When thinking about Marisa Paredes (1946-2024) it is easy to fall into the cliché of the “great lady of cinema” and remember exclusively her image captured in the melodramas of Pedro Almodóvar.
However, and although these films are the cornerstone of his filmography, we must keep in mind that six long decades of career they give for much more.
Regular in the series and filmed theater of Spanish Television during the 60s and 70s, Paredes gradually built a reputation that made her one of the essential faces of Spanish cinema, and then reach beyond our borders. In tribute to the actress, who has died at the age of 78, we collect here the essential titles from her filmography.
‘The world goes on’ (Fernando Fernán Gómez, 1965)
At just 14 years old, Marisa Paredes made her film debut in 091, police speaking (José María Forqué, 1960). And, at 19, he worked on one of the cursed films par excellence of our cinema: this drama, starring Fernán Gómez, Lina Canalejas y Gemma Cuervo, It took two years to be released, disappeared almost instantly due to censorship and was only recovered for history in the 21st century, being hailed as a masterpiece.
‘First feature’ (Fernando Trueba, 1980)
After many years alternating TV with supporting roles in film, Paredes began to attract the attention of young viewers with the debut of Trueba, a precursor story to the so-called ‘Madrid comedy’ of the 80s. Although the focus of the film was on the journalist’s emotional-sexual tribulations Oscar Ladoire, The actress managed to stand out in a filming full of young people (like the director himself) in front of whom she was already a seasoned professional.
‘Between darkness’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 1983)
Did you want moments for history? Well, here you have one: the entry of Marisa Paredes into the Almodovarian universe had the aura of the sacred, and it could not be less so when the actress took on the habit of the Humiliated Redeemers next to Carmen Maura, Lina Canalejas y Chus Lampreave, among others. Even the name of his character, ‘Sister Manure’, It was striking in that congregation whose members were all dirty and bitches.
‘Bicycles are for summer’ (Jaime Chávarri, 1984)
Although directed by the author of The disenchantment, This drama set in the Civil War was based on a play written by Fernando Fernán Gómez, whose path crossed again with that of Marisa Paredes 19 years after The world goes on. In the cast, with her, Agustín González, Victoria Abril, Amparo Soler Leal and a Gabino Diego very young
‘Behind the glass’ (Agustí Villaronga, 1986)
Villaronga’s long debut is undoubtedly the most transgressive film of Marisa Paredes’ career, and look there is something to choose from. This sordid horror story with exiled Nazis, dark mansions, pedophilia and truculence in abundance was also the favorite work of the actress, who ate up the screen from her first appearance until a death that she took good note of. Alex de la Iglesia to The day of the beast.
‘Far Heels’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 1991)
Although they had already worked together, the fusion of Marisa Paredes with Almodóvar in the collective imagination took place thanks to Becky del Páramo, the diva of the song played by the actress in this rapturous melodrama. His tug-of-war with his murderous daughter (Victoria April) are as emblematic for actress and director as that performance of think of me with the voice of Light Couple.
‘The flower of my secret’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 1995)
“Is there any possibility, no matter how small, of saving what is ours?” is the most quotable phrase (and most parodiable, too) from the second great Paredes-Almodóvar collaboration. Fully immersed in his most sophisticated stage, the man from La Mancha turned the actress into a writer of romantic novels Amanda Gray, a character that gave him his (scandalously, only) Goya nomination as a protagonist.
‘Deep Crimson’ (Arturo Ripstein, 1996)
Almodóvar was not the only director who knew how to get oil from Marisa Paredes during the 90s. The Mexican Ripstein, who would work with her again in The colonel has no one to write to him (1999), included it in this unofficial remake of The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle, 1970) trapping her in the networks of criminal lovers Regina Orozco y Daniel Giménez Cacho.
‘Life is beautiful’ (Roberto Benigni, 1997)
Although it has no shortage of detractors, Benigni’s film about the Holocaust triumphed at the Oscars, giving occasion to Sophia Loren to exclaim that “Roberto!” which, not much later, would imitate Penelope Cruz when announcing the jackpot for another film in which Marisa Paredes also appeared. You know which one we’re talking about, right?
‘All about my mother’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
The film with which Almodóvar won the long-awaited Oscar is his ‘actress movie’ par excellence. And, together with Cecilia Roth, Antonia San Juan, Penelope Cruz and Candela Peña, Paredes shines in the role of Smoke Red, diva of the scene who does not stop suffering for love during a production of A streetcar called desire. For the character, and for the film, Almodóvar also looked at Eve naked and in the Gena Rowlands of Opening Night.
‘The Devil’s Backbone’ (Guillermo del Toro, 2001)
Inspired by The blood club, comic Charles Burns Published in 1992, Del Toro’s first excursion to Civil War Spain reminded us that, beyond Almodóvar and his tears, in Marisa Paredes there was always a diva of terror struggling to emerge. Just watch her succumb to her desire for Eduardo Noriega to understand how good he was at the more cornerstone aspects of the genre.
‘The skin I live in’ (Pedro Almodóvar, 2011)
The last collaboration between the man from La Mancha and Marisa Paredes took place in the film that brought the director together with Antonio Banderas… and which is also Almodóvar’s work closest to the horror genre. Something that confirms how wonderful the actress was in her most Gothic register, especially when the gloomy maternity wards and tiger costumes also came into the mix, all set in the usual gloomy mansion.
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