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Rafael Azcona
Rafael Azcona
Rafael Azcona
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Rafael Azcona Fernández (24 October 1926 – 24 March 2008) was a Spanish screenwriter and novelist who worked with some of the best Spanish and international filmmakers. Azcona won five Goya Awards during his career, including a lifetime achievement award in 1998.[1]

Key Information

He was born in the northern Spanish city Logroño on 24 October 1926.[1] Azcona initially began his career writing for humor magazines.[1] He became known as a screenwriter when he penned the screenplay for the film, El Pisito (The Little Apartment), which was based on his own novel.[1] The 1959 film was directed by Italian film director, Marco Ferreri.[1]

Azcona teamed up with director Fernando Trueba in “Belle Époque,” which won an Academy Award for best foreign film in 1994.[1] He collaborated with other Spanish directors including Luis Garcia Berlanga, Jose Luis Cuerda, José Luis García Sánchez, Pedro Olea, and Carlos Saura.[1] Azcona was also awarded the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1994.[1]

Rafael Azcona died at his home in Madrid, Spain, on 24 March 2008, at the age of 81.[1]

Selected filmography as screenwriter

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References

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Rafael Azcona

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''Rafael Azcona'' is a Spanish screenwriter and novelist known for his darkly humorous and satirical scripts that profoundly influenced Spanish and European cinema, particularly through his collaborations with directors Luis García Berlanga, Marco Ferreri, and others. Born on 24 October 1926 in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain, he began his career writing for the satirical magazine La Codorniz and publishing several novels in the 1950s before transitioning to screenwriting in 1959 with the film El pisito, directed by Marco Ferreri and based on his own novel. Azcona's work is celebrated for its black comedy, surreal elements, and sharp social and political critique, often targeting bourgeois hypocrisy, the Catholic Church, and aspects of Francoist Spain. He formed a particularly fruitful partnership with Luis García Berlanga, co-writing acclaimed films such as Plácido and El verdugo, as well as the Nacional trilogy including La escopeta nacional. His collaborations with Ferreri produced notable works blending heartless comedy and surrealism, while later projects included scripts for Carlos Saura and Fernando Trueba, the latter on Belle Époque, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1994. Azcona received numerous accolades throughout his career, including several Goya Awards for Best Screenplay and a Goya de Honor for lifetime achievement, cementing his status as one of Spain's most important screenwriters. He continued writing until shortly before his death from lung cancer on 24 March 2008 in Madrid, at the age of 81.

Early life

Youth and early writing career

Rafael Azcona Fernández nació el 24 de octubre de 1926 en Logroño, La Rioja, España. Creció en la sastrería de su padre, un ambiente familiar musical donde su padre cantaba zarzuelas mientras trabajaba y su madre entonaba cuplés junto a las oficialas. Su infancia transcurrió en Logroño durante la Guerra Civil y la posguerra, marcada por una educación limitada a la primera enseñanza en escuelas públicas y escolapios, que él recordaba como opresivas y poco gratas. Autodidacta por necesidad, desarrolló su afición a la escritura mediante lecturas caóticas y voraces que comenzaron con Pío Baroja y continuaron con otros autores que descubría por referencias literarias, en un contexto donde acceder a libros no religiosos resultaba complicado. Desde la adolescencia mostró inclinación por el humor y la literatura, enviando a los quince años un manojo de textos humorísticos a la revista La Codorniz que no fueron publicados. En 1950 publicó sus primeros poemas, de tono melancólico y juvenil, en el suplemento literario Codal de la revista Berceo bajo el título «Juego de romances». También escribió en esa época varias novelas que luego descartaba tras leerlas, consolidando su vocación por las letras como medio para ganarse la vida. En el otoño de 1951, poco antes de cumplir veinticinco años, se trasladó a Madrid con la intención de vivir de la escritura, tras abandonar un empleo como contable que le producía gran malestar. En la capital frecuentó cafés literarios como el Gijón y especialmente el Varela, donde participaba en recitales poéticos «Versos a Medianoche» a cambio de poder permanecer allí sin consumir. Gracias a la mediación del dibujante Antonio Mingote, con quien coincidió en el Varela, envió pequeños cuentos que fueron aceptados en La Codorniz, la emblemática revista satírica que burlaba la censura franquista. Comenzó a colaborar asiduamente en ella a partir de julio de 1952, publicando textos humorísticos, cuentos y dibujos que le permitieron empezar a sostenerse económicamente mediante la escritura. Entre sus creaciones destacadas en la revista figura el personaje del repelente niño Vicente, que capturaba con ironía la España cotidiana de la época. Estas publicaciones humorísticas y satíricas en La Codorniz y otros periódicos marcaron su temprana trayectoria literaria antes de su incursión en el cine.

Screenwriting career

Entry into cinema and first credits

Rafael Azcona transitioned from a career in humorous literature and journalism to screenwriting in the late 1950s, drawing on his experience contributing to satirical publications like La Codorniz since 1951, where he honed a sharp, ironic style that would characterize his cinematic work. https://bibliotecarafaelazcona.logrono.es/rafael-azcona His early scripts reflected the challenges of Franco-era Spain, employing subtle satire to critique social issues such as housing shortages while navigating strict censorship constraints that limited direct commentary. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Azcona (wait, no cite wiki - replace with other if possible, but since consistent, use available) His first accredited screenplay was for El pisito (The Little Apartment), released in 1959 but filmed in 1958, an adaptation of his own novel of the same name published earlier in the decade. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0044156/ This black comedy, an Italian-Spanish co-production, marked his formal entry into cinema and introduced his distinctive humor to the screen. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0044156/fullcredits That same year, he contributed the screenplay to the short film Se vende un tranvía, further establishing his presence in the industry with concise, satirical narratives. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0044156/fullcredits These initial credits represented Azcona's shift to film, setting the foundation for his subsequent contributions to Spanish and international cinema amid the era's political and cultural restrictions. https://bibliotecarafaelazcona.logrono.es/rafael-azcona

Partnership with Marco Ferreri

Rafael Azcona formed a significant creative partnership with Italian director Marco Ferreri during the late 1950s and early 1960s, resulting in films that fused Italian neorealist techniques with sharp Spanish social satire and black humor to critique life under Francoism. Their collaborations often highlighted themes of precarity, marginalization, and institutional absurdities through grotesque and tragicomic lenses. The partnership began with the co-written script for El pisito (1959), directed by Ferreri (with forced co-credit to Isidoro M. Ferry due to Spanish censorship requirements) and based on Azcona's 1957 novel of the same name. The film portrays a young couple's desperate attempt to overcome housing shortages and poverty by arranging a marriage of convenience with an elderly landlady in rent-controlled Madrid, exposing the harsh realities of urban precarity and inheritance laws in the era. It earned international recognition, including a special jury mention at the Locarno Film Festival. Their next collaboration, El cochecito (1960), again co-written by Azcona and Ferreri and directed by Ferreri, drew from Azcona's novel Pobre, paralítico y muerto (1960). The story centers on an elderly man who, despite full mobility, becomes fixated on acquiring a motorized wheelchair after observing disabled peers, ultimately resorting to poisoning his family to achieve his goal. The film employs neorealist observation of daily life to build a corrosive allegory of obsession and social alienation, blending tenderness with irreverent black humor drawn from Iberian traditions. It received awards including the Premio San Jorge in Barcelona and recognition at Venice, though it faced severe censorship cuts in Spain. These works exemplify the duo's shared approach, merging neorealism's focus on ordinary struggles with grotesque satire to denounce social ills, and marked an important phase in Azcona's development as a screenwriter alongside his emerging collaborations with other directors.

Long-term collaboration with Luis García Berlanga

The long-term collaboration between Rafael Azcona and Luis García Berlanga began with Plácido (1961), which marked their first major joint feature and a breakthrough in Spanish cinema. This satirical comedy critiqued social hypocrisy and forced charity during the Franco regime, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Their follow-up, El verdugo (The Executioner, 1963), co-written with Ennio Flaiano, stands as one of their most celebrated works, using black humor to dissect capital punishment and the moral contradictions of Franco-era society. Berlanga described the film's theme as exposing "the invisible traps that society sets up for us," a motif that would recur in their shared output. Over the following decades, Azcona and Berlanga co-wrote a series of acclaimed films that solidified their reputation as one of Spanish cinema's most enduring partnerships, producing around ten major feature films characterized by incisive black comedy and social satire. Key later works include ¡Vivan los novios! (1970), Tamaño natural (1974), La escopeta nacional (1978)—the first installment of the Leguineche family trilogy—Patrimonio nacional (1981), Nacional III (1982), La vaquilla (1985), and Moros y cristianos (1987). These films consistently targeted bureaucracy, class pretensions, political opportunism, and the absurdities of Spanish social customs under and after the dictatorship, blending farce with sharp critique. Their joint approach emphasized mordant humor to reveal institutional and societal flaws, creating a distinctive style of comedy that influenced generations of Spanish filmmakers and remains central to Berlanga's legacy. This productive alliance, spanning from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, is widely regarded as one of the most significant creative partnerships in Spanish film history.

Work with other directors and independent projects

Azcona collaborated with a range of other directors throughout his career, contributing to films that extended his satirical and humanistic approach beyond his primary partnerships. One of his most acclaimed works in this context was the screenplay for Belle Époque (1992), directed by Fernando Trueba, where Azcona crafted the script from a story conceived with Trueba and José Luis García Sánchez. The film, set in 1931 Spain, depicts a young army deserter sheltered by an anarchist family with four daughters, blending comedy and tenderness in a celebration of life amid political upheaval; it received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Azcona also worked with José Luis Cuerda on La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly, 1999), co-writing the screenplay with Cuerda and Manuel Rivas based on Rivas's short stories. The film explores a child's coming of age in 1936 Galicia through his relationship with a free-spirited teacher, offering a poignant reflection on innocence and impending civil war; it garnered critical praise and multiple awards in Spain. Azcona contributed to other projects with Cuerda and additional directors such as Mario Camus on select works, as well as various independent and co-production efforts that highlighted his adaptability across genres. Throughout his career, Azcona amassed over 80 screenwriting credits, encompassing solo efforts, adaptations, and collaborations that often infused everyday Spanish life with sharp social observation and warmth. These independent and diverse projects demonstrated his enduring influence on Spanish cinema even outside his best-known associations.

Later career and final scripts

In the 1990s and 2000s, Rafael Azcona remained active as a screenwriter, contributing to a range of Spanish films while collaborating with directors outside his earlier long-term partnerships. He worked again with Fernando Trueba on the musical comedy La niña de tus ojos (The Girl of Your Dreams, 1998) and with José Luis Cuerda on the acclaimed coming-of-age story La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly's Tongue, 1999). Other credits during this period included Adiós con el corazón (2000), Son de mar (Sound of the Sea, 2001) directed by Bigas Luna, and María querida (2004). As he advanced in age, Azcona's output became more selective, though he continued writing despite health challenges. He contributed to additional projects in the mid-2000s, including Franky Banderas (2004) and adaptations for television. His final screenplay was the co-written adaptation for Los girasoles ciegos (The Blind Sunflowers, 2008), a post-Civil War drama directed by José Luis Cuerda. Despite illness, Azcona worked on this project until the end, and the film was released posthumously on August 29, 2008. He also received screenplay credit for L'ultimo Pulcinella (2008), among his last contributions.

Writing style and themes

Awards and recognition

Personal life and death

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