Carlos Pumares, one of the great Spanish film critics, dies at 80

Madrid

10/13/2023 at 01:20

CEST


He rose to fame on the airwaves with the legendary program ‘Polvo de Estrellas’, and leaves behind a long career that includes scripts and small roles in films

The Basque journalist and film critic Carlos Pumares Pardowhich became popular with the legendary radio program “Polvo de Estrellas”, has died at 80 years of agefamily sources have reported.

pumares, one of the most renowned critics of the seventh artfor which he was also a screenwriter, also acted as an actor in some films and wrote books such as “A Perfect Marriage” and “So Near and Far.”

The journalist’s own profile on the social network X published the announcement of his death: “Rest in Peace, the greatest of the greats of cinema in Spain. He always was and from today will be Stardust.”

Born on September 29, 1943 in the Biscayan town of Portugalete (Basque Country), Pumares had a degree in Physical Sciences, but his professional career took other paths.

In the seventies he wrote the scripts for the films “La casa de las chivas” (1972, León Klimovsky), “Marriage separation” (1973, Angelino Fons), “A forbidden woman” (1974, José Luis Ruiz Marcos)“The strange love of vampires” (1977, León Klimovsky) and the television series “The hotel of a thousand and one stars” (1978-79, TVE), this one with Joaquín Parejo.

He worked as a film advisor for the program “The Key” (1976-85, on RTVE; 1990-93, on Antena 3 TV), which was presented and directed by journalist José Luis Balbín.

A film served as an introduction to the topics that the guests then debated, with questions that viewers asked over the phone towards the end of space.

The program was novel because it allowed, for the first time on Spanish television, the vision of various conflicting points of view, with topics that until now were considered taboo (Opus Dei, NATO…).

In the early eighties He began to present on Antena 3 Radio the program about the world of cinema “Polvo de estrellas”which would later be taken to Antena 3 TV and Onda Cero.

After the cancellation of “Dust of Stars” on the Onda Cero network, Pumares collaborated on the Terra portal with a space called “El monolith de Pumares”. In it he gave answers to Internet users’ questions about the world of cinema.

The space remained in the portal until the summer of 2004. Likewise, He collaborated as a member of the program “Martian Chronicles” until his disappearance in July 2005.

Pumares has done film criticism in the newspaper La Razón, presented on Radio Voz “Natural health”, a daily space on natural medicine, He maintains a blog to comment on news related to the world of cinema, and has been a contributor and member of the morning magazine show “Sin ir más Further” (Aragón TV), in addition to having the weekly program “Veo Cine” on the channel Veo 7.

He appeared as an actor in “FBI: Frikis Busca Incordiar” (Javier Cárdenas, 2004) and in “Torrente 3, el protector” (Santiago Segura, 2005); and he signed the scripts for the films “La casa de las chivas” (León Klimovsky, 1972), “Marriage Separation” (Angelino Fons, 1973) and “A forbidden woman” (José Luis Ruiz Marcos, 1974).

Also in “The Strange Love of Vampires” (Klimovsky, 1977) and that of the television series “The hotel of the thousand and one stars” (Yagüe, 1978). In addition, he made a couple of collaborations in the program “Sálvame” and was part of the jury of the Telecinco program “Look who jumps!”.

He also published books with Manuel Villegas López, Jaime Salom and José Luis Garci: “The House of the Chivas” (1971); with Hugo Pratt: “The Secret of Tristán Bantam: Appointment in Bahia” (1971); with Alberto Solsona, José Luis Garci and Adolfo Castaño: “The Tales of Popeye” (1973); “A Perfect Marriage” (1973); “So Near and Far” (1973); “The colonizers: cinematographic plot” (1974); with José Luis Garci, Adolfo Castaño and Alberto Solsona: “The Tales of Rosario” (1974); and with Dick Fulton and Adolfo Castaño: “Mandrake: The X dimension” (1974).

With Lázaro Irazábal he published “One of many” (1974); with Juan José Daza del Castillo and Abelardo Empecinado: “At Dawn” (1975); with Enrique Herreros, Juan José Daza del Castillo and Abelardo Empecinado: “El chalet de los geranios” (1975); with Juan José Daza del Castillo: “The Night of the Vampires” (1975) and collaborated with Domingo López in: “Wild Wild East” (2015).

Iván Reguera and Juan José Aparicio investigated the figure of Pumares and published the book “Carlos Pumares: a cry in the night” (2006).

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