La chica de la plaza Santa Ana
 

PostED ON 18.10.2023

Lumière pays tribute to one of Pedro Almodóvar’s muses, Marisa Paredes, with her illustrious career and impeccable commitment.

When she was performing in the plaza Santa Ana in Madrid, the city of her childhood, little María Luisa Paredes Bartolomé was already dreaming of burning up the stages in the surrounding theatres. Born in the capital of Spain  on 3 April 1946, the daughter of an employee of the "El Aguila" beer factory and the caretaker of the building at number 13, young Marisa felt the irresistible call of the stage. At the age of eleven, she locked herself in her room and went on a hunger strike when her parents rejected her decision to become an artist. Despite this, her mother, who displayed a charismatic personality, supported Marisa all her life.

By the age of fifteen, she was appearing on stage as a "theatre trainee" in the company of Conchita Montes, a great lady and brilliant stage director, in José López Rubio's play, Esta Noche Tampoco. She was not yet of legal age (21 at the time), but her mother kept an eye on her and accompanied her home every day at 1am. Fortunately, the theatre was only a few steps away. Between theatre and cinema roles, Marisa Paredes' career began an ascension that would last throughout her lifetime. She also made her debut on the small screen, in the legendary Studio 1 of TVE (Televisión Española), where she played characters by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Beckett and Garcia Lorca... As a theatre actress and television star, she took on a succession of roles, but in the 1970s and 1980s, the cinema with a capital C was still leaving her on the sidelines. She missed out on a number of roles working with Luis Buñuel and Luis García-Berlanga Martí, who wrote Plácido (1961). But no regrets.

High Heels, 1991 © DR

In the 1990s, she finally broke through in the films of Pedro Almodóvar, gaining the international recognition she had long enjoyed in her own country. He made her one of his most iconic 'chicas', giving her her first role as an unhinged nun in Dark Habits in 1983 and, at the age of 49, the devastating diva Becky del Paramo, former musical star and negligent mother of Victoria Abril in High Heels. This was followed by her performance as the devastated and grandiose heroine of The Flower of My Secret in 1995 and, in a more serious style, her portrayal of the actress Huma Rojo in All About My Mother, a cult film which won an Oscar in 1999. Marisa Paredes completed her cycle of collaborations with the director from La Mancha by playing the icy Marilia in The Skin I Live In in 2011, a 180° turn from her previous roles. Eternally grateful to Almodóvar, she has received offers beyond Spain's borders, from France, Italy and Latin America. She worked with Raul Ruiz alongside Marcello Mastroianni in 1996 in Three Lives and Only One Death, with Roberto Begnini in Life Is Beautiful in 1997, and for Arturo Ripstein, Manoel de Oliveira and Guillermo del Toro in The Devil's Backbone (2001), to name but a few. Marisa Paredes wanted to break new acting boundaries; playing similar roles repeatedly was starting to overwhelm her. In 2010, Spanish television once again opened its arms to her with the successful two-part miniseries Felipe y Letizia, in which her interpretation of Queen Sofia left a lasting impression.

A lawyer at heart and resolutely determined "to defend causes that require a great deal of commitment", the actress has devoted her life to her craft as an actress, as she emotionally declared when receiving an honorary Goya for lifetime achievement in 2018. In July 2023, she made a high-profile appearance at a political rally, speaking out about the situation in her country: "How is it possible that Vox (the far-right party) and the Partido Popular (the right-wing party) are so afraid of freedom?”

Charlotte Pavard

SCREENINGS 

High Heels by Pedro Almodóvar (Taconeslejanos, 1991, 1h53)
Institut Lumière (Hangar) – Wednesday, 18 October at 6.15pm
Ciné Mourguet, Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon – Thursday, 19 October at 8pm 

The Devil’s Backbone by Guillermo del Toro (El espinazo del diablo, 2001, 1h47, Prohib. ages -12)
UGC Ciné Cité Confluence – Wednesday, 18 October at 7.15pm
UGC Astoria – Saturday, 21 October at 4.30pm

In a Glass Cage by Agustí Villaronga (Tras el cristal, 1986, 1h51, Prohib. ages -16)
Pathé Bellecour - Thursday, 19 October at 5.15pm
Cinéma Comœdia – Saturday, 21 October at 7.45pm