Spanish cinema is left without one of its most iconic actresses. Marisa Paredes (Madrid, 1946) has died at the age of 78, leaving behind a long career in which the public has been able to see her on more than 75 occasions on the big screen. Strong, ambivalent, torn, passionate, enigmatic and ultimately very human women have made up the interpretive work of the Madrid woman, who leaves the film pending release Emergency Exit of Lluís Miñarro.
Paredes trained at the capital's School of Dramatic Arts, and made his film debut at just 14 years old in Not tonight either of Jose Osuna, y 091 Police speakingof José María Forqué. During the sixties and seventies he added supporting roles and with the arrival of the eighties and First filmof Fernando Truebaits consolidation arrives. After participating in Trueba's first feature film, he would also participate in the first works of other prominent names in Spanish cinema, such as Agustí Villaronga (Tscratch the glass), essential creator in your life. Before, in 1983 came his first collaboration with Pedro Almodovara filmmaker to whom she will be perpetually linked in the history of cinema, with between darkness. Then he will film his main protagonists with the man from La Mancha: it will be the diva Becky del Páramo in Far Heels and the writer Amanda Gris of The flower of my secretthe latter role for which he received a Goya nomination. It will also appear in All about my mother, talk to her y The skin I live in.
The flower of my secret
Her collaborations with Almodóvar will open her to international cinema, in which she participates in films such as Life is beautiful, of Roberto Benigni, Deep Crimson, of Arthur Ripstein, o The devil's backboneof Guillermo del Toro. He will also add to his filmography works with Amos Gitai, Daniel Schmid, Philipe Lioret, Raoul Ruiz, Alain Tanner, Maria Sole Tognazzi, Cristina Comencini o Manoel de Oliveira.
From 2000 to 2003 she was President of the Film Academy, an institution that recognized her in 2018 with the Goya of Honor, a distinction she collected from her daughter, Maria Isasiand the director Agustí Villaronga. «This job is about taking it with absolute rigor and seriousness. “You need dedication, courage, strength, not to let discouragement overcome you,” he reflected in an interview for Academia Magazine on the occasion of this award.
©Alberto Ortega
A few months ago, the actress participated in the Collective Memory Academy of Spanish Cinema project with an in-depth interview about her career. «Freedom, education and culture are fundamental to people's lives. It's what remains. Art is what remains,” he said in this testimony.
The president of the Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leitehas mourned the death of “one of our most charismatic actresses, with a career that spans more than 60 years and that has been developed with identical effectiveness and sensitivity in film, theater and television. Marisa has undoubtedly been one of the greatest actresses in Spanish cinema, a person loved and known by everyone, who has filled our big and small screens,” he highlighted.
In addition to the Goya of Honor, Paredes has received numerous awards, such as the National Cinematography Award, the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts or the Great Vermeil Medal of the City of Paris, as well as film awards in international competitions such as the Karlovy Vary, Taormina, Gijón, Málaga or Valladolid.
All about my mother
