Bigas Luna, José Juan

b. 1946, Barcelona

   Filmmaker

   A director whose films have been described as "bizarre, black, bawdy", "offbeat, outrageous, steamy" and "provocative, outrageous and entertaining", Bigas Luna produced his first full length film, Tatuaje (Tattoo) in 1976 after working in graphic design until 1970 and making shorts between 1972 and 1976.

   His films of the 1970s and 1980s, among them Bilbao (1978), Caniche (Poodle) (1979), both based on his own short stories, Renacer (Reborn) (1981), Lola (1985) and Angoixa (Anguish) (1986) won him a great following in Barcelona. Of his 1990s films, Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu) (1990), a particularly explicit screen version of an erotic novel by Almudena Grandes, is among the top twenty Spanish box-office earners, and in 1993 Huevos de oro (Golden Balls) was among the top earners of the year. Jamón, Jamón (Salami, Salami), which starred Javier Bardem and launched him on his career, won the Silver Lion at Venice in 1993, and in 1994 his surrealist comedy La teta y la luna (The Breast and the Moon) won an award at Venice for the best film-script (with Cuca Canals), and in Spain the Premio Ondas for best film of the year.

   See also: film and cinema

   Further reading

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

   EAMONN RODGERS