In an unprecedented display of confidence, starting October 16 Netflix will release The Black Ball in United States theaters for 47 days. It’s another data point, but a very important one, about the intense promotional campaign for Los Javis’s film ahead of the upcoming Oscars. After earning a 20-minute ovation at Cannes, where Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi won the Best Directing prize, the Spanish film has become an object of fascination in the entire world of cinema.
And since it became the first non-English-language film since 2011 to win the TIFF People’s Choice Award, it is considered the only contender that could beat The Odyssey next March. This is stated by none other than the prestigious Variety magazine, which puts on its latest cover two of its stars: Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente.
In the interview headline for both actors on their website, they make even clearer their ambitious predictions for Los Javis’s film: «Sex, love and war: how the daring gay epic The Black Ball could achieve the first Oscar for Best Picture for Netflix». And they add that ”those two forces, love and war, coexist painfully in what could be the most ambitious film of this year’s Oscar season.”
In their notable praise for The Black Ball, they positively compare it even with The Odyssey, claiming that Christopher Nolan’s film “alternates timelines, about the power of love against the madness of war,” while Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s film “is also all that, only made with a much smaller budget.”
The It Couple of the Moment in Cinema
They spare no praise from Variety for Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente, in their first acting roles. «The singer has a sweet and sincere character, with a tendency to be carried away by memories of the emotional truth of working with Los Javis, while Bernardeau is more direct, analytical and frank, and at no moment does he fail to speak in Spanish», they write about them.
Miguel Bernardeau and Guitarricadelafuente on the cover of Variety.
And then they state that for both, the romance between the characters Rafael and Sebastián driving The Black Ball posed no challenge. “It wasn’t difficult to fall in love with him,” says Miguel Bernardeau, looking at his co-star. “The two men, both Spaniards, 29 years old, have not tired of each other yet, despite a world tour that began in Cannes this spring and that has now brought them to New York,” we read in the article, before Miguel concludes: “The hard part was creating the discord.”
To the actor from The Snow they also ask about the current Spanish view of the Civil War, the axis of Los Javis’s film. “It’s something that has affected all of us; our great-grandparents were all involved. It is rooted in our DNA, in Spanish society.” And about the love between his character and Miguel Bernardeau’s, he adds that “older generations, who would have been scandalized by this twenty years ago, will understand it now. And this transcends: it is a love story with which everyone can identify.”
The Black Ball: Heading for the Oscars
If the Spanish film finally takes home any statuette at the Academy Awards, «it would be a milestone for world cinema, for Netflix and for queer artists», Variety insists. ”Although Bernardeau does not identify as queer, Guitarricadelafuente is one of several openly gay actors who portray gay characters in the Oscar race.” Among them they point to Andrew Scott, with Elsinore, and Jordan Firstman, with Club Kid.
But, as a conclusion, the magazine asks whether more than 20 years after Brokeback Mountain (2005) won almost all the pre-Oscar awards but lost on Oscar night, “is the public ready for a film so provocative?” Miguel Bernardeau insists that they had to be careful to prevent the passion from overwhelming the viewer: “We had to work against that and try to pace the intensity of that love. Because it is an impossible love.”
