Jaime Chávarri
Directing
Biography
Spanish film director born in Madrid. Graduated in Law, he never practiced as a lawyer. He later studied for two years at the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía and worked as a film critic for the magazine Film Ideal while making several short films in super-8. His first solo feature film was Los viajes escolares (1974). In 1976 he released El desencanto, a biographical documentary about the poet Leopoldo Panero. The film was awarded the Best Film Award by the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos. A un dios desconocido (1977) starred Héctor Alterio and its script was written by Elías Querejeta. It was followed by Dedicatoria (1980) and Bearn o la sala de las muñecas (1983), starring Fernando Rey, Imanol Arias and Ángela Molina. One of his most recognized works is Las bicicletas son para el verano (1984), based on a play by Fernando Fernán Gómez. The film, starring Agustín González, Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes and Gabino Diego, is set during the Spanish Civil War. El río de oro (1986) stars Ángela Molina. It is followed by Las cosas del querer (1989), in whose script Fernando Colomo participated. Tierno verano de lujurias y azoteas (1992) is a comedy starring Gabino Diego, Marisa Paredes and Imanol Arias. In 1994 he directed the sequel to Las cosas del querer with the same actors. A year later he released Gran Slalom (1996), with a script by Rafael Azcona. The film stars Juanjo Puigcorbé and Pilar Bardem, among others. The following year he directed a Spanish-Argentine co-production entitled Sus ojos se cerraron y el mundo sigue andando (1997). In 2002 he directed Besos para todos, starring Emma Suárez and Eloy Azorín and in 2004 El año del diluvio, an adaptation of the novel by Eduardo Mendoza. His latest feature film was Camarón (2005), for which he co-wrote the script with Álvaro del Amo. The film is based on the biography of the flamenco singer José Monje Cruz, Camarón de la Isla, who is given life by the actor Óscar Jaenada in a splendid characterization. The film won three Goya awards for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Leading Actor.
Known For
No description available.
Lo + plus
An anthology of erotic stories by famous writers like Guy de Maupassant, Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne, Marquis de Sade, Giovanni Boccaccio, Marquis de Foudras, Daniel Defoe, Anton Tchekov, Jin Ping Mei, and Aristophanes.
Softly from Paris
An erotic horror tale about a vixen vampiress seducing and killing women to appease her insatiable thirst for female blood.
Vampyros Lesbos
A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
Matador
A young agent leaves everything behind to pose as a member of ETA, risking her life to uncover the terrorists' hideouts in the south of France.
She Walks in Darkness
In 1940, in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl living on the Castilian plain is haunted after attending a screening of James Whale's 1931 film Frankenstein and hearing from her sister that the monster is not dead, instead existing as a spirit inhabiting a nearby barn.
The Spirit of the Beehive
A documentary covering the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Marathon
A henpecked housewife ekes out a meager existence, surrounded by a host of colorful characters: her ungrateful husband, her delinquent sons, her headstrong mother-in-law, and her sex worker neighbor, among others.
What Have I Done to Deserve This?
The young but traveled Ana arrives in a manor in the countryside of Spain to work as nanny of three girls and finds a dysfunctional family.
Anna and the Wolves
After the death of General Franco, the Leguineche family leaves their estate of Los Tejadillos, where they have remained for decades in voluntary exile, with the purpose of returning to Madrid to actively participate in the social events of the aristocracy and to get closer to the closest circle of the Spanish monarch. The obsession of the old marquis is centered on getting in touch with the most illustrious surnames, to ascend socially and to resume the pomp and courtly life that his family lost a long time ago. To this end, he decides to move into an old palace he owns, located in the center of the capital, but not before overcoming the difficulties posed by his wife, who deeply hates both her husband and her son. To regain control of the palace, the Marquis of Leguineche tries to handicap his wife, arguing an incurable mental illness, and then undertake a reform of the place in order to adapt it to aristocratic life.
National Heritage
In Madrid, the family of Don Luis, his wife Dolores and their children, Manolita and Luisito, share the daily life of the Civil War with their maid and neighbours. Despite having failed his exams, Luisito wants his father to buy him a bicycle. However, the situation forces them to delay the purchase and the delay, like the war itself, is to last much longer than expected.
Bicycles Are for the Summer
A band of young musicians will do the impossible to boycott a song they didn't like that's supposed to represent Spain in a famous musical contest.
Un, dos, tres, al escondite inglés
Three students are sent by their families to Cadiz in 1965, his last chance to pass and become what is expected of them. The appearance of some dancers disrupts their commitments: boys lose the course and girls, their work. But together they learn to decide their future.
Kisses for Everyone
How does the vision of the brilliant Spanish filmmaker Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010) remain relevant in a time whose popular culture has little to do with his own? Since to understand the secrets of an artist it is essential to know the person behind, his family, his friends, his collaborators, as well as prestigious filmmakers and actors trace a collective portrait of a creator as singular as he is universal.
Berlanga!!
In a particularly hot summer, Sister Consuelo, superior of an order dedicated to caring for the sick, decided to transform the dilapidated hospital into a modern nursing.
El año del diluvio
A set of nine stories whose central theme is eroticism. The different directors of the film deal from philosophical aspects to others that are almost pornographic, but always with a common denominator: sensuality.
Erotic Stories
Persecuted by her controlling ex-husband, Rosa plots an escape
What's a Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?
A youngster recently arrived to Spain from Russia falls in love with his own cousin who is an astonishingly beautiful actress and, besides, much older than him.
Tierno verano de lujurias y azoteas
Like so many other actors, Ava Gardner hated to watch her films. She said that the woman on the screen wasn't her. But all films tell two stories: the plot and the tale of the bodies filmed. This film narrates what happened between two images: a first shot of 'Pandora' and a first shot of 'Harem', the first and last movie filmed by the actress in Spain. Ava must certainly have thought that neither of these two women had anything in common with herself.
All Night Long
A woman's voice says she was wife to Renzo Franchi and Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), Argentina's great tango singer. People say she's crazy. Her story unfolds. Buenos Aires, 1933: Juana Romero, a seamstress who lives for the music of Gardel, dumps her boyfriend Gustavo for Renzo, a singer who looks like Gardel. She insists that his trio performs Gardel's tangos, which leads to Renzo recording a Ford commercial when Gardel himself is overbooked. The trio, with Joanna in tow, goes on an ill-fated tour of points north. The couple breaks up: she goes home and he tries to get to New York. Fate steps in, and once again he's called upon to pose as Gardel. Then, legend and a bracelet take over. Written by