The writer, filmmaker and playwright Jaime de Armiñán died at the age of 97 last night, April 9, at his home in Madrid. This was announced this Wednesday by the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), of which he was an honorary advisor. “With a broken heart we inform you of the death of Jaime De Armiñán. An immense filmmaker and firm defender of the copyright of creators, he joined the entity on September 16, 1954. We send a very strong hug to his family and friends “His works are eternal.”
De Armiñán was awarded the Goya of Honor in 2014. “A filmmaker never retires. Those like me cannot retire because we only do so when we go to the sad grave,” he said when he was informed of the award. A recognition of a career that, from very early on, promised to intermingle with the world of acting, since his own mother, Carmen Oliver, was an actress before marrying El Heraldo de Madrid journalist Luis de Armiñán. After his mother’s new foray into the theater, Jaime crossed paths with Fernando Fernán Gómez, his “older brother”, in profession and in life, who discovered a new world for him. He was captivated.
In several interviews he remembered his trips from school to go to the movies. “I loved dance movies. I was madly in love with Gingers Rogers and Carole Lombard, the blondes of cinema.” Although if someone influenced him, beyond his artistic family, it was none other than his literature teacher and one of the founders of Colegio Estudio, Carmen García del Diestro, “who was the one who taught me how to really write.” “.
He began his writing with children’s stories, novels and scripts, but finally entered the cinema thanks to José María Forqué, with El secreto de Mónica, a film for which he was the screenwriter. Then came the scripts for titles such as La becerrada, The Twins, The Truth Game or Death Travels Too Much, until he debuted in 1969 as a film director with Carola by Day, Carola by Night, a film starring Pepa Flores and Tony Isbert that It told a story after the triumph of the revolution, that of the young and beautiful heir to the throne who leaves her country to save her life.
He married Elena Santonja, a pioneer of cooking shows on the small screen and with whom the doors of Spanish Television were opened to him, a house from which he ended up being expelled when the wife of a minister felt alluded to. Despite this, the director’s relations with the public network were constant, as he was behind series such as The Twelve Faces of Juan, Gallery of Husbands, Time and Time or Fábulas.
His work crossed borders. She aspired to the Oscar with Mi Querida Señorita, the drama she wrote with José Luis Borau about a woman who discovers she is a man. We had no chance of winning because Luis Buñuel was there with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. The previous year they had made an ugly mistake with Viridiana and they made an act of contrition. We knew it was going to be for Buñuel. José Luis López Vázquez impressed George Cukor, who offered him a role in Viajes con mi aunt.”
He had a second chance with El nido. “We had Truffaut and Kurosawa as rivals, so I thought they weren’t going to give it to us. There were two very divided sides and, in the end, the award went to a very bad Soviet film, which made me very angry.”
Another of his great passions was the circus world, of which he was very knowledgeable. He wrote Biography of the Circus, a masterpiece of its genre for many critics. And in terms of theater, it is worth highlighting Eva without Apple, a work with which he won one of his first awards, the Calderón de la Barca in 1953.
