Cruz, Kingsley 'capture soul' of Elegy movie

Feb 10, 2008, 18:41 GMT

British actor Sir Ben Kingsley during a photo call on the film \'Elegy\' at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin, 10 February 2008. The film runs in competition for the Silver and Golden Bears at the 58th Berlinale. EPA/JOERG CARSTENSEN

Berlin - US writer Philip Roth never read the script of the movie Elegy, which is based on his book The Dying Animal and which premiered Sunday at the Berlin Film Festival.

But director of the film, Barcelona-born Isabel Coixet, believes the stars of the film, Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley, captured 'the soul and spirit of the book's characters.'

Speaking at a press conference marking the movie's screening in Berlin, Cruz said she had become obsessed with the book and that it became her bible on the set.

Kingsley and Cruz provide powerful and intense performances in the film which tells the story of an ageing charismatic professor, David Kepesh, who finds his life thrown off course by a young self- confident woman student, Consuela Castillo.

A key strength of the film Kingsley said is 'the rawness and lack of barriers' that emerge in the movie between the characters played by him and Cruz.

Elegy is also very much a film about people growing older with Kepesh becoming jealous and obsessed with Consuela played by Cruz.

'The film is about love and beauty and the loss of beauty and facing up to mortality,' said Coixet,

But growing old is not something that worries Spanish-born Cruz.

'I am looking forward to getting older and using it in my work,' she told the press conference.