Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem arrived in Venice together with a movie waiting for them that was conceived with the real-life couple in mind from the beginning.
The married actors were photographed arriving at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 7, one day before the world premiere of Bunker. Just Jared’s arrival coverage showed the pair posing together after reaching the festival ahead of their red-carpet duties.
Cruz wore a black wrap-style midi dress while Bardem kept his arrival look considerably more casual in a blue button-down, dark jeans and white shoes. Their low-key entrance comes before their first feature together since Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows, which premiered in 2018.
Writer-director Florian Zeller says he wrote the thriller for Cruz and Bardem, calling the actors both the “starting point and inspiration” for a story about a married couple forced to reconsider what they know about each other after many years together.
Their Venice Arrival Came Before the Formal Red Carpet
Cruz stepped out in a black Ferragamo dress with a plunging neckline, draping through the waist and the fashion house’s gold Gancini detail at the hip. She paired it with a suede Chanel bag, black slingback heels and dark sunglasses.
Her jewelry added considerably more sparkle to the understated arrival look. InStyle reported that Cruz wore Pasquale Bruni earrings featuring onyx and diamonds set in 18-karat rose gold, valued at approximately $8,800.
Bardem walked alongside his wife in an open-collar blue shirt, dark denim and white lace-up shoes. The couple have been married since 2010 and share two children, but generally keep their family life private.
‘Bunker’ Was Written With Cruz and Bardem in Mind
In Bunker, Bardem plays an architect who accepts a morally ambiguous assignment to build a survivalist bunker for a technology billionaire. The decision causes his wife, played by Cruz, to question their marriage after 17 years together.
The Venice Film Festival’s official listing places the 126-minute thriller in the Venezia 83 competition and lists Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger alongside Cruz and Bardem. In his Venice director’s statement, he says, “I wrote Bunker for Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem,” describing them as both the starting point and inspiration for the project.
Their real relationship also informed the storytelling experiment. Zeller said he wanted to explore love, fidelity and forgiveness while deliberately leaving viewers uncertain about where their awareness of the actors ends and the fictional marriage begins.
Sony Pictures Classics currently lists Bunker among its upcoming releases, although its official page has not announced a U.S. theatrical date.
Cruz and Bardem Have Known Each Other for 33 Years
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Cruz and Bardem first worked together on Bigas Luna’s Jamón Jamón, released in 1992. They did not become a couple at the time and became romantically involved years later after reuniting for Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
They married privately in the Bahamas in 2010. Their later collaborations included Loving Pablo and Farhadi’s Everybody Knows, which opened the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and became their most recent feature together before Bunker.
Cruz reflected on just how long they have known one another while promoting The Invite earlier this summer. She said she was “still learning” in the relationship despite having known Bardem for 33 years, comparing the process of continuing to discover a partner with the fact that people never completely finish understanding themselves.
Bardem has similarly described acting with his wife as different without necessarily being easier or harder. In an interview published earlier this year, he said their intimacy changes the atmosphere when they work together but added that they generally do not spend much time discussing work once they are home.