The movie Alatriste, by director Agustin Diaz Yanez, starring Viggo Mortensen, introduces the viewer to the world of the sword, " but in this story ... if nowadays, perhaps, the swordsman sounds romantic.. but the sword in this occasion isn’t, because it is not a question of a fairy tale; it is a hard story, in a very interesting and complicated, tragic age. Alatriste simply lives by the sword,” I quote Viggo’s own words.

Accompanied by Diaz Yanes, Mortensen came this Thursday to the Perla de Occidente to present the above-mentioned film, at a gala in aid of Corporate Foundations AC, during the 22nd International Festival of Cinema in Guadalajara. I note that Alatriste deals with loyalty, "being faithful to your companions. In that era that was worth a lot; it was the most important thing. Alatriste and his men have the pride and the choice of keeping their word.

The character of Diego is a warrior and he has a deep relationship with Aragon.

"Diego is more hard-faced than Aragon ", added Mortensen.

"Agustin has done a hard job well, to adapt very well-known and loved novels, about which all the fans of these books have many very fixed opinions as to how the characters should be. He has brought the spirit of the novels to the screen, as well as the era ", I add. I specify that the story of the movie is based on real facts. "The mythical side of the film and the relationship with reality I leave to others. I have my opinions, but I don’t know about the mythical side. The character is a real person, although it is an invention of Arturo Perez Reverte. It is based on autobiographies of soldiers of the era and of other people.”

Diaz Yanes said that this type of story always has a good reception from part of the public. "In Spain it has gone very well and has been a great success.

"The truth is we haven’t experienced extraordinary cinema for years. For my taste, what there is, is a bit boring. I believe that the cinema has become a very rare thing; on the one hand, there is the one that has a very bad name among writers, which for me is very heavy and always the same. Then, there’s consumer cinema ... the truth is that I’m turning completely around and I remember when I was young, when cinema was much more diverse, where you could watch many directors. In La Gran Vía, they showed Visconti and Passolini , and now everything is becoming a big problem.

"The Oscars, for example, if they are seen they are a big problem. You see the movie that won last year and you’re still surprised. I cannot do anything to change that. We already have enough to do making films in Spain, which is not so easy, just as happens to you here in Mexico. Bah! The only thing that we can do is develop the best movies we can. This is not a problem of cinema, but global, basically literature. You go to Chicago, Madrid, Miami, Toronto, and all the shops are the same.

"The thing about the bad distribution of the movies ... I don’t want to blame anyone, not the government, which I believe deserves it, but what happens is that we are very lazy and that we have remained a little behind in imagination. Before, the film director was a very small man or a very small woman who wanted to do a big movie; now it is the other way round, the movie is big because the director is big, which is a annoyance." Diaz Yanez added that when he went to see a movie he did not know who had made it. "Now the first thing you ask yourself is who is the director, who always, I’ll tell you, is one of the big contemporary idiots who talks nonsense all the time. It is bigger than the movies. A movie by ... that cannot be! Everything a little rare has changed, that’s the truth. I see it’s so and not because of pessimism. It seems to me that we take life as it comes to us and live it well". Mortensen takes over: "The award ceremonies grow like fungi; every weekend there are three award ceremonies. I see that actors, many of the young people, think that it is necessary to go for the awards and they accept roles that they think will give them that recognition, instead of looking for interesting stories. Ah! When they act or you’re at a dinner with them it is more interesting to them to cry in the third sentence of the scene, in all the takes, or to be one-handed or lame, surprisingly in a scene where it isn’t needed.

"This is a way of acting or of making films in which they do things thinking about the results, and any artistic work, whether it be film or painting, or music, when it’s done for this reason, it’s a mistake.

"You always have to live in the moment and do the best you can to tell this story in this moment and not think about awards or of being more well-known," he added. Diaz Yanes is a friend of Alfonso Cuaron and of Guillermo del Toro.

"I believe that the awards his movies received - with Babel, by Iñárritu - should help a little. I don’t know how you see us in Mexico, but in Spain it has been seen as a victory for Mexican cinema. That thing about the money remaining in the United States is very complicated. I know that for the Mexican directors is very difficult to make film in Mexico. "I hope that the will be returned to you later", said Diaz Yanes.