‘There are various Menems – it’s exhausting to know which one he’s’

Ariel Winograd has lengthy recognized tips on how to inform a narrative. Now, following his tackle former soccer agent Guillermo Coppola, he takes one other step into the world of biopics, a style which frequently acts as a radar for an period. This time, it’s former president Carlos Saúl Menem.

The brand new six-episode collection Menem (referred to as Menem: The President Present in English) has simply premiered on Prime Video, following a authorized menace that aimed to halt its launch.

Menem is portrayed with fierce dedication by Leonardo Sbaraglia, one of many few Argentine actors nonetheless able to dropping himself in a task. On this collection, he does so in the easiest way attainable, extra than simply mere imitation and nearer to one thing that touches on the mystique that cinema can evoke, even when it isn’t on the large display screen.

Sbaraglia breathes like Menem and rapidly captures that magnetism that veered between the Machiavellian and the apparent – an incredible combine that outlined the ambiance of Argentina within the Nineties.

“I wished to seize the Nineties by probably the most vital and consultant figures of that decade in Argentina,” explains Winograd in an interview. 

“I additionally thought concerning the generations who by no means knew Menem – how will we clarify that this occurred? Not in judgement, however with the sense of astonishment that it really did occur. 

“There’s one thing within the essence of what Menem represents: at occasions it felt like we had been filming The Sopranos, different occasions a sitcom. 

“Typically it was like a college leavers’ journey for us, particularly due to what was coming throughout filming: ‘Now the Menemobile? And the Ferrari?’ It was just like the Biggest Hits of Menemism.”

Sbaraglia leads a solid devoted to a reconstruction that goes past mere mimicry to ship one thing, as soon as once more, cinematic. The solid additionally consists of Griselda Siciliani as Zulema Yoma, alongside Juan Minujín, Marco Antonio Caponi, Agustín Sullivan, Cumelén Sanz, Jorgelina Aruzzi, Alberto Ajaka, Violeta Urtizberea, and Martín Campilongo, amongst others.

Winograd is aware of actors and is aware of tips on how to maintain shifting. By no means sitting nonetheless. He directs with urgency, with concepts, with out brakes. Indubitably, Menem is the main collection Prime Video had been wanting to inform for a while. And it’s top-of-the-line Argentine productions of the yr.

What was Sbaraglia on the lookout for on this character? “I’m undecided. However I did attempt to get inside this man. To attempt to perceive him. One thing very troublesome to seize was his gaze,” stated the actor throughout an interview.

One factor that stands out is Menem’s capability to seduce everybody. From door-to-door handshakes for images to coping with potential political scandals behind closed doorways, even with bribes concerned. How did you goal to seize that with out turning him right into a caricature?

WINOGRAD: Menem was very chameleonic. He was a Zelig.

SBARAGLIA: There are various Menems, and it’s exhausting to know which one he’s. I immersed myself within the physique, within the pores and skin, of a chilly wild animal. As if the wild and the chilly coexisted in him. He was a really distinctive man in that sense. Sensible, tremendously clever. He had a really highly effective presence. Very highly effective.

WINOGRAD: You possibly can really feel it on set – issues had been occurring on a regular basis.

SBARAGLIA: We’ve received sufficient for a documentary.

WINOGRAD: With Leo, it was essential we discovered the character. However it took time. He’d ship me voice notes – with the voice, the accent, with concepts. Letter by letter, phrase by phrase. After all of the rehearsals and the digicam check, the primary picture we shot was the one taken by [the character, photographer] Olegario – Menem on horseback. Leo had nearly two hours of make-up and extra. Throughout these 9 weeks of filming, I didn’t see Leo anymore – I noticed Menem on set … The connection was so robust that at one level we had been requested if we wished to share a automotive to Anillaco. We stated no. He by no means even got here to the motorhome.

SBARAGLIA: [Laughs] Leo and Wino didn’t actually work together.

What was it like to inform this story and go to key places just like the Casa Rosada, Anillaco, and even Congress?

WINOGRAD: Leo introduced such power, and one thing explicit occurred with your entire crew – names like Chango Monti, who I’ve executed seven movies with. Whether or not they had been seasoned or not, everybody felt this mixture of respect, concern, and humour. There was a way that we had been doing one thing totally different, one thing with a whole lot of fact. Everybody purchased in.

SBARAGLIA: In the long run, it’s as much as the viewers to determine if it labored, however the private search, and Wino’s as director, it positively did.

WINOGRAD: We discovered the reality we had been on the lookout for. For instance, in scenes with a number of extras – all of them applauded. Each set was a journey for everybody concerned.

SBARAGLIA: I received so into it that, identical to Carlos, I’d end these crowd scenes desirous to win them over – as in the event that they had been voters. In La Rioja, somebody handed me a child to take a photograph. So when there have been a number of extras, I’d go round, one after the other, shaking fingers like Menem, firing up that power and saying: “What’s your identify? Arielito, my pricey.”

Leo, what was that journey like, turning into Menem? What did you are feeling taking part in somebody who outlined an period, for higher or worse, and was arguably the primary really media-savvy president in a means that foreshadowed as we speak’s celeb tradition round energy?

WINOGRAD: You had been carrying such intense power. Episode six, when Menem goes by an excessive second – there’s a scene the place Leo grabs a knife. And I believed, whoa, dangle on. Not that something was going to occur, however Leo had reached such a stage of immersion that it actually moved me. The dedication, the give up. Leo wasn’t there anymore, and that was very hanging.

SBARAGLIA: I used to be fully possessed. I felt all types of issues, very summary ones. That sensation of channelling power. Like, the jug that retains going again to the properly. I’m not non secular, nevertheless it felt like I used to be taking part in with forces that may’t be absolutely managed. We’re speaking about an individual who had actual energy and who’s not with us. He felt very current, on a regular basis. Trying within the mirror was intense. As soon as I used to be made up, I began seeing myself within the digicam assessments and once I appeared, I’d see myself – my daughter noticed me – and it was this very unusual break up, which helped me springboard into the character.

WINOGRAD: That occurred with everybody – Griselda Siciliani, Juan Minujín – they felt like totally different individuals. There was a representational recreation, the place I felt I wasn’t filming with Leo. All of us lived that journey and I really feel it’s embedded within the collection. Everybody concerned was reworked by the expertise.

SBARAGLIA: I’d by no means labored so exhausting on a task. We’d already labored collectively on [2022 film] El gerente. Wino, throughout an 11-hour shoot, you’re filming for 9. Often, it’s 5 or 6 at most. He movies rather a lot. He movies extra photographs than takes. He pushes you to a extra inventive place. He doesn’t allow you to overthink and if I’d thought an excessive amount of, some issues wouldn’t have labored.

WINOGRAD: Thoughts you, I didn’t let myself overthink both. We went to the Casa Rosada, to Congress… recreating these moments gave all of it an actual fact. The home we utilized in La Rioja was one which had an actual connection to Menem.

SBARAGLIA: Or filming with Fernán Mirás as [Raúl] Alfonsín – with the attractive relationship now we have, going again to Tango feroz. It was rather a lot to soak up.

WINOGRAD: All of us had monumental religion in what we had been doing. We’re very pleased with the consequence.