Born in
Elche in 1946, he studied at the
Complutense University in
Madrid and at the University of London. He taught
Spanish literature at the
University of Oxford from 1976 to 1979. He drew the attention of critics as a young poet, and was included in a famous 1970 anthology (see
Novisimos) of new Spanish poetry by the author
José María Castellet.
New Cinema in Spain was an account of Spanish cinema from the 2nd World War until 1976. He met with equal success as a writer of prose fiction and non-fiction, winning the
Premio Barral in 1973 for his second novel
Busto. He wrote the libretto for the opera
El viajero indiscreto by the Spanish composer
Luis de Pablo in 1990, and has contributed to the national newspaper
El País and the magazine
Fotogramas. In 2001, he turned to directing films. His two feature films till date are
Sagitario (film) (2001), starring
Ángela Molina and
Eusebio Poncela, and
El dios de madera (2010). He was selected by
Stanley Kubrick to translate his scripts. == Homosexuality ==