PAQUI JONES: ITALIAN ART, PASSION AND LATIN CULTURE

Paqui Jones and La dolce vita in la Fontana di Trevi

Paqui Jones. Artist. Italy.

I was born in Firenze, Tuscany, the country of Da Vinci, Caravaggio, Sofia Loren, Giorgio Armani, Luciano Pavarotti, Enrico Caruso, Federico Fellini, Marcello Mastroianni, Roberto Benigni, Gianni Versace, and Gianluigi Buffon... If I say the name of all famous Italian artists, I will talk for hours. Italy is a country located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea which shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, and Vatican City.  It's a large country with great famous people. The secret? Culture, effort, innovation and knowledge. I'm an artist. An actress is a person who creates art. My last film has been A day with The Jones, a documentary about the life of this incredible and multicultural family.

-Good morning, Paqui Jones, and thanks to attend us.

-Good morning. It's a pleasure.

-Well, you don't represent the typical Italian profile: a Mediterranean one.

-I don't believe in it. There isn't an Italian profile because we've received lots of influences and you can find different people living in the same place. Since classical times, ancient Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Greeks established settlements in the south of Italy, with Etruscans and Celts inhabiting the centre and the north of Italy respectively and various ancient Italian tribes and Italic peoples dispersed throughout the Italian peninsula and insular Italy. The Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated its neighbours. Ultimately the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean basin and became the leading cultural, political and religious centre of Western civilisation. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the global distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity and the Latin script.

-Uff. It has been a fantastic lesson of History.

-Culture is one of the bases of my country. We love ruins, statues, paintings, stones and all things that have a relationship with art. I'm an artist, then, I'm very interested in History because we cannot understand Art without History. They are connected.

-Italy is considered a happy and nice country for its tourists and visitors. Which is your opinion?

-Well, Italy is not a perfect country. There isn't a perfect country. It doesn't exist. All countries have lights and shadows, diamonds and rust but it's true that here, in Italy, people try to live life intensively, perhaps because we have two great menaces: earthquakes and volcanoes. Some years ago, we had another big menace: the mafia. It was the responsible of thousands of murders. They were terrific years.

-What's your reaction in front of a case like these murders?

-When you believe that you live in a nice society with kind neighbours, and this fact affects you more because you don't believe that it can happen next to you. These facts attempt against our lifestyle, our culture, our manner of understanding world. Violence is the failure of dialogue.

-Who was your reference in art?

-Well. Uff. It's difficult to choose only one artist because all of them were genius but I love Federico Fellini's films and it's impossible to forget that beautiful scene in the Fontana di Trevi with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita. This is one of the greatest moments in the cinema, without any doubt.

-How do you feel being a member of The Jones family?

-I feel very well. We're a good family. We work together to reach the same objective and we don't surrender easily.

-How is a normal day with The Jones?

-There isn't a normal day because is impossible. Have you got a normal day in your life? Every day is different and you must enjoy it as time as you can.

-How long have you been studying English?

-Since I was in the school. Italian population have emigrated dozens of times to search better opportunities. One of the most important Italian diaspora is in the United States of America. This fact has helped to young people to take conscience about the importance of learning languages, especially English.

-Then English is not difficult to learn for an Italian?

-Well, they are different languages from different families but Italy is a country with a lot of linguistic varieties and it's not very difficult to speak more than one language. We sometimes do it without realize it.

-I thought in Italy, you only spoke Italian...

-Uffff. No. There are approximately thirty-four living spoken languages and related dialects in Italy, most of which are indigenous evolutions of Vulgar Latin, and are therefore classified as Romance languages. Speakers from one locale within a region are often typically aware of the features distinguishing their local tongue from the one of other places nearby. The official and most widely spoken language across the country is Italian, a direct descendant of Tuscan, but not the only one.

-What can you explain about your life with The Jones?

-Well. I've filmed a documentary about them and it has been a great experience. It was very difficult to choose only one day to film because every day deserved a film. It has been a great experience and a great memory to remember. 

-And after?

-We will always have The Jones as Rick and Ilsa will always have Paris.

-Which is your best memory with the family?

-A lot. It's impossible to choose only one but I especially remember when we bought a house in Aix-les-Bains, a place that I love and when we saw how a closer friend won a bronze medal in a gymnastic competition. It was really nice.

-What about your future works in cinema?

-I'm preparing the main female role in a new film about Levi Strauss, the man who made trousers from the sailcloth and imported material from France in 1850. 

-What do you think about cinema?

-I think cinema connects people.

-And about music?

-Music is the most wonderful thing a human can create. It arrives directly to the heart and it is able to create the most incredible feelings that you can imagine.

-Which is your favourite singer?

-He’s Luciano Pavarotti, without any kind of doubt.

-And his most beautiful performance?

-Nessun dorma, an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot and one of the best-known tenor arias in all opera. It is sung by Calaf, the unknown prince, who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot. However, any man who wishes to wed Turandot must first answer her three riddles; if he fails, he will be beheaded. In the aria, Calaf expresses his triumphant assurance that he will win the princess.

-Thank you very much, Paqui Jones.

-You're welcome.

Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincerò! Vincerà! Vincerò!

 Leave, oh night! Set, stars!
Set, stars! At sunrise I will win! I will win!

Giacomo Puccini