series lying on my sofa but I don’t stop going to the movies, there are both things and they must coexist. Yes, I feel sorry and I do see that the movie theaters are emptier. I think the average age in theaters is mostly women in their sixties. And I, suddenly, see that my mother goes to the movies a lot more than my friends so it’s like, let’s consider this too because I really believe that there is nothing comparable to the experience of going to the movies.

To finish, do you think the end of The stillness in the storm is it a happy ending?