Jaime Chávarri


Jaime Chávarri de la Mora is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. Best known for his films Las bicicletas son para el verano and musical film Las cosas del querer.

Life and career

Chavarri comes from a prominent family. His mother María de la Mora y Maura was a maternal granddaughter of Antonio Maura. He had already graduated as a lawyer, when he entered the Escuela Oficial de Cine in 1968. He abandoned his formal film studies in his second year, moving into film criticism. He wrote for Film Ideal magazine. His first film industry job was an assistant director to José Luis Borau. while devoting his spare time to make two feature-length films in super 8: Run, Blanca Nieves run in 1967, and Ginebra en Los Infiernos in 1969. He collaborated with Ivan Zuleta in his director's series for Spanish television Ultimo grito and subsequently scripted Un dos tres... al escondite Inglés in 1969. Over the next several years, he worked on the technical crew of a number of films and collaborated with Spanish cult film director Jesús Franco on the script for Franco's 1970 opus, Vampyros Lesbos. In 1970, he completed hi first short feature film 'Estado de sitio'. He also contributed one segment to the collective film, Pastel de Sangre in 1971 with Francesc Bellmunt.
Chávarri's first feature-length film as a director was Los Viajes Escolares in 1974, a complex autobiographical film that focuses on the ambiance of a dysfunctional family. It was shown at Valladolid International Film Festival and got a mixed reception. Critics recognized the director's talent but criticized the obscure symbolism of the film. Two years later, Chavarri continued the theme of the dysfunctional family with the documentary El Desencanto in 1976, which portraits the family of the deceased Francoist poet Leopoldo Panero, capturing the visceral relations forged out of the patriarchal tyranny in the poet's three sons and widow. Chavarri's next film was the highly praised A Un Dios Desconocido, To An Unknown God in 1977, which tells the story of a solitary aging gay magician in Granada who remembers his youthful romance with Federico García Lorca. The film, written with producer Elías Querejeta and with notable work by cinematographer Teodoro Escamilla, was highly praised, winning the leading actor and director prizes at the 1977 San Sebastián International Film Festival.
Chavarri subsequent film: Dedicatoria in 1980, another collaboration with Elías Querejeta, centers on Juan Uribe, played by José Luis Gómez, a journalist whose interrogation of his comrade, Luis Falcon, a political prisoner, leads him to discover the incestuous relation between Falcon and his daughter, the same woman with whom Juan is having sexual relations. Like earlier Chavarri's films, A Dedication was praised for its uncompromising thematic and artistry, but it failed at the box office.
By the early 1980s, Chavarri embarked on a series of film adaptations of diverse fictional works which lent a seeming randomness and lack of focus to his development as a filmmaker. In 1983 he directed a lavish adaptation of Llorenç Villalonga's novel, Bearn o la sala de muñecas and followed that with a screen version of Fernando Fernán Gómez's war play Las bicicletas son para el verano in 1984. Also in 1984, he had a cameo part as an Exhibitionist in Pedro Almodóvar's film What Have I Done to Deserve This?. Then in 1985, he wrote and directed his most personal film El rey del Oro, which is based on the Peter Pan stories.
The success of Las bicicletas son para el verano led Chavarri to turn his career from making independent films to more commercial ones. In 1988, he adapted for television Yo soy el que tú buscas, which is based on a Gabriel García Márquez novel of the same name. His musical-drama set in the 1930s postwar Madrid, Las Cosas del Querer in 1989. It features many folklore songs of the 30s and 40s and co-stars Ángela Molina as 'Pepita' and Amparo Baró as 'Balbina'. It became one of his biggest commercial successes. In Spain, it was the 6th most popular Spanish film in 1989, but outside Spain it is still mostly unknown. In 1990 he returned to television and made a literary adaption of Jorge Luis Borges's short story, 'La intrusa'.
In 1993, he made the comedy Tierno Verano de lujuria y azoteas based on the novel by Pablo Solozábal. The film explores the sexual awakening of a young man played by Gabino Diego, who is obsessed with his much older cousin Olga, played by Marisa Paredes. This was followed by a sequel: Las Cosas del Querer 2, set in Argentina in 1995, made for the producer Luis Sanz. It was less successful than its predecessor.
Chavarri's films of the 1990s: Gran slalom in 1996 and Sus ojos se cerraron y el mundo sigue andando in 1997 did not do well commercially. The director did better with Besos para todos in 2000, a comedy set in the 1960s about 3 medical students in Cadiz, starring Emma Suárez, Eloy Azorín and Pilar López de Ayala. In 2004, 'El año del diluvio' was released, based on the novel by Eduardo Mendoza Garriga novel of the same name, set in the 1950s about a mother superior and a rich landowner, who is trying to get funds to open a nursing home. His film Camarón in 2005, a biopic of the flamenco singer Camarón de la Isla played by Óscar Jaenada, also was well regarded. The film won 3 Goya Awards including the award for best actor to Óscar Jaenada.

Filmography

YearEnglish titleOriginal titleNotes
1973School tripsLos viajes escolares
1976The DisenchantmentEl desencantoDocumentary
1977To an Unknown GodA un dios desconocidoBest director San Sebastián International Film Festival
1979Tales for an escapeCuentos para una escapadasegment The deaf woman
1979Erotic talesCuentos eróticossegment Pequeño planeta
1980DedicatoryDedicatoria
1982Bearn or the Dolls's roomBearn o la sala de las muñecas
1983Bicycles Are for the SummerLas bicicletas son para el verano
1985The river of goldEl río de oro
1989The Things of loveLas cosas del querer
1993Tender Summer of lust and RooftopsTierno verano de lujurias y azoteas
1995The things of love. Second partLas cosas del querer. Segunda parte
1996Gran slalomGran slalom
1997Tangos Are for TwoSus ojos se cerraron y el mundo sigue andando
2000Kisses for EveryoneBesos para todos
2004El año del diluvioEl año del diluvio
2004Madrid M11: We Were All on That TrainMadrid 11M: Todos íbamos en ese trensegment Doce de octubre
2005Camarón: When Flamenco Became LegendCamarón