Agustí Villaronga Riutort (; 4 March 1953 – 22 January 2023)
was a Spanish film director, screenwriter and actor.
He directed several feature films, a documentary, three projects for television and three shorts. His film ''
Moon Child'' was entered into the
1989 Cannes Film Festival.
His auteur approach to filmmaking was described by ''
ScreenDaily'' as demostrative of "a keen insight into human pain and cruelty". In 2011 he won the
Goya Award for Best Director
The Goya Award for Best Director (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Premio Goya a la mejor dirección'') is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's principal national film awards. The category has been presented ever since the 1st Goya Awards, first edition of ...
for ''
Black Bread''. The Catalan-language film was selected as the Spanish entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
84th Academy Awards,
but it did not make the final shortlist.
Life and career
Agustí Villaronga was born on 4 March 1953 in
Palma. His grandparents were itinerant puppeteers and his father was a child of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
, a background that would resurface repeatedly in the director's filmography. Since childhood, his father encouraged his love for films and from early in his life he wanted to become a film director. He worked as an actor and made some shorts.
Villaronga made his directorial debut in 1986 with the film ''
In a Glass Cage'', which was selected by the
Berlin film festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
receiving critical praise and many awards. The plot follows a former Nazi doctor, now paralyzed and depending on an iron lung to live, who begins to be taken care of by a young man, one of the children he abused during the war. ''In a Glass Cage'' already shows some of the key elements in Villaronga's filmography: a disturbed childhood marked by violence, an early discovery of sexuality.
His second film, ''
Moon Child'' (1989), is about a child who goes to Africa to join a tribe awaiting the arrival of white child God. In 1992 he made a documentary, ''Al-Andalus'', produced by Sogetel and the
MoMa
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
of
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. For some years Villaronga tried unsuccessfully to find financing to adapt a novel by
Mercè Rodoreda,
''La mort i la primavera''. Instead he had to take some commission works. One of these was ''
El pasajero clandestino'', an adaptation of a
Georges Simenon
Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (; 12/13 February 1903 – 4 September 1989) was a Belgian writer who created the fictional detective Jules Maigret. One of the most prolific and successful authors of the 20th century, he published around 400 ...
novel, that lacked the personal characteristics of his filmography.
Called by actress
María Barranco, Villaronga directed the 1997 horror film ''
99.9'', which won the award for Best Cinematography at the 1997
Sitges Film Festival
SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...
. In 2000, Villaronga came back with a project of his own: ''
El mar'', a story set in
Mallorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
about three former childhood friends, traumatized by the violence they experienced during the Spanish Civil War, that are reunited ten years later as young adults. The key elements in Villaronga's filmography are present in this story: childhood, sexual awakening, homosexuality and violence.
In 2002, Villaronga co-directed with
Lydia Zimmermann
Lydia Martina Zimmermann Kuoni (born 30 December 1966) is a Spaniards, Spanish Catalans, Catalan actress and film director.Aroca, María Victoria. Lydia Zimmermann, sencillez escogida�Archive. ''S Moda El País'' (in Spanish). 7 January 2012. R ...
and
Isaac Pierre Racine the film ''
Aro Tolbukhin: In the Mind of a Killer''. In 2005 he directed a music video for French superstar
Mylène Farmer
Mylène Jeanne Gautier (; born 12 September 1961), known professionally as Mylène Farmer (), is a French singer and songwriter. Having sold more than 30 million records worldwide, she is among the most successful recording artists of all time ...
's song ''
Fuck Them All''. In 2007 he made ''Después de la lluvia'', a made for television project adapting a stage play. It was only until 2010 with ''
Black Bread'', when Villaronga finally achieved wider appeal. This film, winner of nine
Goya Awards including best film and best director, tells the story of an eleven year old boy who growing up in the harsh period of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War in
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...
's countryside discovers the world of lies around him.
Villaronga followed ''Black Breads success with ''
A Letter to Evita'', a TV miniseries co-produced by TV3, which recounts a real episode in the life of
Eva Perón while visiting Spain in the late 1940s.
Villaronga was openly gay.
He died on 22 January 2023 in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, at the age of 69. At the time of his death, he had one project, ''
Stormy Lola'', outstanding. It was shot in 2022, and was his first comedy film.
Villaronga received the
Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts
The Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts () is awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport of Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featurin ...
on 1 December 2022.
Filmography
Film
Short film
Television
Accolades
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villaronga, Agusti
1953 births
2023 deaths
20th-century Spanish male actors
Best Director Goya Award winners
Film directors from Catalonia
Catalan-language film directors
French-language film directors
Spanish gay writers
Spanish gay actors
Spanish LGBTQ film directors
Gay screenwriters
Spanish LGBTQ screenwriters
Spanish male screenwriters
Actors from Palma de Mallorca
Spanish-language film directors
Spanish male film actors
20th-century Spanish screenwriters
20th-century Spanish male writers
21st-century Spanish LGBTQ people
21st-century Spanish screenwriters