Jaime de Armiñán, one of the most remembered directors of Spanish cinema from the 70s and 80s, died last night in Madrid at the age of 97 after a long illness. The filmmaker leaves a legacy that is also a piece of the history of recent Spain. These are some of his best films.
Due to its theme, My Dear Young Lady was a complete bombshell in a Spain in which the Franco regime was giving its last blows. The protagonist in Adela, a woman who lives in a provincial city, her days pass in daily boredom. She feels strange. She likes the service employee. In the mornings she grows a beard… José Luis López Vázquez offered a great interpretation of Adela. And the film, Jaime de Armiñán’s third behind the camera, was a success and was nominated for the Oscar for best foreign film.
With The Love of Captain Brando, De Armiñán took another step in the openness that his previous films had already shown. He again returns with the theme of impossible loves, in this case between a teacher, played by Ana Belén who with this role established herself as a muse of the Transition, and one of her teenage students. Furthermore, the filmmaker rescued the wounds of the Civil War through the character of Fernando Fernán Gómez, who played a Republican exile returning home. The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and was one of the highest grossing films of 1974.
Irene Galdós has been running a consultation at a local radio station for years. The program has a large audience, people call for advice and, at times, she has had to endure some jokes, but lately she has been disturbed by letters from a mysterious radio listener who calls herself Soledad. When she discovers her true identity, he turns out to be Julio Hernández, a wealthy cannery from the region, obsessed with Irene’s program.
De Armiñán gave the public a comedy with a rather crazy starting point: A Roman law professor who has financial problems offers himself as a slave to one of his worst students. The film participated in the Berlin Festival where Fernán Gómez won the Silver Bear for best male performance.
César and Pilar are a peculiar couple who have set up their home in an old bus in which they travel through Spain. César, when he was little, was a child prodigy with an extraordinary memory, but he lost it when he contracted mumps and currently makes a living as a street magician. While traveling through Galicia they pick up a beautiful girl named Saga who will revolutionize the life of the veteran couple. Rabal and Velasco won the awards for best actor and actress at the Seminci for this film, which earned De Armiñán his third Oscar nomination for best foreign film.
The filmmaker brought the novel by Eduardo Mendicutti to the cinema, which narrates the summer stay of a 10-year-old boy at his grandparents’ house in Cádiz. A summer where the little one will discover the things of the adults. The film participated in the San Sebastián Festival.
