Jose Maria Forqué

Born in Zaragoza, in the El Gancho neighborhood, on March 8, 1923, José María Forqué Galindo moved to Madrid as a young man to study architecture. In the university theater he discovers his true passion: telling stories. He made his debut in 1951 in the feature film with María Morena , co-directed with Pedro Lazaga .

After Fog and Sun , he co-directed with José Antonio Nieves Conde the interesting Embajadores en el infierno , about a group of soldiers from the Blue Division locked up in a Soviet concentration camp, which adapted a novel by Torcuato Luca de Tena . His definitive consecration came with the bandit film Amanecer en Puerta Oscura , which had a script by playwright Alfonso Sastre. He won the Silver Bear in Berlin in 1957.

Once again he collaborates with Sastre in Un hecho violento and the valuable La noche y el alba , a reconciliation film that advocates overcoming the differences between the two Spains. Unfortunately, it was a resounding box office flop, so the director had to turn his career around, and from that moment on he shoots more conventional films, with greater commercial prospects.

Since then, he has lavished himself on comedy, for example, with outstanding results. “I love telling things with that subterranean humor that we Aragonese call somarda”, commented the director. Thus, he adapts several humorous plays, such as Maribel and the strange family , by Miguel Mihura , with notable performances by Silvia Pinal and Adolfo Marsillach , and You can be a murderer , by Alfonso Paso . And shortly after he began his collaboration with Pedro Masó , who produced La becerrada and wrote the script for Atraco a las tres, his best work, around the robbery of bank workers, who plan a robbery at their own branch. Few films have taken so much out of the comedic talent of José Luis López Vázquez , Cassen, Manuel Aleixandre, Agustín González and a newcomer Alfredo Landa . Considered one of the classics of Spanish cinema, it even had a clumsy remake in 2003: Robbery at three… thirty .

Another of his best films is a comedy, with bitter touches, A million in the trash , with great work by José Luis López Vázquez, as a needy sweeper who intends to keep the million he has found in a garbage can, while his wife ( Julia Gutiérrez Caba ) expects him to be honest and return it… He was always successful in the field of laughter, although some titles have become outdated, such as Las que tiene que servir .

Despite the fact that it is the genre for which he is best known, and that he considered comedy to be the “genuinely Spanish” genre, it is also true that Forqué emerged successful from his forays into the most diverse genres, such as the thriller ( Tarot , It’s Nothing ), the Musical ( Give Me Some Love ), the Drama ( The Game of Truth ). He even had the audacity to try his luck with science fiction with the failed Nexus 2,431 , his last work, which did not even make it to the theaters. Unfortunately it was a poor production with bizarre aesthetics with princesses and Amazons trying to dominate the universe in a plot that is intended to be in line with Star Wars .

He also stood out in the television field, at a time, the 80s, in which quality series were produced. The biographical works Ramón y Cajal and Miguel Servet, la sangre y la ash stand out .

Regarding his personal life, he was the father of the well-known actress Verónica Forqué (who began her career in his films), and of the director Álvaro Forqué , with the writer Carmen Vázquez Vigo .

Creator of his own production company, Orfeo Films, focused on making his own films, José María Forqué is a very prominent figure among Spanish producers, as he promoted the birth of the Audiovisual Rights Management Entity (EGEDA), of which he was the first president. EGEDA currently awards its prizes annually to the best Spanish productions that bear the name of the author of Atraco a las tres .

He received the Goya de Honor in 1995, from the hands of Verónica, his daughter. Shortly after the gala she died, on March 17, as a result of cancer at the age of 72.