• Cinema The 'Berlanguiano' goodbye of Luis García-Berlanga: "He had a potato omelette, watched a Valencia match and woke up dead"
  • Tribute The 'posthumous star' to director Luis García Berlanga already shines in Hollywood

After 40 years making films with his father, television series and advertising, José Luis García Berlanga changed the audiovisual world for the kitchen. In his restaurant, opposite the Retiro, he has been preparing some of the best paellas in Madrid for three years. The place is called Berlanga, naturally.

This week we have seen him presenting some humor awards, dedicated to the name of his father and we take the opportunity to ask him about a topic that sometimes raises blisters: "The limits of humor should be set by everyone trying not to hurt someone, but laughing at yourself is good and healing. In any case, humor should not be censored or punished. What happens is that there are many people who have very thin skin and magnify things that really should only be an anecdote."

The Berlanga family and the Dominguín-Bosé family were neighbors of villa and garden in Somosaguas. The childhood and adolescence of the children of the two families have deserved a precious chapter of nostalgia and anecdotes in the memories of Miguel Bosé and the friendship of José Luis and the singer, remains intact.

"In this last stay of Miguel in Madrid he has been in the restaurant with the children," says Berlanga. "He is very handsome, he always has been, but now I see him happy, very affectionate, in a good mood, smiling, with life in a different way. Regaining his voice has changed him. He goes to the phoniatrician, has returned to sing and prepares his new album. I was very happy to see him and we had a great time."

How do you see the court ruling that confirms that Bosé is not the father of Nacho Palau's children? I don't want to comment on that, they're both my friends and I told them not to get me in the way. I am godfather to one of Nacho's children and the four of them are delicious, polite, funny and very different from each other. Those of Miguel already speak with a Mexican accent and those of Nacho, Yvo and Telmo, try to imitate them and laugh at them. They adore each other and are in permanent contact.What was that life like together, as young men? We had a great time, we were children from Somosaguas. We played football and rode bikes from one house to another. I remember the Sainz family, Carlitos was later rally champion and when it snowed we didn't go to school. Then came the first guateques. In the house of the Berlangas all the Spanish cinema gathered, how lucky to live that environment. To be in mine was to listen and be silent, that was a university of life. From my mother's rice comes to me the hobby. Berlanga in his restaurantE.M.Was Lucía Bosé as severe as Miguel says? I was afraid even when she got older, that I treated her more. It was scary for the children because they didn't hesitate to say anything out loud. Like my mother, they were both strong women who pulled the house cart. Lucia would let you loose a border and stay so wide. I did not make much life as a child with her, we were with the tata, Reme. Our parents made their lives and only let us see them for a little while.Was Berlanga also a severe father? No, the sergeant was my mother: they called her la soriana, a Castilian with a genius who commanded a lot. My parents were very good bourgeois. They took care of our problems, they helped Carlos, Jorge, me, and then Fernando. Jorge and I got into quite a bit of trouble, as he did at the time. The truth is that with my father it was a pleasure to talk. In one book he said, "My children didn't interest me until I could talk to them and when I could talk to them, they weren't interested in me anymore." His parents buried two of their four sons, Jorge and Carlos. It was tragic. Also in cases like this, parents usually consider that they have done something wrong, they feel responsible. My mother, who was a chicken clueca, was devastated, and my father always had the slab that he was guilty and had done it wrong. The shoots were demanding but relaxed, and working with Mary Santpere or Luis Escobar, a delight. He is one of the most educated and fascinating people I have ever met, like Rafael Azcona. Mary Santpere, one of those wonderful old actresses, arrived on the set of Patrimonio after traveling by car all night from Cartagena, where she had a performance. Her character was on a stretcher all the time, so she would fall asleep. And when they said "action," he would open his eyes and recite his paper. I was my father's assistant director in El verdugo, in Patrimonio Nacional and La vaquilla. We also did quite a few commercials and directed them together.

My father's erotic library was bought by a Swiss gentleman

E.M.Why did you leave that world? I was studying law with a view to becoming a diplomat. But I set up a production company with Fernando Colomo and we shot Tigres de papel, Qué hace una chica como tú en un lugar como este and Ópera prima. I spoke good English because I had studied abroad and worked as an assistant in American films that were made in Spain. Then I set up a production company, I did the Fairy ad and it occurred to me to make a series of Villarriba and Villabajo, like those made by Lucille Ball, but also duced by Procter and Gamble. Then I switched to television fiction, with Sin tetas no hay paraíso and with Hospital Central, which I was six years in. Until the pandemic hit, everything changed and I gave myself to the kitchen, which has always attracted me a lot. Luis García BerlangaJOSÉ AYMÁWhat happened to his father's erotic library? An attempt was made to auction and the bid was deserted, but the next day it was bought by a Swiss gentleman whose name we did not know. It was a multilingual collection of 3,500 books that my father had collected around the world. The rest of his 20,000 books have not been wanted by anyone. Now books are bought by weight. Today's houses are small, or those of the rich are modern and with large windows, without room for paintings or books.

  • cinema

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more