“Spanish cinema finds itself without one of its most emblematic actresses”wrote the Spanish Cinema Academy, paying tribute to Marisa Paredes, whose death it announced on Tuesday September 17 at the age of 78. Here are some of the “strong, ambivalent, torn, passionate, enigmatic and ultimately very human women” that she embodied.
“Crystal Prison” (Behind the Glass, 1986)
The Spanish filmmaker Agustí Villaronga offers him a decisive role in a difficult film. Marisa Paredes plays Griselda, the wife of a former Nazi concentration camp doctor who carried out monstrous experiments and sex crimes on young boys. Refugee in Spain, he continues his experiments and ends up attempting suicide. The attempt fails and he finds himself at the mercy of his wife, her ghosts and his infamous crimes.
“Stilettos” (1991)
Marisa Paredes meets Pedro Almodovar for the first time on Into the darkness (between darkness1983) but their first major collaboration was Stiletto heels (1991) which propelled her onto the international scene. She is Becky del Páramo, famous singer of melodramatic songs, who finds her daughter, played by Victoria Abril. Reuniting with the child she abandoned is difficult, especially when their mutual lover is murdered. In the film, Paredes delivers a heartbreaking interpretation of think of me, sung by Luz Casal on the soundtrack of Stiletto heels.
“The Flower of My Secret” (1995)
The actress is again directed by Almodovar in The Flower of my secret, a tailor-made portrait of a woman for Marisa Paredes. The film is the story of a novelist, Amanda Gris, who finds herself writing a critique about herself in the shoes of her alter ego Leo Macias. The exercise is an opportunity to settle scores with the writer she no longer wants to be. His interpretation earned him a nomination for the Goyas, the equivalent of the Césars in Spain.
“Life is Beautiful” (1997)
Marisa Paredes has worked outside Spanish borders. In the 1990s, it was led by Arthur Ripstein (No letter for the colonel), Raúl Ruiz (Three lives and one death) or even Roberto Benigni dans Life is beautiful where she makes a notable appearance.
“All About My Mother” (1999)
In Everything about my mother, tribute film to his own mother who passed away the year the film was released, Almodovar entrusts another beautiful role to one of his favorite actresses. Marisa Paredes plays a famous theater actress, Huma Rojo, alongside Penélope Cruz (Rosa) and Cecilia Roth (Manuela) who play two sisters. One of Almodovar's masterpieces is both a tribute to mothers and artists. Everything about my mother, film chorale, won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2000.
