Imagine you’re at a dinner party and, unbeknownst to you, Donald Trump has been invited as well. Do you:
A) Hold your tongue for the sake of dinner-party etiquette?
B) Try to have a civilized conversation with him?
C) Hurl at him every curse word known to man–and several new ones made up on the spot as a byproduct of white-hot fury?
D) Just leave?
In director Miguel Arteta’s latest film Beatriz at Dinner, the title character opts for pretty much all of the above.
Beatriz at Dinner doesn’t involve Trump, per se. However, Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a homeopathic healer whose sensitivity and empathy toward the world around her runs in direct conflict with the night’s guest of honor Doug Strutt (John Lithgow), a real estate tycoon whose casual racism is just a base coat to his brash, 1% viewpoint of the world.
“Our goal with Beatriz was to make a story of our very divided culture having a chance to talk and what that would look like,” Arteta says. “We’ve all been trapped at a dinner party with someone we disagree with. In a way, it’s a fantasy of what it would be like for two people who would never have a chance to debate each other, to debate each other.”
“If people watch Beatriz at Dinner and they say, ‘I know what it’s like to feel like there are powerful people making decisions that affect me,’ I think that recognition energizes you to know that you’re not crazy and to know that if it’s time for you to speak up, you’re not alone,” Arteta says. “Stories that reflect the frustrations we’re experiencing as human beings help us have a stronger voice when you have to go and talk to other people about it, or get up and vote, or speak truth to things in your life.”
“The ending is highly debated because we took an approach of reflecting the frustrations we feel of how the wrong forces are winning in this world. To try to have a hopeful ending, people would’ve thought it was bogus,” Arteta says. “I don’t have the answer of what’s the best way to change this avalanche of what’s been taking over lately. It’s hard and it does seem hopeless at times.”
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