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🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

María Valverde looks back at Three Steps Above Heaven: “There are many things we don’t see”

From Clarín · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • María Valverde said Three Steps Above Heaven reflected a romantic fantasy that idealized toxic relationships and should be viewed differently today.
  • The actress discussed how her understanding of Babi and Hache has changed, while acknowledging the film’s lasting influence on a generation.
  • Valverde also recalled beginning her career at 16, facing typecasting, making Melissa P. and taking a three-year break from filming.

María Valverde has returned to one of the defining roles of her career and to a film she now sees with more complicated eyes. Three Steps Above Heaven, the 2010 romance she made with Mario Casas, became a fantasy for several generations. But Valverde says its relationships contain elements viewers may not have recognized at the time.

I understand that idea of a fable, of something several generations grew up with.

· María ValverdeValverde described the film’s place in the imagination of audiences who grew up with it.

“I understand that idea of a fable, of something several generations grew up with,” Valverde said in an interview with Fotogramas. She was responding to director Fernando González Molina’s recent suggestion that the story should be reread. “There are many things we don’t see,” she added.

The actress said the film could now be reassessed for the way it depicts romantic relationships and the roles assumed by its protagonists. She described its appeal as the fantasy of “the bad boy, the unattainable one, the idealization of toxic relationships,” including for young women who watched it. Looking back, she said it is interesting to imagine what would happen to Babi and Hache as adults, and how that would change the story’s meaning.

There are many things we don’t see.

· María ValverdeShe argued that the film deserves a different reading today.

“They made us believe that Three Steps Above Heaven was a good fantasy, but romantic relationships have to be something more,” Valverde said. She has not rejected the film’s importance, however. She recognized that it marked a generation and remains a reference point, while recalling that it arrived around the beginning of social media and debates that are now much more common.

The bad boy, the unattainable one, the idealization of toxic relationships.

· María ValverdeValverde described the romantic model presented by the film.

Valverde also reviewed a career that began at 16, when she made her debut alongside Luis Tosar in The Weakness of the Bolshevik and won the Goya for New Actress. She spoke about resisting years of typecasting as a young actress or romantic interest, and about the difficult experience of making Melissa P. for Luca Guadagnino at 18. She said she probably would not accept that role today, although she remains proud of the film and the women who supported her during filming. Her career later included a three-year period without making a film after 2020’s We Were Songs.

They made us believe that Three Steps Above Heaven was a good fantasy, but romantic relationships have to be something more.

· María ValverdeShe explained why her view of the film’s romance has changed.
About this summary

Originally published by Clarín in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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