Spanish "Belle Epoque" scriptwriter Rafael Azcona dies aged 81

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

MADRID (AFP) — Spanish scriptwriter Rafael Azcona, who wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning film "Belle Epoque" starring Penelope Cruz, died Monday at the age of 81, Spanish media reported.

Azcona's wife Susi said he had been battling lung cancer for a long time, the web site of top-selling daily newspaper El Pais reported Tuesday.

Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina said Azcona's death "had left the world of film and literature without one of its great storytellers."

"He wrote with the same intelligence and dignity about comical situations anchored in reality, or of the tragedies of the human being," he said in a statement.

Born on October 24, 1926 in the northern city of Logrono, Azcona is credited with helping to revive cinema in Spain...