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Bienvenido Mr. Marshall
Javier Bardem Found In Translation: The Oscar REALLY IS For His Family
Originally Posted on TakePart
When Spain’s Javier Bardem won the Academy Award for Best Supporting actor for his role in the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men, he responded by saying
Mamá, esto es para ti. Esto es para tus abuelos, para tus padres, Rafael y Matilde. Esto es para los cómicos de España que han traído la dignidad y el orgullo a nuestro oficio. Esto es para España. Y esto es para todos vosotros
which means
Mom, this is for you. This is for your grandparents, for your parents, Rafael and Matilde. This is for the Comics of Spain who brought so much pride and dignity to our profession. This is for Spain. This is for all of you.
OK. But what does that mean? Javier,
or Javi as I like to call him (because we are old friends from when we
used to hang out in Madrid. Well, OK, we didn’t hang out, I saw him in
a plaza in Madrid, but we’re still close) comes from a long and
impressive lineage of actors and filmmakers and
activists. Matilde Muñoz Sampedro and Rafael Bardem,
his grandparents, were stage actors. Javi’s date to the Oscars was his
mother, Pilar Bardem, an actress who was in nearly 100 movies and who
has advocated for a more liberal Catholic Church, women’s rights, and
peace, shown here at an anti war rally in Spain. Pilar also raised
three kids on her own, leaving her husband during a time when divorce
wasn’t even legal. And Pilar’s brother and Javier’s uncle was Juan Antonio Bardem
a legendary director and writer who, along with frequent collaborator
Luis Berlanga, ushered in a genre of Spanish films which avoided
Franco’s strict (but dense) censors, and used humor and satire to
