Carlos Atanes (born November 8, 1971 in Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish film director, writer and playwright. His first finished feature-length movie is FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions, which he released in 2004. The movie won the Best Feature Film Award at the Athens Panorama of Independent Filmmakers in 2005 and was also nominated for the Méliès d'Argent at Fantasporto that same year.
He used to start his feature films with a long opening shot of the main character.
2
Dystopian and apocalyptic references: all his movies since 2000 reflect some kind of totalitarian power structure, whether in small scale (sectarian society) or large (government). The allusions to the end of the world are also repeated, usually from outer space: giant asteroid, a black hole, an alien invasion...
3
Repeated symbolic and aesthetic use of cardboard: cat's coffin in "FAQ", space capsule in "PROXIMA", boxes in "Maximum Shame"...
4
Usually there is a character who does not talk in his films, e.g.: Nono (Xavier Tort) in "FAQ", Susi (Arantxa Peña) in "PROXIMA", The manager (Jean-Pierre Kameni) in "Scream Queen", The Queen of Catalan Love (Eleanor James) in "Maximum Shame".
5
One or more women drink milk from huge glasses
6
Twisted plots, disconcerting endings
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Quote
1
I do not make films to cause your like or dislike. What I want is to call your taste into question. This bewilderment will enrich you.
2
Some people who haven't gone over the anal stage don't like when characters speak in the films.
3
Future is for very high and very low budget films. Very high ones have multiple ways of financing and amortization. Very low ones can be also profitable because they do not need too much revenue to cover the expenses and -with good luck- to get certain degree of earnings. But medium-size ones are in the middle and, except a handful of very successful movies- condemned. In Europe they can just exist thanks to subsidies, that says it all. Future is the dead of medium-sized budget movies.
4
Queeny Love is not only an amazing beauty but a great artist, exciting, self-sufficient and innovative. Her performances wonder me once and again. It is even much interesting than the great majority of current films (porn and no-porn). If Marshall McLuhan were alive and could see her, sure he were fascinated with her work, that conjunction of performance / web / video / porn which forms a new media for a new time. Queeny Love deserves a very much greater acknowledgment and I am sure she will have it someday.
5
Deep down my films are naïve, they just show what you see. But people have a bigoted tendency to project meanings on things. And for any reason my films stimulate the pareidolia, like Rorschach inkblots.
6
Some of my main film references are Stanley Kubrick, David Lean and Rocco Siffredi. Most of Rocco's 173 films have all that I consider a film must to has. Agnes' scene in "Rocco invades Poland" or Gabriella Kerez' pool scene from "True Anal Stories 9" are deeper than any Theo Angelopoulos' movie and show us the human inside more accurately than any Ingmar Bergman's film.
7
But what is more important is that my films are not naturalist, they constantly remind the member of the audience that he's attending to an artifice of conventions. Sometimes actors look at camera, continuity is perverted, composition is hierarchical, camera movements are not slight. The actors play characters but they play also actors. The presence of cameraman is subtle but present.
8
My work is entirely independent and I love this way. Most of the Spanish filmmakers waste their time waiting for a grant. I spend that time making movies. The advantage is my films are so weird and free as I wish. The drawback is to work with scarce cash and without distribution companies' consent. But I'll always prefer freedom to comfort and audience's judgment to bureaucrat's approval.
Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gallino, the Chicken System
2012
Maximum Shame
2010
Scream Queen
2009
Short
Made in Próxima
2008
Video documentary
Codex Atanicus
2007
Video
Próxima
2007
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
2004
Perdurabo
2003
Short
Cyberspace Under Control
2000
Documentary short
Die sieben Hügel Roms
1999
Short
Welcome to Spain
1999
Short
Borneo
1997
Short
Morfing
1996
Short
Metaminds & Metabodies
1995
Short
Triptico
1994
La metamorfosis de Franz Kafka
1994
Short
El tenor mental
1993
Short
El parc
1992
Short
Els peixos argentats a la peixera
1991
Morir de calor
1991
Short
Romanzio in el sècolo ventuno
1991
Short
The Marvellous World of the Cucu Bird
1991
Short
Le descente à l'enfer d'un poète
1990
La ira
1989
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gallino, the Chicken System
2012
written by
Maximum Shame
2010
written by
Scream Queen
2009
Short written by
Made in Próxima
2008
Video documentary written by
Codex Atanicus
2007
Video
Próxima
2007
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
2004
Perdurabo
2003
Short writer
Die sieben Hügel Roms
1999
Short writer
Welcome to Spain
1999
Short writer
Borneo
1997
Short
Morfing
1996
Short
Metaminds & Metabodies
1995
Short
Triptico
1994
El tenor mental
1993
Short writer
Morir de calor
1991
Short
Romanzio in el sècolo ventuno
1991
Short
The Marvellous World of the Cucu Bird
1991
Short
Le descente à l'enfer d'un poète
1990
La ira
1989
writer
Editor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gallino, the Chicken System
2012
Maximum Shame
2010
Scream Queen
2009
Short
Made in Próxima
2008
Video documentary
Próxima
2007
El tenor mental
1993
Short
El parc
1992
Short
The Marvellous World of the Cucu Bird
1991
Short
Le descente à l'enfer d'un poète
1990
La ira
1989
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Maximum Shame
2010
producer
Scream Queen
2009
Short producer
Codex Atanicus
2007
Video producer
Morfing
1996
Short executive producer
Metaminds & Metabodies
1995
Short executive producer
El tenor mental
1993
Short producer
Morir de calor
1991
Short producer
The Marvellous World of the Cucu Bird
1991
Short co-producer
La ira
1989
producer
Visual Effects
Title
Year
Status
Character
Gallino, the Chicken System
2012
visual effects
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
2004
visual effects
Borneo
1997
Short model maker
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Die sieben Hügel Roms
1999
Short
Narrator
Le descente à l'enfer d'un poète
1990
Camera Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Die sieben Hügel Roms
1999
Short camera operator
La ira
1989
camera operator
Composer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Made in Próxima
2008
Video documentary
Codex Atanicus
2007
Video
Cinematographer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Scream Queen
2009
Short
Music Department
Title
Year
Status
Character
Codex Atanicus
2007
Video composer: theme music
Production Designer
Title
Year
Status
Character
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
2004
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Te en-video
2009
Video documentary
Himself
Cuarto milenio
2008
TV Series documentary
Himself
Made in Próxima
2008
Video documentary
Himself
About FAQ
2005
Video documentary short
Himself ("FAQ" writter and director)
Morfing
1996
Short
Himself
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
2005
Best Film
International Panorama of Independent Filmmakers, Greece
Best International Feature Film
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (2004)
Known for movies
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions (2004) as Director
$1.2 Million
