A cloth-covered brazier table: a haven in mother’s room
A cloth-covered brazier table: a haven in mother’s room
‘The film arises from a physical sensation I still remember as a daughter who once tore herself out of the nest: the comfortable warmth from my parent’s brazier table that sheltered me from the cold. Or held me prisoner. It wasn’t easy to get away from its tableclothe draped over my lap. I’d have easily spent hours on end comfortably dozing under there while life went by elsewhere, far from my parents’ cosy home.
All along the process of making this film I had in mind a popular Spanish expression. When someone talks about children glued to mother’s skirts, it means they are not yet independent. In this particular instance, the notion of getting away from mother’s skirt as a metaphor was actually literal. My mother is a dressmaker and that cloth that covered her round working table, dangling down the sides, during my childhood and adolescence, had actually been sewn by her.’
The brazier table at the director’s parents home
The team at the brazier table
‘I took pictures of my parents dozing at that table so my team would understand the origins of my story. I wanted to take them there so they would sit together with my parents and let that cloth cosily dangling down the sides cover their legs and make them want to stay… which is what happened.We gathered around that table and others we located along the way and that’s how we got the film going, warming up -it was a very cold winter- as we discussed things. That table which was the centre of my universe and that of the characters became the centre of our entire working process.'
Meetings, conversations and reading script around the table.
First visit of Lola Dueñas to the director’s parents’ home. She met Gloria, Celia’s mother and sat together at the table. They enjoyed it so much that it took quite a while to get up and leave.
Part of the team warming up by the brazier table at the rural house where they stayed, just before going out to see some locations for the film.
Álvaro Sánchez (production manager), Josep Amorós (producer), Santiago Racaj (DOP), Ana Hernando (director’s assistant), Vinyet Escobar (costumes), Amanda Villavieja (sound), Mireia Carles (art director), Celia Rico (director)
Building, cloth, colour
'Getting a table for the film was easy enough and we’d have bought one or asked around and borrowed one from a friend or an acquaintance. However, I thought it’d be a great deal more special if we built one ourselves. I wanted the process of actually making one to keep us company while we were busy with everything else. A friend of my father did it and then the team tried out cloths, colours and materials in order to dress it.'
The brazier table built by Pizarro, a friend of the director’s family
Trying out cloths and colours in order to get the table dressed. The director is present testing the table herself.
While shooting... and in the film
'During the shooting, I remember the actors feeling cosy and comfortable around that table we had so carefully built.’
Frames of the film once the brazier table was finished. All takes included a heater turned on so the actors could feel the warmth.
