Armiñán, Jaime de

(1927- )

   Jaime de Armiñán was already an established playwright and film and TV writer when he directed his first film, the trite comedy Carola de día, Carola de noche (Carola by Day, Carola by Night, 1969) starring ex-child star Marisol. But Mi querida señorita (My Dearest Miss, 1971), a strange story about a man who is brought up as a woman and only finds out the truth late in life was a revelation and showed his skill with actors and a sensitivity for dealing with controversial topics. It was produced by José Luis Borau, and brought his first Oscar nomination. Two more films in a similar vein followed. El amor del capitán Brando (Captain Brando's Love, 1974), a huge box-office hit at the end of the Franco dictatorship, was a cross-generational love story about a 12-year-boy who falls in love with his teacher, played by Ana Belén. A reverse version of the same topic of infatuation between a grown-up and a teenager was featured in El nido (The Nest, 1980), about an old professor played by Héctor Alterio falling in love with Ana Torrent's young girl. The intense lyricism and lack of prejudice Armiñán projected into the story made this his best film, and earned him another nomination for an Academy Award as best foreign film.

   The rest of Armiñán's career includes a few remarkable titles like En septiembre (In September, 1982), which follows a group of friends on a camping weekend; Mi general (My General, 1987), a satiric view of the Spanish Army's efforts to come to grips with NATO; a sensitive adaptation of Eduardo Mendicutti's coming-of-age novel El palomo cojo (The Lame Pigeon, 1995), starring Carmen Maura, and the elegant Al otro lado del túnel (The Other Side of the Tunnel, 1994).