A leading figure in the new Spanish cinema. Formerly a telephone company employee and a contributor to underground magazines and comic books, he began dabbling in amateur filmmaking in 1974; his first film, Dos Putas, was shot in super-8. In the years that followed, he acted in avant-garde plays, sang with a rock band, and began publishing the "confessions" of fictional porn star Patty Diphusa. Several years later, he joined the professional ranks and by the late 80s became established as one of his country's internationally best known and most admired directors. Openly gay, he often creates characters who are homosexual or bisexual, and he has a special affinity for the confusions and desires of people who came of age in Spain after dictator Franco's death in 1975. Writing his own offbeat scripts, he is at his most effective with caustic, irreverent, shocking comedy. His Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) was named best foreign film by the New York Critics and best young film at the European Film Awards. It won the best screenplay prize at Venice.