Alejandro Amenabar
My movies are not movies of answers but of questions
Counting 7
titles and starting his career at the age of 19, Amenabar is considered as a
promising new-age director. Being also the writer, soundtrack composer and enjoying
small roles from time to time, he truly seems multi-talented, yet now raises
the question whether or not he keeps his personal style after his premier in
Hollywood.
Amenabar
made his first steps in film-directing with two short horror films,
“Himenoptero”(1992) and “Luna”(1995). His first short film, “Himenoptero” was a
33-minute surprising thriller with the basic idea of snuff films and Amenabar
as director, writer, music-composer and actor (he played a silent role, a
camera-man). His second short film “Luna” had a mediocre script, with a
pretentious, yet indifferent woman-character (played by Nieves Herranz in one
of her first and last films), moderate direction and photography. Nevertheless,
it did introduce a great Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega (Tesis, Abre los ojos,
Plata quemada, Che Guevara).
Just one
year after his second short film, Amenabar did not hasitate making his debut in
Spanish cinema with his first movie, “Tesis”(Thesis,1996) and was immediately
thought to be a promising new director, often compared to Alfred Hitchcock for
the pure cruelty of his horror films. The main idea of the film (the concept of
enjoying an otherwise horrible spectacle of a snuff film) was also, as mentioned
above, the idea of his first short film “Himenoptero”. “Tesis” won several Spanish Academy awards and
even reached Berlin Film Festival, preparing the audience for his Spanish
blockbuster “Abre los ojos” (Open your eyes, 1997). “Abre los Ojos” did not
catch Hollywood’s attention, though clearly impressed Tom Cruise, who starred
in the Hollywood remake of the film “Vanilla Sky”, which, missing Amenabar’s
direction and having Hollywood’s aesthetics, partially loses the novelty and atmosphere of the original.
Yet,
“Vanilla Sky” opened Hollywood doors for Amenabar who literally scored with his
English-debut horror film “The others” (2001), receiving only good critiques
worldwide. The spine-tingling chills, produced by the dark, foggy atmosphere
created by Amenabar’s direction, the mysterious soundtrack, also composed by
him, the outstanding performance of N.Kidman as a 1940’s semi-lunatic
mother of two light-allergic kids, and
most-of-all the unexpected end were more than enough to characterize the film
as remarkable.
Considered
to be at the top of his career Amenabar went back to Spanish films with “Mar
adentro” (Sea within,2004), staring Javier Bardem as the true-life character of
Ramon Sapedro, a quadriplegic who fought
for 30 years to win his right to end his life the way he wanted. The film
shocked, and divided the critics, who either thought it was extremely true and sentimental,
or just extravagant, with the sole intention of provoking the audience. The
truth is J.Bardem was great in his role, Amenabar did a good job in the
atmospheric scenes, especially the one with Ramon “flying” over the sea, and
the soundtrack was well-chosen.
After all
that success, Amenabar decided to try for second time an English-language film,
directing “Agora” (2009), which with its Spanish director, British actors,
Hollywood-standard production, set in Roman Alexandria of 391AD, criticizing
the crimes and destructions in the name of Christianity was promising to be
really provocative and extra-ordinary, but, surprisingly enough, can be immediately
forgotten after each screening and does raise the question ‘where is
Amenabar?’. Rumor has it, he faces the results of his last-film’s failure, yet,
he is just 30 years old. Maybe we have to be more optimistic when criticizing a
promising talent and expect a stunning come-back from him in the future.
