Northwest Film Forum

 

Director of several internationally acclaimed short films, Félix Viscarret easily makes the transition to features with this offbeat, delicately observed tale that swept the major prizes at this year’s Spanish national film festival in Malaga. Benito Lacunza (Alberto San Juan) is a mediocre trumpet player eking out a living when he gets word that his father has died. Back home, he reconnects with his brother Lalo, a sculptor and former alcoholic who has struggled to get straight. Lalo is planning to marry Nines, which Benito is against — until he meets Nines’ daughter Ainara (Violeta Rodriguez), an introverted child with whom Benito creates a most unusual friendship. Viscarret elegantly captures the feeling of small-town life, with its suspicions, jealousies and sense that everyone knows everybody else’s business. San Juan is excellent as Benito: just the right combination of big-city snobbery and barely concealed vulnerability. In her first major role, Rodriguez is a revelation.
 

 

 

More about Felix Viscarret and Under the Stars

In 2007, Felix Viscarret’s first feature film Under The Stars (Bajo las estrellas) was released. Written for the screen and directed by Felix Viscarret, it’s the adaptation of the novel El trompetista del Utopia (The Trumpeter From Utopia) by Fernando Aramburu. Spanish stars Alberto San Juan and Emma Suárez played the leading roles in the film produced by Fernando Trueba (winner of Best Foreign Film Oscar for Belle Epoque). In March 2007 the film was presented at Malaga Spanish Film Festival where it won the top prizes for BEST FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST FIRST SCRIPT and BEST ACTOR (Alberto San Juan).

Recently the Under The Stars has received two Spanish Academy Awards in the following categories:
-    BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (Félix Viscarret)
-    BEST ACTOR (Alberto San Juan)

The film was also nominated in the top categories of Best New Director, Photography, Music, Leading Actress and Actor in a Supporting Role.

Under The Stars also won the 2008 Sant Jordi Award for Best New Director’s Film (given by the Critics Association), the Jury’s Award at Annecy Film Festival (France) and it is also one of the 5 finalists for the Best Picture Award given by the Spanish Producers Association EGEDA.

Previously, Felix Viscarret, Pamplona 1975, has also been one of the best-known Spanish directors of short films. After studying film at William Paterson University (New Jersey), he directed the short Dreamers, winner of several awards: Special Mention by the Panorama Jury at Berlin Film Festival (1999); Winner of Best Film at National Film Festival at Hunter College, New York (1998), and Best Short Film and Best Script at Alcala National Film Festival (1999). His short films Canciones de invierno (Winter Songs), Los que sueñan despiertos (Restless) and El álbum blanco (The White Album) also were awarded at international film festivals such as Lausanne (Switzerland), Alcala and Malaga, amongst others.

Todo el tiempo del mundo (All The Time in The World) will be Felix Viscarret’s next feature film.