Oristrell, Joaquín

(1958- )

   Barcelona-born Joaquín Oristrell had a substantial career as a scriptwriter before he made his first feature film. He had been one of the writers for the classic TV contest Un, dos, tres . . . responda otra vez (One, Two, Three . . . Reply Again) before turning to film. He worked extensively since the 1980s, and made important contributions to Manuel Gómez Pereira's innovative comedies of the 1990s Salsa rosa (Pink Sauce, 1992), Boca a boca (Mouth to Mouth, 1995), and El amor perjudica seriamente la salud (Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health, 1996). The quality of his work as a writer became his main strengths as director: a preference for ensemble comedies, good skills at characterization, cheeky treatments of sex.

   In the first decade of the 21st century, Oristrell became one of the most established comedy directors in Spanish cinema. His first feature as director was ¿De qué se ríen las mujeres? (What Do Women Laugh About? 1997), a companion piece to Gómez Pereira's earlier Todos los hombres sois iguales (All Men Are the Same, 1994), for which he won the Goya award for best script. Novios (Couples, 1999), his next film, featured three couples about to get married. Sin vergüenza (Without Shame, 2001), set in the world of theater, is mostly a group portrait of a series of acting students and their teachers. Inconscientes (Unconscious, 2004) is an accomplished period comedy on the impact of Freudian theories on two Barcelonians and their unstable partners at the start of the 20th century.

   Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema by Alberto Mira