Matías Piñeiro on His Shakespeare-Adjacent Films

Folger Shakespeare Library: Shakespeare Unlimited

Folger Shakespeare Library

Arts

4.7 • 837 Ratings

🗓️ 15 March 2022

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

An Argentine woman translates "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" while incessantly taping travel postcards to a wall. An actress in Buenos Aires seduces her colleague while rehearsing a scene for "Twelfth Night." A theater troupe flirts its way through rehearsals of "As You Like It" in an Argentine forest. If you’re noticing a pattern here, you’re not mistaken. These scenes all come from the films of Argentine filmmaker Matías Piñeiro. Born in Buenos Aires and now living in New York, Piñeiro has developed a cycle of six beautifully-filmed movies he calls “The Shakespeare Reads,” all of which are based around the female roles in Shakespeare’s comedies. Piñeiro talks with Barbara Bogaev about his unique approach to his work and his craft. Matías Piñeiro is a screenwriter, director, and filmmaker. The six films in his “The Shakespeare Reads” series are "Rosalinda," "Viola," "The Princess of France," "Hermia & Helena," "Isabella," and the short film "Sycorax." Stream all of these films on MUBI, or buy them on Blu-ray and DVD from the Cinema Guild. Piñeiro teaches filmmaking at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute and coordinates the filmmaking department at the Elías Querejeta Film School in San Sebastián, Spain. From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published Tuesday, March 15. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This podcast episode, “To Play a Pleasant Comedy,” was produced by Richard Paul. Garland Scott is the associate producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. Ben Lauer is the web producer. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. We had technical help from Andrew Feliciano and Evan Marquart at Voice Trax West in Studio City, California, and Josh Wilcox at Brooklyn Podcasting Studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Transcript

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0:00.0	An Argentine woman translates a Midsummer Night's dream while incessantly taping travel postcards to a wall.
0:08.5	An actress in Buenos Aires seduces her colleague while rehearsing a scene for 12th night.
0:14.2	A theater troupe kisses and flirts their way through rehearsals of as you like it inside an Argentine forest.
0:20.6	If you're noticing a pattern here,
0:23.2	you're not mistaken. From the Folger Shakespeare Library, this is Shakespeare Unlimited. I'm Michael
0:34.6	Whitmore, the Fulcher's director. Those scenarios I just described are all from
0:39.5	the mind and the camera of an Argentine filmmaker named Matias Pinheiro. Born in Buenos
0:45.4	Ares and now living in New York, Matias has developed a cycle of films he calls the Shakespeare
0:51.2	reads, all of which are based around the female roles in Shakespeare's comedies.
0:57.0	There are currently six films in the series, all ethereal, all beautifully filmed, and all as far away from linear as movies can get.
1:06.0	Because here at the Folger, we don't have a problem with what they'd call Ecace Flores, in Spanish that means tooting your own horn, because we don't have a problem with what they'd call Ecace Flores, in Spanish that means tooting your own horn,
1:14.5	because we don't have a problem with that,
1:16.4	we'll tell you that the star of one of Matthias's films
1:19.2	is actually the Folger Shakespeare edition of a Midsummer Night's Dream.
1:23.9	But that's not the only reason we're having him on.
1:27.3	As you'll hear, Matias Pinero is an artist with a unique approach to his work and his craft.
1:32.2	He came into a studio near his home recently to help us understand where he's coming from in this podcast that we call to play a pleasant comedy.
1:41.5	One note ahead of time for clarity. Throughout the interview, Matias
1:45.3	pronounces Folger with a hard G, Folger. I'm mentioning that now because it will help you follow
1:51.1	along. Matias Pinero is interviewed by Barbara Bougave. There is a lot of Shakespeare in your
1:57.0	movies, but I wouldn't necessarily say they're about Shakespeare or about Shakespeare plays.
2:03.3	Would you? I mean, how do you think about it?
	...

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