I have been unfortunate, always absorbed. I think it is a condition of my childhood and my social conditioning,” says an autumnal José Luís López Vázquez in the documentary about his life –José Luís López Vázquez. What nonsense! – An exclamation that reproduces the response he gave to his only son, José Luis, when he proposed the project to her.
“I dare to say that he has been the best Spanish actor of his generation. There have been many greats, Fernán Gómez, for example, but in all the films it was Fernán Gómez. José Luis López Vázquez is every character at every moment,” highlights the director of the film, Roberto Oltra, presented in Barcelona at the Phenomena cinema – a nest of cinephiles – and visible on Movistar.
By dint of watching his films, 262 films shot, with a record in 1967 (12), López Vázquez became part of the family, something that seemed to detract from his merits.
Four romantic unions, four children, and the typical abandonment of family functions because he said yes to all job proposals. “She dared to do everything, and she could handle everything that was thrown at her,” Oltra highlights. On the other hand, “social empathy was not his strong suit,” comments one of his friends in the film.
“He lacked time and he lacked aptitude as a father,” José Luis López comments with affection. I have few memories, perhaps January 5, the parade. We went to the movies a lot on Sunday afternoons and he was prone to falling asleep.”
The childhood she talks about was a grandmother and a mother who, as it was, did not want to move to Teruel with her future husband, a prison officer. “I don’t move from Madrid,” she argued. She was a dressmaker. The happiest: movie afternoons in “the palaces of the pipes”, modest theaters in Republican Madrid.
“He worked during the war in the pharmacy section of the Ministry of War, which Santiago Carrillo controlled. In 1939 he lost his position. And never, he never expressed himself politically. He never signed a manifesto. He, too, did not respond to invitations to El Pardo (where the Francos watched movies one or two afternoons a week in a private room). My father was very secretive about this. I guess he wanted to forget,” recalls José Luis López. What was called an apolitical Spaniard…
Random debut in the cinema in María Fernanda, the Jerez native, where she replaced an extra. Only eight seconds, the time to release a Chaplinesque cream, and the director, Enrique Herreros, told her that her job was not to be in charge of the costumes – she drew very well – but rather the interpretation.
A decisive blow was the night when, late, he received a phone call from a colleague asking him to go to the Gijón café to introduce him to Bardem and Berlanga, who might have offered him a role. From there arose his brilliant – although brief – presence in That Happy Couple, where he is seen as a salesman at Galerías Preciados with the newlyweds (Fernán Gómez and Elvira Quintillá). There, the screenwriter, Rafael Azcona, caught his eye: “This is my actor!” And so it was – there is no Berlanga-Azcona without the Austro-Hungarian empire or López in the cast. “Azcona saw the Spanish condition in him,” says Roberto Oltra.
“Not being the protagonist of The Executioner (1963) took him very badly for the rest of his life, because he knew it was going to be a great film. Berlanga and Azcona (director and screenwriter) thought of him as the protagonist from the first moment, but since it was a co-production, the Italians imposed Nino Manfredi and López Vázquez was left with the role of the brother,” says Oltra. Berlanga, one of the actor’s best friends, always said that with López Vázquez the film would have been better…
The face was The Cabin, perhaps the best short film in Spanish cinema. Overwhelmed with work, he turned down the role without reading the script. “In the end, since he socialized very little on filming, he took a look at him while he waited and immediately realized his potential. “He ordered his agent to clear his agenda anyway because he wanted that role.” And it brought him indisputable recognition as a great actor, so opposite to the populist of the comedies of the time.
His consecration was to dare with the first Saura, a test by fire, passed (Peppermint frappé, which was followed by The Garden of Earthly Delights and The Angelic Cousin). “You approach López Vázquez’s eyes with a camera and it is the world. He tells you the story through his eyes,” they highlight in the documentary. And by faith they demonstrate it on the tape.
