“Official competition”: Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Oscar Martínez and the ball of egos

Discovered in Venice in 2016 with honorary citizen a black comedy that had won actor Oscar Martinez the best actor award, Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat were back in Competition at the Mostra in September 2021 with Official Competence, a satire on the world of cinema that made the Lido roar with laughter. In their new film, the Argentinians reunite with their compatriot Oscar Martinez, this time alongside Almodóvar’s favorite actors: Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. All three enjoy this devastating farce that knocks out the dance of the egos of the 7th Art.

A bridge ? No, a movie!

As he celebrates his 80th birthday, don Humberto (José Luis Gómez), a big boss of the pharmaceutical industry at the head of an “indecent fortune”, according to his own words, thinks that it is time for he leaves something that counts in history. A bridge for example. Yes ! A bridge, made by a great architect. Or not, better, a movie. A great movie! Knowing nothing about cinema, the old man leaves it to his assistant to buy the overpriced rights to Rivaladnovel signed by a Nobel Prize for Literature, and to hire the best director.

It will be Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz), who has to her credit a Silver Lion in Venice and a Palme d’Or in Cannes. To embody the rivalry between two brothers against a backdrop of family tragedy in her film, the flamboyant redhead chose to hire two actors who are opposites: Iván Torres (Oscar Ramirez), a huge theater actor nicknamed the “Maestro”, and Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas), a world star more accustomed to Hollywood red carpets than Madrid boards. And the least we can say is that the current does not pass between these actors with radically different working methods!

An irresistible comedy

Retracing the making of the film, from the first readings to its presentation in Official competition, Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat take malicious pleasure in making fun of their characters who are all devoured by an oversized ego. The two actors of course, but also this “brilliant” director, who seeks to channel the respective personalities of her actors in the service of her film through a series of rather destabilizing exercises…

Irresistible referential comedy, Official Competence is a full-bodied stuffing. If we laugh a lot, if the characters and the situations are well sketched, the film is nevertheless a bit lazy, surfing for two hours on the same dramatic tension, without really succeeding in escaping it, no more than to the expected clichés about the film industry. There remains a tasty comedy, very well written, staged with inventiveness and carried by three actors playing with a lot of self-derision of their respective image.

Competencia oficial / Official competition Cinephile comedy By Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat Screenplay Mariano Cohn, Andrés Duprat and Gastón Duprat With Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Oscar Martínez… Duration 1h54

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“Official competition”: Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Oscar Martínez and the ball of egos