This Thursday, September 15, the funeral for Maria Jesus Manrique of Aragonthe widow of Luis Garcia Berlanga, although few people had learned of his death last August, at the age of 92.
The wife, partner, muse and mother of the four children of the great filmmaker who died in 2010, left with as much discretion and elegance as she had always lived. And it is that, although she was the shadow of the creator of some of the best films of Spanish cinema, without her, without her support, her intelligence and her work as her mother, Berlanga would not have been what it was . Below, the couple, at a dinner with Mingote.
This summer, like those she lived since the death of her husband twelve years ago, María Jesús spent a quiet vacation on the Valencian coast, with her two caregivers. She was fine, with her usual good humor, some ailments and her head as ingenious and lucid as ever, when one day she felt ill and, although her condition did not seem to be worrying, her children transferred her to Madrid because she didn’t get better. In a very short time, on August 4, she left without suffering.
Her son Fernando said goodbye to her with this message: “Mom, never stop lighting up my heart with your greatness and infinite generosity.”
María Jesús did not have time to be at the premiere of the documentary Berlanga, which will be released in a few weeks, signed by the film director Rafael Maluenda, a friend of the García Berlanga family, in which she herself appears, in addition to her memories and testimonies . You can also see the interventions of Fernando Trueba, Gracia Querejeta, Enrique Urbizu, Santiago Segura, Jaime Chávarri and Miguel Albaladejo, as well as many unpublished photographs and documents to better understand the human and artistic dimension of the Valencian filmmaker. Below, with Alfredo Matas, husband of Amparo Soler Leal and producer of La escopeta nacional.
María Jesús was born in Soria and met Berlanga in Madrid in 1952, where she had studied Philosophy and Letters and her future husband was preparing the shooting of the film That happy couple released the following year and starring Fernan Gomez y Elvira Quintilla.
All the Spanish cinema, actresses, directors, musicians and foreign filmmakers passed through the Somosaguas family home. Everyone loved those paellas on Sundays and those gatherings until nightfall, where so many ideas and so much talent came from. Below, Maria Jesus, second from left, alongside Fellini, Giulietta Massina and Berlanga.
But geniuses don’t have their feet on the ground sometimes; they are there to create, have fun, make you feel emotions, dream. And since someone had to keep their feet on the ground and educate some children, there was María Jesús, who was also gorgeous, modern, had great style and was the one who kept the accounts, put order and supported the genius and his team. , when censorship made their lives impossible.
The death of their two sons, Carlos and Jorge, also artists of their own, music, was devastating for the family. María Jesús was a very solid rock, but she never got over it. Rest in peace.
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