Ángel Fernández-Santos (1934–2004) was a Spanish film critic and screenwriter. Born in

Los Cerralbos Los Cerralbos is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, , ), or Castile La Mancha, is an autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces ...

province of Toledo Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila. Its capital is the city of Toledo. ...

, in 1934, he was the younger brother of Marxist philosopher . He studied for a brief spell at the in the early 1960s. As a committed anti-

Francoist Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

, he was expelled from the Escuela Oficial de Cine because of his left-wing positions. He went on to have a extensive career as a film critic, writing for ''Nuestro cine'' (1964–1971), ''

Cinemanía ''Cinemanía'' is a Spanish language monthly film magazine based in Madrid, Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)( ...

'', ''

Diario 16 ''Diario 16'' (Spanish for "Daily 16" or "Newspaper 16") was a Spanish-language daily newspaper published in Madrid, Spain, between 1976 and 2001. The ''16'' of the title refers to the sixteen founders of Grupo 16, publishers of the weekly news m ...

'', and ''

El País ''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...

'', where he worked from 1982 until his death. He also co-penned the screenplays of ''

The Spirit of the Beehive ''The Spirit of the Beehive'' (Spanish: ''El espíritu de la colmena'') is a 1973 Spanish drama film directed by Víctor Erice. The film was Erice's debut and is considered a masterpiece of Spanish cinema. The film focuses on a young girl named ...

'' (reputed to be among the best Spanish films ever) and also screenplays of films directed by Escuela Oficial de Cine acquaintance

Francisco Regueiro Francisco Regueiro (born 2 August 1934) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. He directed twelve films between 1962 and 1993. Selected filmography * '' The Good Love'' (1963) * ''Padre nuestro'' (1985) * ''Diario de invierno'' (1987) * ' ...

. He died in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

on 6 July 2004. A compilation of his reviews edited by for Editorial Debate was published in 2007. An essay by José Antonio Planes Pedreño about the basics of Fernández-Santos' film criticism titled ''La crítica cinematográfica de Ángel Fernández-Santos'' was published by Shangrila Ediciones in 2017. His daughter Elsa is a journalist specialised in culture, reporting about cinema as well.

References

Spanish film critics People from the Province of Toledo Spanish male screenwriters 20th-century Spanish screenwriters 20th-century Spanish male writers El País people 1934 births 2004 deaths {{Film-critic-stub