Kazuo Ishiguro: "We need the monarchy because we need symbols that unite us"

There are rhythms and rhythms.

At a film festival like the one in San Sebastián, in which the promotions of the various films overlap and the interviews are juxtaposed, the appearance of a Nobel Prize winner for Literature with an exquisite education, complex thought and slow speech gives a fresh air to the San Sebastian tomorrow.

It is the morning of the British Kazuo Ishiguro, and in the

where he conducts the interviews it seems that time moves slowly.

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When Ishiguro (Nagasaki, 67 years old) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2017, his talent and fame had gone beyond the world of letters and reached the audiovisual world: Kazuo has written scripts for television films, movies and series and has seen his films adapted on screen. novels

, and

In

—which is being screened these days in San Sebastián and will be released in Spain in February 2023— the carom is for many more bands:

Akira Kurosawa's film that the same director considered his best work, and which in turn is loosely based on

by Tolstoy, and has transferred the plot to London in 1952. It is there that an old city official will discover who suffers from terminal stomach cancer, after a life withered and crushed by his service to the bureaucracy, and faced with that leaden gray of his existence, he will dedicate the remaining half year to a mission.

"I've done more things," jokes the screenwriter raising his hands.

The interview takes place the day after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

What does Ishiguro think of her and in general of the monarchy?

“Um.

We Brits are currently very divided.

Not as much as in the US, but there are two sides, and it shows how issues such as Brexit or independence tensions in Scotland or Northern Ireland are faced.

I had never experienced a division like this, and many of us feel uncomfortable in the face of these confrontations.

Brexit brought us to a higher echelon of confrontation, friends against friends.

I'm not talking about being right or wrong, but that it would be worth considering the nation we want to be.

And in times like this, with the economic crisis, the invasion of Ukraine, with a divided United States, people need the monarchy, because we need symbols that unite us.

That they are above parties.

For it,

As a symbol, whether it makes sense or not, the monarchy works very well.

And the funeral has confirmed it.

Many of us appreciated Isabel II, and we would like the union of these days to continue.

And the future?

“Ah, that's it… It's clear that the royal family has this role, and may or may not fulfill it.

Something similar happens in other countries: it is an institution that brings together, even in Japan.

Stabilize”.

Passion for Kurosawa

Speaking of Japan.

Ishiguro has always been passionate about Kurosawa, despite the fact that he, he confesses, speaks poor Japanese: he has lived in the UK since he was five years old.

“I was wondering if

would make sense in another world.

I didn't even know that Kurosawa, who otherwise usually draws inspiration from European literature, had used a Tolstoy work until

premiered at the Venice festival.

I think he would have approved of this courtesy to London.

Kurosawa has been covered from

to

To me, of those films, I love

But there was also a further push: the writer is attracted to post-war British cinema, which left a handful of masterpieces "by people like Emeric Pressburger, Alfred Hitchcock and his last English works, Anthony Asquid with

Carol Reed with

Ishiguro elaborates: “In my student years,

was very important to me.

And not because of my Japanese origins, but because I felt that it spoke to our generation, that it pointed out the vital mistakes in which we could fall.

For decades I thought I'd like to see a Western movie based on

Although I never thought I would do it.

And when I received a proposal from the producer, I decided to marry his powerful central idea with the reflection of what it means to be English, what intrinsically English values ​​this

And what better than to take her to his passion for British cinema from the very time in which

The beginning of the film certifies this homage to an era and a form.

“I'm not saying they were all masterpieces [laughs], but I like them.

And that style has vanished.”

In reality, Ishiguro suggests, what has disappeared is English confidence "not only in the cinema, but generally".

He gives an example: “If you look at Michael Redgrave's character in

he has a self-confidence that we haven't seen since.

Today's British heroes follow in the footsteps of the Americans.

Michael Caine or Sean Connery are already a change from Redgrave."

When it was announced that he had won the Nobel, the Swedish Academy argued that the author knew how to turn the great concerns of humanity into questions as essential as they were simple.

And that is in both

and

“It is that my fascination for the reflection on the English enters into something more general.

It is a kind of metaphor, of something that is in the human being.

Maybe in

It seems more exaggerated, but I insist, it is in anyone.

It is the fear of emotions and that they become the governing force in life... It is true stoicism and humor in the face of misadventures.

It is the sense of duty, that although you are a tiny person immersed in a powerful nation you try to bring dignity to your country... The stereotype of the English gentleman harbors notions of all humanity.

And you discover it by observing, for example, the characters of John Ford.

It seems to me that

still challenge us to the face”, he details.

Ishiguro himself brings the subject of literature and film into the conversation.

"Now that we're with John Ford and what he's up to... That's a great example of how cinema works as art, because any viewer can identify with what he sees."

Has he learned more being a screenwriter or seeing how others have adapted him?

“I am still learning.

And I keep getting lots of offers to write or to sell my rights.

I don't like generalizations, but I'm going to get into one.

The cinema fails to build passages grounded in memory, or move you to the mind of the protagonist.

It's much easier for a book to play around with that narrative artifact.

In turn, a film has a hard time developing in a

with the same fluidity as a novel.

They have only succeeded, for example,

by Andrei Tarkovsky, or

by Terence Davies.

And it is a problem.

I continue to generalize: cinema does better when it narrates an action before the viewer's eyes and uses the rest of its weapons: a room, music...”.

After the interview, while posing for the photo, Ishiguro says that he has known Carlos III for decades, because he was not only the one who named him a Knight, but they have collaborated in various charitable causes.

"Especially focused on education, in public schools," he explains.

And how does he see it?

In his slow tone, and smiling, he replies: "We will have to see."

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