Mario Camus

Camus started studying Law, but soon left his studies to enter the IIEC (now EOC) in 1956, where he got a director's diploma in 1963 with the training film El borracho (1962) and, finally, ended up as a professor. He worked with Carlos Saura in several screenplays during the early 60s (The Delinquents (1960), Llanto por un bandido (1964)), and also directed some shorts. His first feature films were Los farsantes (1963) and Young Sánchez (1964), a film about boxing -one of his passions- which won the Best Film Award at the Buenos Aires Film Festival in 1964. This way he started a three decade filmography full of great works, varying from romantic comedies and musicals to splendid adaptations from famous novels, as is the case of the prestigious TV series Fortunata y Jacinta (1980) or the film La colmena (1982), which won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. In 1983 he was given the 'Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes' (Arts Gold Medal), and one year later he prepared his most successful work both with public and critic: The Holy Innocents (1984), an adaptation from the novel by Miguel Delibes. This film won the Best Actor Award for Francisco Rabal and Alfredo Landa (ex- aequo) at the Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 'Premio Nacional de Cinematografía' (National Cinematography Award) in 1985 and the 'Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts des Lettres' Award in 1986. Camus's filmography combines films made with others with a more personal style, where he tells stories closer to him that let him go through less worn themes. That is the case of Con el viento solano (1966), Los pájaros de Baden-Baden (1975) or Los días del pasado (1977). In the 90s he continued working with great actors and telling dramatic stories made up from complex characters living rebel or broken lives, or entering other genres like noir. Examples of this stage are La rusa (1987), Después del sueño (1992), Sombras en una batalla (1993) and Adosados (1996), a film which won the International Critic Award. He was married to Concha Bergareche from 1961 - 2016, date of her death. They had 7 children. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Miguel Ángel Díaz González

Works

Mario Camus según el cine

A look at the life and work of Spanish filmmaker Mario Camus (1935-2021).

Release Date2022-03-19

Charactersd Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)

Curro Jiménez

Curro Jiménez was a successful Spanish TV series that aired on TVE1 from 22 December 1976 to 1979. Its main theme was Andalusian "bandolerismo" in the 19th century, located in the Ronda mountains. The main characters were four bandits, Curro Jiménez

Release Date1976-12-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count10

Vote Count9

After the Dream

Amós is a sailor and owner of a ship. He is impatient with the arrival of his uncle who returns from the Soviet Union, after having exiled there after the Civil War. They have no time to meet because the old man unexpectedly dies. Amos knows, thanks to the letters his mother received, that his uncle had a treasure. However, this one is not among the objects that were in the old man's room.

Release Date1992-09-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Los días del pasado

A woman arrives in town to work as a teacher. It is the time of the 'maquis', the anti-Franco guerrilla that fights with little hope in some regions of Spain just after the end of the civil war. She has a love affair with one of the guerrillas, but their relationship will have an impossible future because of the past.

Release Date1977-05-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Los camioneros

Release Date1973-11-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Vote Count2

Crooks

A man of a certain social position falls in jail and request protection to a pickpocket and con man during his stay. On his release he promises to help his friend what then creates many problems.

Release Date1983-09-21

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Vote Count16

La vieja música

The new coach of the basketball team of Lugo arrives from Uruguay. He really knows nothing about training a basketball team so he keeps the previous coach on and in the meantime tries to learn from videos and books, but his real reason for coming to Spain was to find out about an old lost love.

Release Date1985-09-26

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Los farsantes

Release Date1963-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

Prince of Shadows

Madrid, 1962. More than twenty years after the civil war has finished, a communist comes back to Spain to kill a traitor.

Release Date1991-12-13

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count16

Suburbs

A young auditor live peacefully in a residential block consisting of identical townhouses. However, a purely casual visit to the veterinarian on duty with his dog, causes a chain of lies under which the auditor notices the hidden face of all his daily life, starting with the true meaning of the silence of his wife .

Release Date1996-08-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

La visita

A family of three (father, mother, and son) prepares to welcome a friend.

Release Date1961-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Fortunata and Jacinta

The aristocrat Juan de Santa Cruz meets Fortunata, a girl of humble origins, and a passionate love arises between them; but his mother decides to marry him to her niece Jacinta.

Release Date1980-05-07

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Episode Count10

Vote Count6

Lorca: Death of a Poet

Lorca, a great Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He was executed by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Nickolas Grace gives a fabulous interpretation in the title role and he even bears a remarkable resemblance to Lorca.

Release Date1987-11-28

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count9

La Forja de un Rebelde

An autobiographical account that is also the history of Spain during the dark years of the first half of the twentieth century. Spanish writer Arturo Barea (1897-1957) narrates his childhood in Madrid, his harsh experiences in Morocco during the Rif War and his political commitment to the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.

Release Date1990-03-30

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Vote Count5

La Femme et le Pantin

Matthieu, a mature and wealthy French businessman, meets Estrella in Barcelona, a teenager with a humble family, who is subjugated by his youth, spontaneity, candor and mischief.

Release Date1990-12-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

La rusa

A man falls in love with a terrorist.

Release Date1987-09-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Roma

Joaquín Góñez, a novelist in his sixties recalls his emotions, his wild years in Buenos Aires, the memories of old friends, the meaning of loyalty and the intimate relationship with his mother, Roma.

Release Date2004-04-15

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count30

Los desastres de la guerra

The painter Francisco de Goya is witness to the disasters and horrors caused by the bloody resistance of the Spanish people to the French occupation during the Napoleonic wars.

Release Date1983-06-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count6

Vote Count2

Let Them Talk

Raphael plays a singer who searches for his classical pianist brother in Buenos Aires, with the brother eventually revealed playing in the squalid bar.

Release Date1968-04-14

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Bohemian Nights

In the empty house of his family, Ramon, a poet, remembers the last day of the life of his master: the last time he went out with his friend don Latino de Hispalis, his talk with a minister and his dinner with Ruben Dario.

Release Date1985-08-21

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count5

The Beehive

As in the novel of the same title from Camilo Jose Cela, "La Colmena" is a sad composition with the stories of many people in the Madrid of 1942, just the postwar of the spanish civil war. The main theme of the film is the contrast between the poets, surviving close to misery under the Franco's regime, and the winners of the war, the emerging class of the people that makes easy money with illegal business.

Release Date1982-10-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count50

The Holy Innocents

In 60s Extremadura, Paco el Bajo and his relatives work during day in a farmhouse, and silently suffer submission to their masters, who exploit them and treat them almost like animals. Meanwhile, Paco dreams that one day his children will be able to study.

Release Date1984-04-04

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count127

Wrath of the Wind

A mute gunslinger takes on an oppressive landlord in 19th century Valencia and falls in love with a local woman.

Release Date1970-12-04

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count35

Más allá del jardín

Palmira, a woman belonging to the Sevillian aristocracy, as well known for her decrepitude and hypocrisy as the rest of her population, enters into an emotional crisis when she reaches maturity.

Release Date1996-12-20

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count10

La espera

A young woman waits for her boyfriend to arrive for dinner. But the young man shows up unannounced with a friend, much to the girl's displeasure.

Release Date1961-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

La suerte

A short film by Mario Camus.

Release Date1963-01-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The House of Bernarda Alba

After the death of her husband Bernarda Alba puts her daughters under a rigurous mourning which does not even allow them to leave the house.

Release Date1987-04-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count29

When You Are Not Here

The film is slightly autobiographical, Raphael is trying to find fame and fortune as a popular singer in Spain until he teams up with an up and coming Spanish composer which helps him become a popular singer in Spain.

Release Date1966-12-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Canticle

While conducting interviews with women working in local brothels, Fernando, a journalist, meets Elisa. The woman will tell him her dramatic story, which begins at age 14 when she is raped by her godfather.

Release Date1972-07-17

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count6

La vuelta del Coyote

In the mid-19th century, California, a Mexican territory, became part of the United States. Faced with the possibility of being dispossessed of his land by the new authorities, Don César de Echagüe, a Spanish nobleman, asks his son César, a capricious and insufferable fop, for help.

Release Date1998-07-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Weeping for a Bandit

José María "El Tempranillo" fleeing from justice, takes refuge in Sierra Morena. After a period of hard learning, he becomes the leader of a group of bandits.

Release Date1964-08-31

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count9

City of Wonders

A young man, Onofre Bouvila, arrives in Barcelona escaping the troubles of his family. Knowing no one, his only objective is to build a new life. But Barcelona is a city run by warlords and mafias. And it doesn't take Onofre long to understand that in order to move forward has to adapt to the prevailing order of things: only power and money have value. The rest doesn't matter. His ambition is endangers his only love, Delifina.

Release Date1999-05-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

Shadows in a Conflict

Ana, a former member of the Basque terrorist group ETA who lives in a small village near the Portuguese border working as a veterinarian and sharing her days with her partner Darío and their daughter Amalia, meets José, an attractive man who participated in the dirty anti-terrorist war against ETA criminals who took refuge in France.

Release Date1993-09-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count8

La joven casada

A young couple reviews the year they have lived together. According to him, this time has been positive. But she thinks that Jorge was carried away by his father, betraying the plans they had made together before marrying, although she believes that there is still some way to save the situation. That is why she escapes from home, thinking that her husband will go after her and that everything will start again. But a new person enters her life and the situation gets complicated.

Release Date1975-11-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

With the East Wind

The life of Sebastián, a 28-year-old Roma, changes drastically after he kills a man. From that moment, he must flee, experiencing the torments of loneliness, guilt, and the rejection of his people.

Release Date1967-07-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count13

The Color of the Clouds

Clementina befriends Lola’s nerdy lawyer, Valerio, and slowly a romance develops between them. Meanwhile, old fisherman and model-maker Colo has found a consignment of drugs floating in the sea and tries to get rid of them to raise money to save Lola’s house. The adventure element of pic is in a smuggling gang’s attempt to recover the drugs.

Release Date1997-10-04

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

La visita que no tocó el timbre

Two unmarried siblings live together without problems until the day a friend leaves her baby in their apartment because she does not have time to take care of him.

Release Date1966-04-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Volver a vivir

A former soccer player is morally and mentally destroied by the death of his wife. But when he gets the chance to train a team he regains his life by making victories and also finding another love.

Release Date1968-02-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

El prado de las estrellas

“The Meadow of Stars” refers to Alfonso's childhood memories. Fifty years later, he lives as a retiree in the home he has always known, in a large town nestled between a stormy sea and the mountain range.

Release Date2008-01-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

Self Esteem

A woman married to a bank director sees how her life is destroyed in a matter of hours when the police discovers that her husband has escaped with money from the bank.

Release Date1994-09-23

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count7

El Coyote: El tribunal del Coyote

Release Date1998-04-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Esa mujer

At the end of the 19th century, Soledad Romero, a well-known singer, is accused of murder. During the trial her tragic story is revealed.

Release Date1969-05-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

The Delinquents

A group of friends who are struggling to survive in the slums of Madrid commit petty crime in order to finance the debut as a bullfighter of one of them.

Release Date1960-05-14

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count18

The Birds of Baden-Baden

It's summer and Madrid is almost deserted. Elisa, a young bourgeois woman who is preparing her doctoral thesis, needs the services of a photographer to illustrate her work. She hires Pablo, a somewhat bohemian, strange, and solitary man who lives with his son. Despite an initial misunderstanding, they are mutually attracted to each other; thus begins a relationship that for her is nothing more than a summer romance, while for him it could be a story of love and salvation.

Release Date1975-05-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

La leyenda del alcalde de Zalamea

Release Date1973-04-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

El Coyote: Don César de Echagüe

Release Date1998-12-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Marbella

Comedy thriller directed by Miguel Hermoso.

Release Date1985-10-13

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count4

Young Sánchez

Portrait of the life of an amateur boxer, who falls into the hands of a cruel manager while turning into professional.

Release Date1964-06-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

La playa de los galgos

Martín tries to find his brother Pablo, who disappeared after a terrorist incident to which he was apparently linked. In the course of his investigation, he meets Berta, a mysterious woman who leads him to an Argentinean psychiatrist exiled in Denmark who may have information about Pablo's whereabouts.

Release Date2002-04-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Muere una mujer

A salesman discovers that his wife has died under strange circumstances. Examining these circumstances, it becomes obvious to him that they were mainly caused by himself.

Release Date1964-01-08

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count2

Al ponerse el sol

A famous singer and actor is at the peak of his career but fatigue, stress and harassment of the media makes feel unbalanced. His star began to fall rapidly and so goes into a clinic to cure his pain. Coming out, away from his audience, will spend some time at a house that is in the North, to the seashore. There he feels haunted by the story of characters who have lived in a nearby house, in one of which identifies his former secretary.

Release Date1967-10-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Práctica de 2º curso

A young disabled woman is totally dependent on her family's care. She spends her afternoons in the garden of the family home, where a boy comes to visit her.

Release Date1959-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Drunkard

A couple shelters an alcoholic haunted by his Republican past in their suburban home.

Release Date1962-09-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Mañana podría estar muerto

No blood, no money! Fights, acrobatics, jumps and death were the daily routine of the "old school" Spanish stuntmen and their coordinators. Their profession did put a price on their lives: the higher the risk, the higher the reward.

Release Date2012-01-01

Vote Count2

Paco, mi padre

Benito Rabal takes us on a journey through his memories to bring us closer to the endearing figure of the actor Paco Rabal, his father. Through interviews, voiceovers, reenactments, and family photographs and films, we discover the humble origins and undeniable career of one of the most important actors in the history of Spanish cinema.

Release Date1992-10-18

Vote Count1