Aisge
October 8, 2023
"The camera has loved me", summarizes the man
who has been in front of it for 75 of his 91 years and who reviews in a
notebook each and every one of the films in which he has appeared: 126 as soon
as he notes the last one, “La Fortaleza” (The Fortress). These pages document
one of the most recognizable faces of Spanish cinema: his style on horseback in
the westerns, the days when he rubbed shoulders with Marcello Mastroianni and
Alberto Sordi and even a rogue shoot in which he became food for leeches. But he
says he is still waiting for that great role that has been denied. And he has a
plan for it, he reveals here.
The residents of the colony of los Carteros, in the Madrid neighborhood of Ventas, were the first spectators of Manuel Zarzo (born Manuel López Zarza, Madrid, 1932). His mother disguised the children of the neighborhood and made them interpret stories that she invented. The teacher also helped, although with another intention: "One day he told my father: you put the child as a clown, there is no one who can stand him," says the actor in the video documentary “MuchaVidaQueContar”. It is not surprising, then, that when he turned 16, the young Zarzo and his sister Pepi enrolled in a youth stage company, Los Chavalillos de España, with which he toured the country for three years. "A new world for a kid from a working-class neighborhood."
Then he discovered cinema. Or the cinema discovered him. The kids debuted in Madrid and in one of the functions the director Antonio del Amo noticed him playing "boy of the Rastro, half lame, who likes football" of “Día tras día” (Day After Day) (1951). It was his first film – 19 years old – and he continued to be amazed: "That was the wonder of the world." Del Amo then called him to do four more. And Carlos Saura, for his film premiere, “Los golfos” (1960). Zarzo says he has no favorite movies, but he keeps the scripts of “Los golfos” and “Día tras día”, and reviews them with love for the video.
The pages of the notebook where Zarzo writes down his feature films began to fill with titles, some certainly unusual. The time of co-productions arrived, "a luck for many Spanish actors and technicians". "It started another world for me," he says. He shot in France, in Italy, in the jungle of Cambodia... "I had a hard time there. I had to remove 17 leeches from my leg with a straw ..." In Angola he faced Ettore Scola in a film with an endless title: “Conseguirán nuestros héroes encontrar a su amigo misteriosamente desaparecido en África?” (Will Our Heroes Manage to Find Their Friend Who’s Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?) (1968). The hero was Alberto Sordi and Zarzo, is in charge of helping him in his task of finding Nino Manfredi. Scola then took him to Italy to work with Marcello Mastroianni in “El demonio de los celos” (The Demon of Jealousy) (1970). The Italian language, he says, is spoken right away. "I didn't worry about English, and I don't forgive myself for that."
The experiences of his childhood in the colony of Ventas were very useful in the westerns: "I had learned to ride on a very nice donkey that my uncle Simon had". And with that base, in the ramblas of Almeria he managed to ride a horse "better than anyone". Zarzo's flexibility and agility, which allowed him to ride without a double, also saved his life in an event that has marked his biography and that his bones still remind him of daily. The actor, who was then 28 years old and had just buried a daughter within two months, ran into a fire on Carretas Street in Madrid with a fire in textile workshops on the fourth floor. Employees jumped from windows onto blankets trying to cushion the impact. Zarzo instinctively tried to grab one of the workers, who fell on his shoulder. "I ran out of breath and noticed my body explode," he describes. "I was in plaster for almost two months. They gave me a wonderful tribute, the whole acting industry was there."
To justify his professional longevity, the actor finds several explanations. One: "The camera has loved me and wanted me to be bad, good, son of his mother, bullfighter or priest. Photogenics is a mystery." Another, the teachings of the best. And quote: José Bódalo, José María Rodero, Fernando Rey, Adolfo Marsillach, José Luis López Vázquez, Paco Martínez Soria... "I haven't tried to copy any, because I haven't been able to, but I learned how to do things."
Now Zarzo is the one who teaches lessons on the sets. Witnesses of them have been Mario and Hugo, two of his five children, the youngest, linked to cinema from the technical side as director of photography and machinist, respectively. "To be looking through the viewfinder of the camera and seeing that photogenic, that presence and that strength that my father has is very exciting," Mario explains in the video. "It's beastly to see him perform. How emotions flow, gestures, those curious things that my father has," Hugo adds.
"I've been a worker in this job and I've done it
with the greatest dignity in the world, even if the character wasn't anything
important." But Zarzo's balance sheet hides a point of bitterness about
which he is sincere: "I think that, in some ways, life has not been fair.
It hurts me that I didn't have the great role, the one that says: I can die
peacefully. I've lacked that, I'm still missing and I'm not going to have time,
at 91 years old. Although there is a possibility, I have had the script for a
year. He's a wonderful character, perfect to enjoy as an actor." Zarzo expands,
explaining the nuances of that dream role with which he would put "the
candle in the center of the cake". "Only the money is missing, but
I'm still playing EuroMillion just in case."
YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozo1QENChu4
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