Chapter 9 - Spanish conquistador

Summary

If there is one country in which Darín's stardom and popularity reached the same dimension as in Argentina, that country is Spain. Darín appeared for the first time in Spanish film theatres in 1994 with Perdido por perdido [Nothing to Lose] directed by Alberto Lecchi. At that time, Argentine films were slowly starting to gain more attention, thanks to the success of Un lugar en el mundo [A Place in the World] (1992), a film directed by Adolfo Aristarain which attracted the outstanding number of half a million spectators in commercial theatres (Colmena 1994; Elena 2011: 42). Inspired by those figures, and given that Lecchi was one of the script-writers of Aristarain's film, Perdido was destined to be one of only two Argentine films that made it to the Spanish big screen that year. Although Darín's presence in this film was not singled out by the critics at the time, who preferred to focus on the plot and the connections between Lecchi and Aristarain, the seed of Darín's Spanish stardom was being sown in many positive reviews of the film's performances (such as Torreiro's in 1994). Moreover, his character, an ordinary middle-class fellow in crisis who cleverly manages to run away with the money and the girl, marked a precedent for his lovable future characters.

Four years later, a co-production with Spain, El faro del sur [The Lighthouse] (1998), brought Darín back to Spanish shores. On that occasion, the 1997 Goya Award-winning director Eduardo Mignogna and the promising young Spanish actress Ingrid Rubio caught the press's attention (Villena 1998; Rivera 1998; Torreiro 1998). Highly favoured by the presence of renowned cast and crew from both countries, El faro increased the number of spectators of Perdido by almost sevenfold and in 1999 won what was Mignogna's second Goya Award for Best Foreign Film in Spanish. Overshadowed by the presence of Norma Aleandro and the popularity of Rubio, Darín's work eluded the headlines once again.