Pavel Giroud

Pavel Giroud is a Cuban film director based in Madrid, Spain. He studied design and graduated from the Instituto Superior de Diseño (High Institute of Design) in 1994.

Pavel Giroud
Born1973
Cuba
OccupationFilm director
Spouse(s)Laura Boza
ChildrenRoman Giroud

He first worked, for a short period of time, as a designer and art director in films and theatre plays. He then began to paint, working with the basic techniques and incorporating video in his work. When people saw his videos, they told Pavel he was a "gifted storyteller" and encouraged him to try his hand at cinema. Giroud had to do everything – from image to sound and music – when he directed his first short films. He even featured his friends in his movies, rather than professional actors.

"It wasn’t a massive hit but it made us feel good and made us feel like we were making a real picture". From there on, Pavel decided to focus his career on cinema.

Giroud only filmed what he wrote, until he read the script of the movie La Edad de la peseta, written by Arturo Infante, a young screenwriter and director. "When I first read the script, I didn’t see in this movie the possibility to express myself as a director". However, he gradually and simply fell in love with the script and the movie, "Now, I tell Arturo that it’s my film not his, and that he should forget he wrote it..." He finished La Edad de la peseta in 2006. When film critics saw the movie, they dubbed Pavel the "new Cuban Truffaut" and "the finest director of his generation".[1] In 2020 this film was selected by Cuban Cinematheque as one of ten Best Cinematography and Best Production Design in 60 years of Cuban Cinema.[2]

One year later he directed a noir film titled Omerta and began to write his most ambitious project, The Companion. He spent more than six years developing it and finding financial support to make it. This film was selected as the Cuban entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. While he developed this film, he co-directed Playing Lecuona, a musical documentary film about the greatest legend of Cuban music, Ernesto Lecuona, starring the jazz pianists Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.[3]

From 2012 to 2019 he collaborated with the fine arts group Los Carpinteros, directing all of their films (except for one piece). After the breakup of this group, Giroud has continues working with one of it member, Dagoberto Rodríguez, directing an experimental video titled "Geometría Popular", released online by Sabrina Amrani Gallery in March, 2020.[4]

In 2019 he was the acting coach of the actress Penélope Cruz in Wasp Network, a film by Olivier Assayas. He trained her for more than three months to talk as a Cuban woman and adapted all of her lines in the script to a Cuban way of talking.[5]

Pavel is a third cousin of the famous Cuban writer Dulce María Loynaz.

Main films
2004
  • Tres Veces Dos - (Flash: One of three sections of the film) - feature film
2005
  • Frank Emilio, Amor y Piano - EPK
  • Esther Borja: Rapsodia de Cuba - documentary
2006
2007
  • Manteca, Mondongo y Bacalao con pan - TV documentary
2008
  • Omertá - feature film.
2012
  • Conga Irreversible - video piece in collaboration with Los Carpinteros.
2013
  • Pellejo - video piece in collaboration with Los Carpinteros.
2014
2015
  • Playing Lecuona - documentary film.
2016

Main awards
Tres Veces Dos
  • Selected by critics as one of the 10 most significant films in Cuba in 2004
  • Montreal 2004: Zenith de Plata as best first film.
  • Golden Precolumbian Circle: nominated for best film
  • III Muestra de Nuevos Realizadores: best work of fiction, Asoc. Críticos Cinematográficos Prize, EICTV Prize
  • ICARO 2004, Guatemala: best foreign film
  • Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC) caracol Prize: best art direction, music, editing, photography
  • XXVI Festival Int. del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano: Federación Nac. de Cineclubs Prize, UPEC Prize
La Edad de la peseta (The Silly Age)
Omertá
Playing Lecuona
El Acompañante (The Companion)

References
  1. Feinstein, Howard. "Havana Fest Creates Plentiful Program Despite Low Cash". www.indiewire.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  2. https://www.cibercuba.com/noticias/2020-03-29-u80279-e80279-s27315-10-admirables-fotografias-cine-cubano-repasar-tiempos. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. John DeFore, "'Playing Lecuona': Montreal Review", The Hollywood Reporter, 6 September 2015
  4. http://sabrinaamrani.com/viewing-room/upcoming/geometria-popular-dagoberto-rodriguez/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20190901/47121132311/penelope-cruz-llega-a-venecia-como-esposa-de-un-espia-cubano.html. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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