Biografie

Composes the music for all his movies. Is a self-taught composer who learned to write music using a computer software.

Following his film Das Meer in mir (2004), he received a congratulation letter from Steven Spielberg, one of Amenabar's favorite directors.

He didn't finish his university studies due to one 4th grade subject, "Film writing". The last name of the professor who kept failing him is Castro, and that also the last name of the evil professor in his first long movie, Tesis - Der Snuff Film (1996). Amenábar claims he used the last name inadvertedly at first, it was the university people who noticed the coincidence and asked him to change it. In the end he decided not to, although in the scripts he did write a different name, Gálvez. Incidentally, he has done the script writing in all of his movies so far.

Öffne die Augen (1997) is his "remake" of Vertigo: Aus dem Reich der Toten (1958), by Hitchcock. In fact, when the character of Sofia appears after hitting Cesar with a jar, it's the same shot of Kim Novak in Vertigo when she appears from the bathroom in the hotel - with green lights

His name appears in Tesis - Der Snuff Film (1996), on a computer screen. When the main character checks the names of the buyers of the cameras, Amenábar is one of them.

My movies are not movies of answers but of questions.

In Hollywood you always feel a bit like a hake. The publicists march people up and down in front of you and they interview you ... You feel like the turbot and the sea-bream go by, and you're the hake.

I don't consider myself a dark person. I just like to play with dark characters.

[on Öffne die Augen (1997)] I started developing the idea in the middle of a fever. I had a cold and spent a few days in bed and it was there that I started developing the idea.

[on Vanilla Sky (2001)] I felt very honored and very excited. It's been weird because watching the same story done with a completely different tone, it was so weird. I remember when I saw the film for the first time, I kept thinking, "Well, I would have done this differently." But then I realized, "Well, of course, I've already done it!" So that's the point that's interesting to me. He [Cameron Crowe] really made his film. It's like the same song with two different voices. That's what I appreciate about it. Plus the buttload of money.