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Movies|Marisa Paredes, Acclaimed Diva of Spanish Cinema, Is Dead at 78
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/movies/marisa-paredes-dead.html
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A prolific actress, she was best known globally for her work with the filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, with whom she had a stormy relationship.
Dec. 20, 2024, 2:43 p.m. ET
Marisa Paredes, an award-winning actress who was considered one of the great divas of Spanish film, gaining international acclaim for her work with the renowned director Pedro Almodóvar, died on Tuesday in Madrid. She was 78.
Her death was announced by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. She was president of the academy from 2000 to 2003.
The news and culture site Hola! reported that Ms. Paredes had been feeling ill early on Tuesday and was admitted to a Madrid hospital, accompanied by her partner, the filmmaker Chema Prado.
Appearing in more than 75 films since 1960, Ms. Paredes was known for her mischievous comedic touch and an ability to mine the depths of her characters — “strong, ambivalent, torn, passionate, enigmatic and ultimately very human women,” as the academy described them in a statement.
While her early films and her many appearances on Spanish television received little attention outside her native country, Ms. Paredes eventually made waves internationally, appearing in Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful,” a 1997 film that won three Academy Awards. She played the mother-in-law of Mr. Benigni’s character, who attempts to survive on humor and imagination after he and his son are sent to a German concentration camp during World War II.
She also drew praise for her role as Carmen, a stoic leftist teacher with a wooden leg who struggles to survive at a boarding school in the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s “The Devil’s Backbone,” a 2001 horror-tinged film set during the Spanish Civil War.
