Iglesias, Alberto

(1955- )

   Although he wrote his first full feature film score for Alfonso Ungría's La conquista de Albania (Conquering Albania, 1984) and his watershed film in Spain was Vacas (1992), which started a long and innovative series of collaborations with Julio Medem, Alberto Igesias' work as composer only became widely known after his ethnically inflected soundtrack for Pedro Almodóvar's 1999 Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother) made him into one of the most internationally recognized musicians for film. In recent years, after a number of international projects, he has obtained two nominations for Academy Awards, for The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles, 2004) and The Kite Runner (Marc Forster, 2007). He has also won seven Goyas for La ardilla roja (The Red Squirrel, Julio Medem, 1993), Tierra (Earth, Medem, 1996), Todo sobre mi madre, (All about My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar, 1999), Los amantes del círculo polar (The Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Medem, 1998), Lucía y el sexo (Lucía and Sex, Medem, 2001), Hable con ella (Talk to Her, Almodóvar, 2002), and Volver (Almodóvar, 2006). An impressive list of titles, which suggests Iglesias' original and substantial input in the work of strong auteurs.

   He studied electronic music with F. Schwartz in Paris and Electroacústica in Barcelona. His early soundtracks include La muerte de Mikel (Mikel's Death, Imanol Uribe, 1984) and Luces de Bohemia (Bohemian Lights, Miguel Ángel Díez, 1985). Vacas had a remarkable electronic score, very unusual in the Spanish context, which tended toward more conventional treatments of film music, and he continued to pursue an original approach to soundtracks. His first collaboration with Almodóvar was for La flor de mi secreto (The Flower of My Secret, 1995), a film that featured a mixture of original and other themes adapted from popular sources. For his next Almodóvar collaboration, Carne Trémula (Live Flesh, 1997), he chose flamenco adaptations of Latin American music. Iglesias continued his collaboration with the director in projects as varied as La mala educación (Bad Education, 2004) and Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces, 2009). Recent international projects include Stephen Daldry's The Reader (2008) and Steven Soderbergh's The Argentine (2008).

   Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema by Alberto Mira