Today marks 25 years since the sudden death of Pilar Miró, one of the transcendental figures for the Spanish film industry. Two days after the titanic task of directing the broadcast of the wedding of the Infanta Cristina with Iñaki Urdangarin, the director died of a heart attack at only 57 years of age.
A terrible way to lose an essential figure. In addition to directing several relevant feature films, of which we will highlight three that can be seen in streaming, Miró was General Director of Cinematography during the eighties, trying to impose a structural change that would promote higher quality Spanish productions at the expense of quantity, and also the first woman director of Radio Televisión Española. Just for that it is a figure to remember.
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‘The crime of Cuenca’ (1980)
Address: Pilar Miro. Distribution: Amparo Soler Leal, Héctor Alterio, Fernando Rey, Daniel Dicenta, José Manuel Cervino.
The film censored and that it almost cost Miró his prison sentence. Not stopped by the Franco dictatorship but by a democracy still fresh from the transition, by the Minister of Culture Ricardo de la Cierva who saw the harsh portrayal of the Civil Guard as criminal. ‘The account crime’ was able to move forward thanks to its previous showing at film festivals, where the “Kafkaesque” situation it was experiencing could be denounced.
Not surprisingly, they feared that the public image of the security forces would be damaged. Based on the real and known events that occurred at the beginning of the 20th century in Tresjuncos and Osa de la Vega, it shows the terrible and shocking acts of torture produced against two residents of the region, accused of committing the murder of a fellow pastor. A heartbreaking movie that does not leave you impassive.
See on FlixOlé
‘Gary Cooper, who art in heaven’ (1981)
Address: Pilar Miro. Distribution: Mercedes Sampietro, Jon Finch, Carmen Maura, Agustín González, Víctor Valverde.
Miró’s life was also marked by health difficulties. Suffering from heart failure since childhood and having undergone heart surgery several times, she tried to relieve all these anxieties in vital matters in a film with autobiographical and complex details. His own reflection on mortality in the vein of ‘Cleo from 5 to 7’, which he ended up dedicating to his surgeon.
The leading director also has to undergo an emergency operation, leading her to a certain existential anguish around her professional success, her frustrated relationship with men and her family or her passion for cinema personified in the figure of Gary Cooper. A totally vital work, but not easy for that, treated with great pleasure and intimacy.
See on FlixOlé
‘Beltenebros’ (1991)
Address: Pilar Miro. Distribution: Terence Stamp, Patsy Kensit, José Luis Gómez, Geraldine James, Simón Andreu.
One of his works to claim is a fabulous exercise in the noir genre located in the Spanish postwar period, including plots of prostitution and persecution of communism. A film with a fabulous aesthetic finish and great setting, achieved by several factors, including a special effects guru in our country such as Reyes Abades, who won his second Goya award in this category with his work here.
With the help of the script by Mario Camús and adapting the novel by Antonio Muñoz Molina, ‘Beltenebros’ follows an Englishman introduced to Spain in the sixties in search of an infiltrated mole. A true walk through the dark corners, made with scrupulous attention to detail and taking appropriate lessons from the great classics of film noir.
See on RTVE Play and on FlixOlé