Ciudadano Boyero, or the critic who never wanted to be

Gala pass in the cold late night of San Sebastián.

Everything is sold out for Sala 7 del Príncipe, a multi-screen complex where films from all sections of the San Sebastián festival are screened.

This time, a game of mirrors is lived, the judge usually stars in a film for which he will be judged.

And he has sold all the tickets.

It's time for

by directors Juan Zavala and Javier Morales Pérez, an approach to the figure of Carlos Alberto Manuel Antonio Abdón Sánchez Boyero, better known as Carlos Boyero, film critic for EL PAÍS, the penultimate of a generation of critics and the most popular name on the street of film critics.

And seen what was seen in San Sebastián, his fame has not declined over the years.

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Articles written by Carlos Boyero

The TCM documentary, which premieres on this platform on October 21, is an approach to a controversial figure, loved and reviled.

Zavala and Morales have sought to give voice to all factions, and the result can be seen these days in the Made in Spain section, just in the first contest that Boyero has not attended as a critic since he began this work at the 1982 festival. In return, he has conducted twenty interviews during a promotion day and receives the award for his journalistic work at Zinemaldia.

Carlos Boyero, in the promotion of his documentary, together with Emma Suárez, actress of 'The Rite of Spring', also present at the festival.Javier Hernández

On the street, Boyero (Salamanca, 69 years old) stops to take photos and receives plenty of love from the people of San Sebastian;

in the room to overflowing, the public applauds him happily.

“I have not built a character, in any case I am a character.

I have not been an impostor”, he says in the documentary, and at the bottom of the screen he insists on it. “That character you see has more twists than you think, but I feel recognized, and the merit is not mine, but theirs”, he says pointing to the directors.

"I, of course, would have a drink with that guy, I like him."

And he emphasizes: "I did it for them, but I'm like Bartleby [the accountant protagonist of a story by Herman Melville], and I would prefer not to do it."

In

expression that horrifies the portrayed ("I don't like the critic, I hate critics"), who would like the film to be titled

friends, colleagues and filmmakers speak, offering a portrait with their edges.

“Well, beyond the fact that I believe that there is an abnormal on the screen, I agree with the praise, the dissent seems regrettable to me”, he told the public with his usual ironic tone, a mixture of confession and joke.

He did want to stop at the comments about his possible misogyny: "Since I was little I have been a man who has loved and respected women."

And about this new stage of work without festivals, he deepened: “I am not going to retire.

I have always been uncomfortable during my 45 years of writing.

As long as they let me, I'll keep going.

In any case, I admit that I have been very lucky in life”.

The indelible mark of 'The Hustler'

And how is the cinema?

The one that Boyero loves, not so well, as he himself assures, that he is tired of the “fads for exotic cinematography”.

Boyero remembers that he was carried away by its magic the first time he saw

“The cinema is the most powerful drug I've had in my life, and on top of that it has never given me a hangover”.

During decades in which he, he underlines, he has never betrayed himself, he has experienced some moment of repentance: “When you watch films at festivals, you accumulate tiredness and lose judgment at some point.

For example, I wrote from a Cannes festival against

by Paolo Sorrentino, and when I saw it again months later I discovered my mistake.

But I usually get it right."

Carlos Boyero, Wednesday afternoon in San Sebastián.Javier Hernández

Boyero signs as Carlos Boyero to "flee from the inheritance" of his father, and that is where part of

that of a kid from Salamanca who travels to Madrid to leave behind his father and the schools of priests.

That he makes a living —and very well— with poker games and whom his university classmate and friend Fernando Trueba places in

to write at night.

"But when he was 18 years old, Carlos was the one who had read the most, watched movies and listened to music," says the filmmaker.

On the other hand, there is the world of film criticism, which is experiencing an audience crisis and is experiencing a battle between those who want more analytical rigor, and those who want to be a Boyero instead of a Boyero, considering that an outburst is the fastest way to achieve it. .

Alex de la Iglesia says that Boyero is a great writer, and that he did not consider himself a filmmaker until Boyero "insulted him in an article."

For all of them, Boyero only has one commandment: "I hate stupidity and the inquisition."

And with that said, he went out to the street to receive more affection.

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