Chávarri, Jaime

b. 1943, Madrid

   Filmmaker and film critic

   A graduate of the Escuela Oficial de Cine (EOC) in 1970, Chávarri is a very versatile film director whose first major success was with El desencanto (Disenchantment) (1976). A study of the Francoist poet, Panero, who had died in 1962, the film was based on interviews with his wife and son, members of a right-wing family whom he described as not having known for the past four or five centuries what work was, but who are nevertheless "disenchanted" with the regime.

   The following year he directed A un Dios desconocido (To an Unknown God), which was greeted with rave reviews at the San Sebastián Film Festival. Co-scripted with Querejeta and produced in the immediate post-Franco period, the film takes as its subject the return to Granada of an ageing homosexual, witness to the death of Garcia Lorca.

   Like other directors Chávarri has been successful with film adaptations, such as Bearn o la sala de las muñecas (Bearn or The Dolls" Room) (1983), set in Majorca in 1863, and the box-office winner Las bicicletas son para el verano (Bicycles are for Summer) (1984) based on the play by Fernán Gómez, set in Madrid at the outbreak of the Civil War. Also popular was his 1989 film Las cosas del querer (Fond Things) with its catchy musical numbers.

   In addition to feature films and his early shorts and super-8 features such as Run, Blancanieves, Run (Run, Snow-White, Run) (1968) and Ginebra en las infernos (Guinevere in Hell) (1970), Chávarri has also directed many productions for Spanish television such as La intrusa (based on a story by Jorge Luis Borges) (1987) and Yo soy el que tu buscas (from a work by García Márquez) (1988). He has also successfully functioned as set designer, for instance for Erice's El espíritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Beehive) (1973), as actor, for instance in Almodó-var's ¿Que he hecho yo para merecer esto? (What Have I Done to Deserve This?) (1984) and as film critic for Film Ideal.

   Further reading

   - Higginbotham, V. (1988) Spanish Cinema under Franco, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press (one of the most comprehensive surveys of this period).

   - Molina-Foix, V. (1977) New Cinema in Spain, London: British Film Institute (a comprehensive overview of current trends).

   EAMONN RODGERS