Luis Brandoni
works as an example of something that one does not know very well how to explain.
He could be an example of permanence: close to turning 83 he is actively working in his profession and if you do a quick calculation,
La patagonia rebelde
, where he was a young Brandoni, was filmed almost half a century ago.
Or an example of an ordinary citizen in the middle of a brutalized and polarized Argentina, where the word "lordship" seems to fit only him.
Opinion, debate, coherence, convictions.
It is not little for one person.
They even want to give him a hug.
The excuse is the revival of
Parque Lezama
, a work that is on its way to becoming a classic and is celebrating ten years as a poster.
His name is Luis and they call him Beto.
He explains it... Photos Emmanuel Fernández
-Your name is Luis, right?
-Yes, why?
-Because they call you Beto...
-Ahhh, because my name is Adalberto Luis Brandoni.
In those years, the Albertos, Norbertos, Heribertos were Beto.
Those who call me Beto are from Dock Sud, I moved from Dock Sud to Barrio River on my 13th birthday. I changed neighborhoods, friends...
-And you started to be Luis...
-No.
"We see old age as a fact of decadence and in many cases it is not like that", understands Brandoni.
-How is such validity maintained in a country that is used to treating its old people badly?
-We see old age as a fact of decadence and in many cases it is not.
There are people who are at their fullest and enjoy their intellectual capacity, not so much physical, to do a lot of things.
In my case, life passed me by and I reached this age.
We actors are lucky in that, because we can work when we are young and also when we are old.
There is no retirement age for the actor.
As long as memory gives us and we can exercise the profession with dignity, there is no age.
I have enjoyed good health, I am well fed and it is not that I have led a model life, but I took care of myself for this trade that I have been practicing for a little over 60 years.
"The worst time for me was during the Dictatorship," he recalls, not only in terms of job opportunities...
Have you ever lacked work?
-The actor does not have security, he does not have a stable job.
The worst time for me was during the Dictatorship, when we couldn't do what we're doing now: we couldn't do reports, we couldn't be named in the newspapers, except in reviews, we couldn't go on the radio, we couldn't do television...
-The prohibition consisted of not having the press?
-The intent was for us to leave.
They threatened me and I left in '74, but I came back in '75.
Later the Dictatorship made a black list where there were many people.
-But you worked in Dictatorship…
-I worked privately, nothing that had to do with the State.
We were closed.
In that sense I have nothing but gratitude to the public, because thanks to that I was able to survive.
"What I have in common with the character in the play is that we both play with fantasy and imagination," he confesses.
-What jobs do you remember from those years?
-Coexistence
, with Federico Luppi, at the Regina.
It was a very great success, or
PS: Your cat is dead
.
Only theater, television could not…
-The channels were in the hands of the State…
-Exact.
Cinema, neither.
Directors, authors, musicians: what we suffered was a very serious thing.
Why did they threaten you?
-Because they thought he was a communist.
I actively participated in the Actors Guild.
-You came back under the same government, before the coup. Weren't you scared?
-Fear paralyzed me, but I lost it and never found it again.
With Eduardo Blanco in the play that is at the Politeama, the Campanella theater.
Photo File Clarín
makes of a retiree
-The work ("Parque Lezama") contradicts your reality a bit: you play a retiree, but your life goes elsewhere...
-What I have in common with the character in the play is that we both play with fantasy and imagination.
The character invents other people, he is a mythomaniac, and I also do that because my job asks me to.
-Please dedicate a paragraph to Eduardo Blanco: his work in this work is exquisite.
-We have, I don't know exactly, but we are close to a thousand presentations.
And if someone dared to sign us a contract for two more years, I'll sign it.
With Eduardo we have not had a single problem, nothing.
We were on tour in the interior, we were in Madrid, he is a first class companion and an excellent actor.
Incomparable team, and that had never worked with him.
"The country is going to change," he hopes, in the next government.
"I'm not going to be a candidate for anything," she says.
-Why did you decide to be an actor?
-Because I listened to a lot of radio when I was a boy, I started to see a lot of Argentine cinema.
I learned by listening to Niní Marshall, to Pepe Arias.
I listened to them on the radio, plus Argentine cinema fascinated me.
The issue then was how to start, and I resolved it in the fifth year of high school when I decided to study at the Conservatory: I went from Monday to Saturday for four years.
I think the Conservatory is now called UNA and has university characteristics...
-Is it easier or more difficult to be an actor now?
-I had the best place in the world to learn to be an actor.
Teachers like María Rosa Gallo, many subjects.
Today there is the UNA (National University of the Arts), and there is the EMAD (Metropolitan School of Dramatic Art), which depends on the City of Buenos Aires and has a more solid formation than some private schools.
The possibilities of training are similar to those I had, with the difference that some teachers from my time are unfortunately no longer here.
Didn't you dedicate yourself to teaching?
-I did not dare.
"Parque Lezama" has a lot of text.
How do you memorize it...?
-You did not dedicate yourself to directing...
I have directed two shows.
Some things I would dare to do.
I think I'm in a position, especially if it's about Argentine theater.
It interests me enormously and it is probable that in a few months I will direct a play again.
-A work of yours?
No, I'm not an author.
I don't dare either.
There are people who write better than me.
Made in Lanús
can probably be replaced
and I will be in the role of director.
-"Parque Lezama" has a lot of text. Can you tell me how you study the script, how you memorize it, how you rehearse...?
-Obviously it gets more complicated with the passage of time.
As Osvaldo Miranda said: if instead of a script, we had studied textbooks, we would already have four or five university degrees with everything we memorized.
Memory is fundamental and I exercised it a lot.
Right now I don't have the capacity to, in four or five rehearsals, do a play that lasts an hour and a half on air.
It costs me more.
-Sometimes I was able to see an essay of a work by Alfredo Alcón and Guillermo Francella. Alcón forgot the lyrics and Francella had the whole work in her head...
-First of all there was a big age difference between Francella and Alfredo.
On the other hand, I am convinced that actresses have better memories than actors.
Can this be verified?
-The television actors helped each other with large posters.
I have never seen an actress do that.
-Best Argentine actor?
-Now I am not going to remember a great actor, his name.
The one who made
his best student
… Campanella –calls out for help.
Juan José Campanella
directs the play.
-If it is the best, you should remember…
-Campanella….!!
Yes, yes, it's the best, but it's part of the deterioration I'm suffering from (laughs).
Before I knew all the names by heart and now... Enrique Muiño!
Enrique Muiño, there it is, there it is.
-And the best actor of all time?
-Marcello Mastroianni.
-From which colleague did you learn more?
-I?
Well, I stole things from Osvaldo Miranda, some methods, he was an extraordinary comedy actor.
-The Miranda group! It's a tribute to him, you know?
-Really?!
Do not tell me??
We were great friends, too.
I learned, Osvaldo taught me a lot.
Can you explain the Ricardo Darín phenomenon to me?
-Well, he has had the luck and the ability to do as an actor what was proposed as a challenge.
In addition, the public accompanies him.
If the public hadn't accompanied him...
With Ricardo Darín, 32 years ago, in the fiction of the television strip "My brother-in-law".
Photo File Clarín
The phenomenon is that he also knew how to choose.
The greatest notoriety of her received it in the cinema.
We made a very successful television program with him called
My brother-in-law
.
It lasted six years.
In addition, they directed it well, it has unforgettable films and that makes it continue to be valid and in the foreground.
-They are friends?
We are not friends, we are lifelong companions.
Are you interested in the Marvel universe?
- Ehhh?
Marvel, what is Marvel?
I don't speak English and I don't like technology.
-Netflix?
-I'm not interested.
-DVD, VHS?
-Yes, yes, why not?
I have a VHS collection that I take care of and I have my VHS projector.
I also use CDs.
-Why are most of the actors “K”?
That's not true, that's not true.
It is an invention of the K.
What do you think will happen in the next elections?
-The country is going to change, the ruling party is going to change and I think we are going to have a chance to improve the way of life.
-Now that radicalism is stronger, wouldn't it be interesting to go out and measure your public image?
-I'm not interested.
I'm not going to be a candidate for anything and also I don't think anyone is interested in that.
What I had to do, I already did.
POS
look too
In The Fabelmans Spielberg looks at himself and at Hollywood
Claudio Da Passano, actor of "Argentina, 1985" died