Manuel Gutierrez Aragón. Torrelavega, Cantabria, January 2nd, 1942, won with the first novel, La vida antes de marzo, the 2009 Herralde Prize. He arrived in Madrid and entered the Official School of Cinematography, from which he graduated as director in 1970. After filming several short films, 1973 with the feature film Habla, mudita, starring José Luis López Vázquez and KitiManver. The film, which won the Critics' Prize at the Berlin Festival, reflects the opposite universe of an intellectual and a small peasant woman with completely different mentalities. Later, he collaborates in the scripts of Furtivos, of Jose Luis Borau and Las largas vacaciones del 36, of Jaime Camino.
Its next film, Camada negra, is officially prohibited, in spite of having died Franco, until 1977. After gaining in Berlin the Silver Bear to the best direction, it premieres in Madrid in the midst of ultra right-wingers attacks. It would be the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the director and the actress Angela Molina, protagonist also ofEl corazón del bosque (1979), Demonios en el jardín (1982) y La mitad del cielo (1986).
In 1981, he co-authored the short stories for Jaime Chávarri, Teo Escamilla, José Luis García Sánchez, Carles Mires, Miguel Ángel Pacheco and Gonzalo Suárez.
He has Fernando Fernán Gómez in Maravillas, a film about the discoveries of adolescence in a Jewish context, Feroz, co-written by Elías Querejeta, and La noche mas hermosa, among others, that allow him to place himself at the head of his generation.
In 1991 he made for TVE the series El Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes from the screenplay of Camilo José Cela, with Fernando Rey and Alfredo Landa in the main roles. Eleven years later he would shoot a new version of El Quijote, this time incarnated by Juan Luis Galiardo.
In 1993 he was elected president of the General Society of Authors and Publishers, a post he held until 2001, when he became the author of the Fundación Autor and then the Instituto Buñuel. He has also been chairing the European Federation of Audiovisual Directors since 2000. He also collaborates as a screenwriter on tapes by other directors such as Jarrapellejos by Antonio Giménez-Rico or Cuando vuelvas a mi lado by Gracia Querejeta.
Some of his recent films are Visionarios (2001) and La vida que espera (2004), in which he does not abandon the rural environment and the political reflection inherent in much of his work. In 2008 he portrays the Basque conflict crossing the lives of a terrorist and a threatened by ETA in Todos estamos invitados, while it makes public its intention to leave the cinematographic direction.
Actors of renown like Ana Belén, Imanol Arias, Carmen Maura, Juan Diego, Emma Suárez or Marta Etura have worked under their orders. Author of a complex and progressively popular cinema, Gutiérrez Aragón is one of the most mature and award-winning directors of his generation. He appears as an actor in two films, Corto descafeinado (2007), by Juan Manuel Cotelo and Antonio Esteve and Contra la pared (1988) by Bernardo Fernández.
Gutiérrez Aragón has also ventured into the theater. Thus, in 1979 directed the theatrical version of Peter Weiss on The process of Kafka. He wrote for the National Drama CenterMorirás of another thing, work that directed and premiered in the Teatro María Guerrero of the Spanish capital (1982). In 1998 he also directed two operas based on texts by García Lorca, who were represented at the Teatro de Granada Festival, at the Zarzuela in Madrid and at La Fenice in Venice.
In 2009 he revealed his facet of writer, winning the Herralde Prize with La vida antes de marzo. Anagram publishes in 2012 its second novel, Gloria mía.
The 16 of April of 2015 was chosen by the plenary of the Real Spanish Academy to occupy the chair F, whose previous occupant was Jose Luis Sampedro. He read his speech of entry, In search of film writing, on January 24, 2016.
