Marisa Paredes

Paul Julian Smith introduces Marisa Paredes by a symmetry of nationality: a Spaniard who has taken leads for the Mexican master Arturo Ripstein, in Deep Crimson and No One Writes to the Colonel. In The Devil's Backbone she plays a teacher at an orphanage, sharing the lead. José Arroyo, writing on All About My Mother, counts Almodóvar a great director of actors and names her among those given a chance to shine who take it, though his own emphasis falls on Cecilia Roth.