AboutOfficial Site: http://www.amenabar.com/Alejandro Amenabar was born in Chile in 1972, while the time bomb of political situation began to tick. President Salvador Allende’s government had powerful enemies. When Amenabar was one year old, his family left the country to settle in Spain. Fifteen days later, a military coup d’etat established dictatorship. "I still remember my mother singing with her guitar. But, when she arrived to Spain, she stop playing. It also comes to my mind an old Jiminy Cricket song from a Pinocchio record. When I was sixteen, I bought a record player –we had no record player in Madrid until that time- and I found that same record". "My parents told me I used to say "mummy" and "daddy" before we came here, but after that I did not talk anymore. They even took me to the doctor... That's another memory from my childhood: I could not play with other children in the street, and I did not know why. Now I guess I could not get in touch with them". "I did not even watch movies often. I liked E.T. phone home and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. My brother explained me that both movies had been directed by the same person, Steven Spielberg". In 1990, Amenabar begins studying Information Sciences -focused on image and audiovisual techniques- at the Universidad Complutense from Madrid. Nevertheless, disappointed about its lack of practical experience, he quits. Directing short films is more interesting and it opens a new universe for young Amenabar. At 19 years, in 1991, he releases his first short, The head, awarded by the Amateur filmmakers Independent Association. That is the beginning of his creative relationship with Mateo Gil, from then on, his most important collaborator. His next film, Himenopterus (1992), won the best short film award in festivals of Elche (Alicante) and Carabanchel (Madrid). "From the beginning, I wanted to direct, even if was not clear about what it takes. During the first year of my career, I understood its real meaning, while Mateo Gil and I were filming our first short". In 1994, he wrote and directed his third short, Moon, winner of Luis Garcia Berlanga award for best screenplay and AICA award for best soundtrack. As he would do along his whole career, Amenabar worked as director, screenwriter, editor, actor and musician. He also worked as cameraman, editor and composer for Before the kiss and I dreamt I killed you directed by his friend Mateo Gil. "Mateo and I had a friend called Carlos Montero, who also wanted to be a director. He put and announce in his college asking for actors for a casting. Among the candidates from the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático, there was one called Eduardo Noriega. At first I found him a bit insipid, but then he tried with a Woody Allen dialogue. He acted naturally, he did it fine". After those films, director José Luis Cuerda reads the script from Amenabar and Gil for a long movie called Thesis. The plot of that bloody thriller happens in the same university where Amenabar did not get a degree. Released in 1996, the film amazed the critics from its premiere in Berlin festival and won seven Goya awards, among them, best film, best original screenplay and best new director. "I was reading about snuff-movies, and the only thing I had for sure was that I wanted to tell a story about a college crowded with freak fans of image, where teachers were 'the bad guys". His next film, Open your eyes, went back to psychological thriller adding elements of science fiction. Like Thesis, it renewed the films patterns in an unexplored way for Spanish cinema. After its success in festivals from Berlin, Sundance and Tokyo, Open your eyes meant the beginning of Amenabar’s international prestige. "I imagined a man who suddenly discovers he is crionized and living in a dream. I talked about that with Jose Luis Cuerda and Mateo, who did not understand why he was crionized. I answered he was an indigent kidnapped for a scientific experiment. But it somehow remind us about an old cliché… Then I thought that he had paid not to know, because his life was a mess". Tom Cruise produced a remake of Open your eyes featuring himself and Penelope Cruz, and directed by Cameron Crowe. After that experience, Amenabar gave Cruise the screenplay for The Others, his third film. Cruise decided to produce it in English, starring Nicole Kidman. The Others is Amenabar’s most personal approach to old terror classics, and it meant for him a huge critical and audience success. "While I was filming Open your eyes, with all those different locations and time flashbacks, I thought I would like to explore a radically different story. I wanted to lock a bunch or characters in a house and throw away the key, creating suspense with just a few elements, in an almost minimalist style. I also felt that should be a good terror film, because I love those films and I miss directors that at least take terror seriously". The others was released in Venice festival and it became the most successful film that year in Spain. It won eight Goya awards, included best film, best director and best original screenplay. It also was nominated for best film by European Academy. In 2004, Amenabar amazes the world again releasing Out to sea, a film about the life of Ramon Sampedro. |
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