Montxo Armendáriz

Montxo Armendariz (born as Juan Ramón Armendariz Barrios; 27 January 1949 in Olleta, Navarra, Spain)Torres, '' ''Diccionario Espasa Cine Español'' p. 83 is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. His film ''Las cartas de Alou'' won at the San Sebastian Film Festival. His next film, ''Historias del Kronen'', was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. '' Secretos del corazón'' won several Goya Awards, the Blue Angel Award at the Berlin Film Festival and received the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Early life and work

Born on 27 January 1949 in Olleta, Navarra.D’Lugo, ''Guide to the Cinema of Spain'', p. 120 He was the last hope for his parents, who had already lost three baby sons.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 142 His father was a farmhand and blacksmith and Armendáriz spent his first year in rural Basque Country, a landscape that would reappear repeatedly in his filmography.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 142 He was six years old when, in 1955, he moved with his parents to Pamplona in search of a better life.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 142 At age eighteen, he discovered existentialism in the works of foreign authors. After completing his mandatory military service, he studied electronics, a subject he taught as university professor at the Instituto politecnico de Pamplona.de Santiago, Pablo
Filmografia de Montxo Armendáriz: El Pasisaje de los Sentimientos.
decine21.com, (September 29, 2010). Retrieved March 24, 2012. Interested in filmmaking, he joined a film club, studied folklore, wrote and performed protest songs and bought a Super 8 camera to make his own short films. In 1975 he was arrested for protesting the killing of a Basque activist and faced trial on charges of conspiracy; this coincided with Franco's death and a subsequent amnesty was declared.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 143

Eventually Armendáriz left his teaching profession behind to follow a career as film director.D’Lugo, ''Guide to the Cinema of Spain'', p. 121 He joined Euskal Zinegille Elkartea, a new association of Basque filmmakers and made a series of documentary shorts on Basque topics including: ''Barregarriaren Dantza'' ''(Funny Dance)'' (1979) and ''Ikusmena'' ''(Landscape)'' (1980).D’Lugo, ''Guide to the Cinema of Spain'', p. 121

''Ikusmena'' presents a ten-year-old girl winning a prize in a school painting competition in a narrative disruptive by flashbacks that reveal how her artistic creativity had already been stifled by censorship and social pressures. ''Ikusmena'' was a success at festivals, but it suffered the inevitability limited distribution of short films.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 143 Armendáriz turned towards the more socially relevant documentary genre and made the eleventh episode in the Ikuska series: ''La ribera de Navarra'' ''(The Riberbanks of Navarre)'' ( 1981). This he followed with ''Nafarrako Ikazkinack'' in 1981 ''(The Charcoal workers of Navarre)'', a portrait of the hard life of charcoal burners. It was while making this project that the director met Tasio Ochoa, who inspired his first feature-length film.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 143

Feature films

''Tasio'' (1984), Armendáriz's debut as full-length feature film director, traces the generational history of the title character, a charcoal burner in the Urbasa mountains, whose threaten way of life is detail in a series of elliptical sequences in a visual style that approximates ethnographic cinema. Produced by Elias Querejeta, who also worked on the screenplay, Tasio is played by three actors at different ages. ''Tasios realism demanded a three months shoot that involved the actors living and working in primitive conditions.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 144 ''Tasio'' won critical praise and placed Armendáriz as an emerging talented director to be considered.

Two year later, he made his second film '' 27 Hours'' (1986) which center in a group of youngsters in San Sebastián involved with by drug addiction and delinquency.Torres, '' ''Diccionario Espasa Cine Español'', p. 84 It was part of a popular trend of Spanish films focused in youth problems that it was falling out of favor by the time this film was released. Nevertheless ''27 Hours'' won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival.

In 1990, Armendáriz returned to the ethnographic style of his first film with: '' Las Cartas de Alou'' (Letters from Alou), a narrative that follows a Senegalese black young man who arrives in Spain as an illegal immigrant and has to confront personal and institutional discrimination.D’Lugo, ''Guide to the Cinema of Spain'', p. 121 Well received by film critics, ''Las Cartas de Alou'' won the Golden Shell as best film at the San Sebastian film festival and Armendáriz received a Goya Award and the Spanish guild award of film writers in the original screenplay category.

Armendáriz reached wide popular success with his third film ''Historias del Kronen'' (1995) ''Stories from the Kronen'', about alienated upper class young friends in Madrid, who regularly meet at the bar that gives the film its title.D’Lugo, ''Guide to the Cinema of Spain'', p. 121 It was adapted from a novel by José Angel Mañas in an Elias Querejeta's production. The film, starring Juan Diego Botto and Jordi Mollà, follows two close friends filling their summer vacation with sex, drugs and rock. The film became emblematic of the Spanish young generation of the 1990s.

Armendáriz subsequent film became his best regarded artistic success '' Secretos del Corazon'' ''(Secrets of the Heart)'' (1997). An intimist drama that centers on Javi, a nine-year-old boy who while visiting relatives in rural Navarre during the early 1960s discovers the world of the adults. The film reflected the director's own nostalgic views of his childhood in the Navarrese countryside, portraying with sensibility the growing up of the child.Stone, ''Spanish Cinema'', p. 145 ''Secretos del Corazon'' received a number of awards and was Spain's candidate to the Academy Awards in the foreign language film category that year.

In 1999 Armendáriz founded his own production company Oria films with Pui Oria.de Santiago, Pablo
Filmografia de Montxo Armendáriz: El Pasisaje de los Sentimientos.
decine21.com, (September 29, 2010). Retrieved March 24, 2012. Two years later he directed his next film ''Silencio Roto'' (Broken Silence), a story about Maquis, the guerilla fighters that confronted the Francoist forces in the aftermath of the Spanish civil war.de Santiago, Pablo
Filmografia de Montxo Armendáriz: El Pasisaje de los Sentimientos.
decine21.com, (September 29, 2010). Retrieved March 24, 2012.

The director's subsequent project was a return to his origins as a documentarist, making ''Escenario Movil'' (2004) which follows the itinerant life of a musician through different musical venues.de Santiago, Pablo
Filmografia de Montxo Armendáriz: El Pasisaje de los Sentimientos.
decine21.com, (September 29, 2010). Retrieved March 24, 2012.

A year later Armendáriz directed ''Obaba'' (2005), a fragmented tale based on the compilation of short stories book ''Obabakoak'' written by Bernardo Atxaga. Armendáriz most recent film ''No tengas miedo'' ''(Don't be afraid)'' (2011) stars Michelle Jenner as Silvia a young woman confronting her past as an abused child.

At Gijón International Film Festival in 2011, he received the Nacho Martinez Award.

Filmography as director

Notes

References

* D'Lugo, Marvin. '' Guide to the Cinema of Spain''. Greenwood Press, 1997.
* Stone, Rob.'' Spanish Cinema''. Pearson Education, 2002,
* Torres, Augusto M. ''Diccionario Espasa Cine Español''. Espasa Calpe, 1994,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Armendariz, Montxo
1949 births
Living people
People from Tafalla (comarca)
Basque-language writers
Spanish film directors
Spanish male screenwriters
Basque film directors
20th-century Spanish screenwriters
20th-century Spanish male writers
21st-century Spanish screenwriters