Spanish cinema says goodbye this Tuesday to one of its great performers, Marisa Paredes, who has died at the age of 78. One of the most emblematic actresses of Pedro Almodóvar’s universe, but of many more. He worked for filmmakers such as Fernando Trueba, Arturo Ripstein, Jaime Rosales, Jaime Chávarri, Guillermo del Toro and Roberto Benigni. A politically and socially committed woman, she was president of the Film Academy in one of its most controversial stages, with the beginning of the war in Iraq.
“You don’t have to be afraid of culture or entertainment, or freedom of expression, much less satire, humor. You have to be afraid of ignorance and dogmatism. “You have to be afraid of war,” he said in his speech at the 2003 Goya gala.
In his record he has the Goya of Honor that he obtained in 2018 and two other nominations for the big head; in addition to the National Cinematography Award and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts. Marisa Paredes was a major artist whose legacy is difficult to summarize in just a few lines, much less five films, but these five titles serve to illustrate why she has her own chapter in the history of Spanish cinema.
‘First feature’ (Fernando Trueba, 1980)
Marisa Paredes made her film debut in 1960, when she was barely fourteen years old, in the film Not tonight either by José Osuna and 091 Police speaking by José María Forqué. The following year she went on stage for the first time, performing with the Conchita Montes company as meritorious and began working on the television program Study 1representing characters from Ibsen, Chekhov and Shakeaspeare, among others.
Two decades later, Fernando Trueba called her to participate in First filmalso his directorial debut, which has gone down in history as a paradigm of ‘Madrid comedy’. The film followed the life of Matías (Óscar Ladoire), a 25-year-old divorced journalist who, walking through the Plaza de la Ópera in Madrid, fell in love with his 18-year-old cousin Violeta (Paula Molina). turning point for Paredes’ career, who three years later became a coveted ‘Almodóvar girl’.
‘Behind the glass’ (Agustí Villaronga,1986)
Before coming under the orders of the filmmaker from La Mancha, he starred in this film set in the Second World War, directed by Agustí Villaronga. In it she played Griselda, the wife of Dr. Klaus (Günter Meisner), who tortured, murdered and abused many children in Nazi concentration camps. His suicide attempt by jumping from the top of a tower once the fight was over leaves him quadriplegic, forcing him to live connected to an iron lung, counting only on the support of his wife and daughter Rena (Gisèle Echevarría).
‘The flower of my secret’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 1995)
The actress entered Almodóvar’s universe in 1983, as Sister Manure in his work Between darkness. The director used her again in other films such as Far Heels and The flower of my secretwhich earned him his second Goya nomination (the first was for chard face in 1987), in 1995. In it she played the pink novel writer Leo Macías, who hides behind the pseudonym Amanda Gris. His contract requires him to deliver three novels a year, but he has been missing deadlines for months, since now he can only write crime novels. In the meantime, her husband (Imanol Arias), with whom she has just suffered the worst of her crises, goes on a peace mission in Bosnia.
Almodóvar continued to have the interpreter in other of his most notable films, such as All about my mother (1999), talk to her (2002) and The skin I live in (2010). Paredes participated just a few months ago in the tribute to All About My Mother, which became one of the most special moments of the last Goya Awards gala, held last February. Together with Cecilia Roth, Penélope Cruz and Antonia San Juan, they remembered some of the funniest scenes from the film.
‘The Devil’s Backbone’ (Guillermo del Toro, 2001)
Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Todo cast Paredes as the protagonist of this gothic horror drama. A film that exemplifies the international projection of the performer, who worked for other figures such as Roberto Benigni in life is beautiful and Arturo Ripstein in Deep Crimson and The colonel has no one to write to him.
Set in 1939, just after the Civil War, The devil’s backbone follows Carlos, a twelve-year-old boy who is abandoned by his guardian at the Santa Lucía orphanage, which takes in orphans of republican victims. An isolated space in the middle of a wasteland, directed by the character played by Paredes, Carmen. Del Toro defines this feature film as his most personal work, and a precursor Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).
‘Petra’ (Jaime Rosales, 2018)
The artist was directed by Jaime Rosales in this film that was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes International Film Festival in 2018. In it, Petra (Bárbara Lennie), after the death of her mother (Paredes), He went out in search of his father, whom he never met, and believes he can find him in Jaume (Joan Botey), a famous egocentric, manipulative and cruel sculptor. The actress also developed an extensive career in theater and television, in series such as Goya (1985), cats on the roof (1988), delusions of love (1989), Today’s girls (1991-1992) and Dressed in blue (2023).
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