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Five Spanish-language
films have taken home the
Academy Award for Best
Foreign Language Film,
4 films from Spain:
To Begin Again (1982),
Belle epoque (1993),
All About My Mother (1999),
The Sea Inside (2004),
and 1 from Argentina:
The Official Story (1985).
 
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Spanish
Language Films
BROWSE SPANISH FILMS: Contemporary Spanish films: ALPHABETICAL
INDEX - 1 -
2 - 3 - 4
- 5 - 6
- 7 | New
releases | Spanish-language film collections
| Spanish & Latin American film directors
| Spanish & Latin American actors &
actresses | Books about Spanish
language cinema
Mondays in the Sun / Los lunes al sol |
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Drama (2002)
Spain
Director: Fernando León de Aranoa
Starring: Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar |
A melancholy wallow leavened
by gallows humor and a wry spirit, Fernando Léon de Aranoa's
Mondays
in the Sun takes as its theme the emasculating effects
of joblessness in the age of globalization. A group of middle-aged
friends spend their listless days lounging in a bar in a Spanish
port town, struggling with unemployment after the local shipping
magnate leaves for cheaper shores. Recalling similarly themed
movies such as The
Full Monty and Time
Out, Mondays
in the Sun is less hopeful than the former and less haunting
than the latter, but Léon's movie packs its own considerable
punch. The occasional pandering touch aside, Léon manages
to avoid bathos, sprinkling his movie with welcome bits of drollery.
One night sees the men watching a soccer match from the roof of
the stadium, their view of the goal hilariously obstructed; another
night has them emptying the liquor cabinet of the family for which
they're supposed to be baby-sitting. Holding it all together is
the imposing presence of the brilliant Javier Bardem. Playing
Santa, a grouchy, hard-bitten soul, Bardem embodies the gruff
camaraderie that buoys the men's spirits and stands defiant against
the global economy's heartless workings. The movie enshrines its
subtext in a memorable joke shared by one of the men: "Everything
we were told about communism proved to be a lie. Unfortunately,
everything we were told about capitalism proved to be true."
A plangent plea for solidarity, not to mention a screed against
capitalism and its excesses, Mondays
in the Sun is an assured and moving work from one of Spain's
most promising filmmakers.
Review by Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide
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Common Ground / Lugares
comunes |
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Drama (2002)
Spain / Argentina
Director: Adolfo Aristarain
Starring: Federico Luppi, Mercedes Sampietro |
Based on Lorenzo F. Aristarian's
novel Rebirth and directed by Adolfo Aristarian, Common
Places is a family drama from Argentina. College professor
Fernando (Federico Luppi) and his devoted social worker wife Liliana
(Mercedes Sampietro) live in a modest apartment in Buenos Aires.
When he is forced into retirement and she is at risk of losing
her job due to poor funding, they decide to visit their son, Pedro
(Carlos Santamaria), who has a comfortable bourgoise lifestyle
in Spain. After the father and son express their differences,
Liliana and Fernando sell their apartment and buy a house in rural
Cordoba. The middle-aged couple enjoy their new setting until
Fernando develops pneumonia.
Review by Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
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Talk to Her / Hable con ella |
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Drama (2002)
Spain
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti |
Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar
makes another masterpiece with Talk
to Her, his first film since the wonderful All
About My Mother. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is in love
with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is gored
by a bull and sent into a coma. In the hospital, Marco crosses
paths with Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who looks after
another coma patient, a young dancer named Alicia (Leonor Watling).
From Benigno's gentle attentiveness to Alicia, Marco learns to
take care of Lydia... but from there, the story goes in directions
that deftly manage to be sad, hopeful, funny, and creepy, sometimes
at the same time. The rich human empathy of Almodóvar's
recent films is passionate, heartbreaking, intoxicating--there
aren't enough adjectives to praise this remarkable filmmaker,
who is at the height of his powers. Talk
to Her is superb, with outstanding performances from all
involved.
Review by Bret Fetzer
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The Crime of Padre Amaro / El crimen del padre Amaro |
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Drama / Romance (2002)
Mexico / Spain / Argentina
Director: Carlos Carrera
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Ana Claudia Talancón |
Review: This controversial film
follows a handsome young priest, Padre Amaro (played by Gael Garcia
Bernal from Y
Tu Mamá También and Amores
Perros), who arrives in a small town and finds himself
surrounded by hypocrisy and corruption--and also finds himself
tempted by a beautiful young woman who confesses that when she
"touches herself," she thinks of Jesus. What makes
El
Crimen del Padre Amaro (The
Crime of Father Amaro) particularly effective is that
Amaro is no innocent--he skillfully forces a newspaper publisher
to retract a scandalous story about the Church and is willing
to take extreme steps to preserve his career. Some of the movie's
harsher digs at the Catholic Church have provoked accusations
of prejudice; but though Padre Amaro portrays a world in which
no one's hands are clean, it also finds redeeming qualities in
every character. A complex, completely engrossing movie.
Review by Bret Fetzer
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The City of No Limits
/ En la ciudad sin límites |
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Drama / Thriller (2002)
Spain / Argentina
Director: Antonio Hernández
Starring: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Fernando Fernán Gómez
|
Review: The
City of No Limits is a tautly scriped and impressively
acted film about family secrets and unresolved guilt. It could
be considered a thriller since the plot involves uncovering secrets
and discovering betrayal, but this isn't a fast-paced or action-packed
movie with a lot of frantic scenes filled with danger and suspense.
Nor is it a melodramatic film; there are some outbursts in it,
but most of the characters don't display their emotions in an
explosive manner. Instead, this is a measured film that carefully
and sensitively explores the lives of its characters. The movie's
greatest strength is its fine emsemble cast. Fernando Fernan-Gomez
is affecting as the family's dying patriach, and he has a good
rapport with Leonardo Sbaraglia, who carries much of the weight
of the film as the son searching for answers. The rest of the
cast is also excellent, including Geraldine Chaplin, who won Spain's
Goya Award for best supporting actress. The film could have explored
the lives of its characters in greater depth and moved at a faster
pace, but otherwise it is a first-rate drama.
Review by Todd Kristel, All Movie Guide
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Valentin / Valentín |
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Drama (2002)
Argentina
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Starring: Alejandro Agresti, Julieta Cardinali
|
Description: Valentin
has won the coveted Audience Award at the Newport International
Film Festival (2003), the Golden Calf Award at the Netherlands
Film Festival (2002), and seven Argentinean Film Critics Association
Awards (2004) including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
In Valentin,
a precocious and imaginative 8-year-old boy named Valentin is
raised by his grandmother. He dreams of becoming an astronaut
and spends his time developing space suits made from whatever
materials he can find. He also dreams of having a normal family
and misses his mother, who abandoned him. During a visit from
his father, he finds out about his father's current girlfriend,
Leticia. Valentin asks to meet her with the hope that she will
become his mother. This encounter between Valentin and Leticia
opens up old secrets but also creates an opportunity that Valentin
just can't pass up.
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Intact / Intacto |
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Thriller / Drama (2001)
Spain
Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring: Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela |
This sleek, stylish thriller
suggests that luck is a quality we possess, like strength or intelligence,
but the more fortunate among us can steal the luck of those less
charmed. When a bank robber named Tomas is the only survivor of
a plane wreck, the luckless Federico thinks he's found the man
who can defeat the Jew--the luckiest man alive, a Holocaust survivor
who sits at the apex of a weird, underground world of increasingly
dangerous gambles. But on their trail is a police detective named
Sara who's pretty lucky herself--and as she learns more about
how luck works, she begins to suspect she survived a car crash
because she stole the luck of her husband and child, both of whom
died. The stealthy story is packed with eerie visuals and charismatic
performances, including Max von Sydow (truly one of the greatest
actors alive) as the Jew.
Review by Bret Fetzer
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And Your Mother Too / Y tu mamá también |
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Comedy / Drama (2001)
Mexico / USA
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Starring: Ana López Mercado, Diego Luna |
Review: Plenty of juicy "s"
words apply to And
Your Mother Too: sexy, sweet, subtle, sad, surprising,
superb... and did we say sexy? With enough male and female nudity
to qualify as softcore porn--but deserving none of the stigma
attached to that label--this vibrant coming-of-age road movie
is guaranteed to jumpstart any viewer's libido. Frank treatment
of its characters' burgeoning sexuality makes this unrated film
a real eye-opener, but it's never prurient or juvenile. Rather,
the three-way odyssey of two 17-year-old Mexican boys (Gael García
Bernal, Diego Luna) and a 28-year-old Spanish beauty (Maribel
Verdú) is energetic and affirmative, while acknowledging
that relationships--and sexual adventures--rarely develop without
a hitch or two (or three). Filmed in sequence by Alfonso Cuarón
(Great
Expectations), and shot with invigorating natural style,
this refreshing comedy-drama employs an omniscient narrator to
reflect upon precious stolen moments, weaving three lives into
a memorable tapestry of fun, friendship, and fate.
Review by Jeff Shannon
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Sex and Lucia / Lucía y el sexo
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Drama / Romance (2001)
Director: Julio Medem
Starring: Paz Vega, Tristán Ulloa |
Review: Sex
and Lucia engages mind and body with its time-bending
narrative and images of beautiful Spaniards having vibrant sex.
The story shifts between past and present, fact and fiction, so
a plot summary won't capture it, but… A young writer named
Lorenzo falls into a passionate relationship with a waitress named
Lucía. But he also finds himself drawn to a young nanny
taking care of a child who just might be the result of an anonymous
fling Lorenzo had with a woman he met on an island the year before.
Lorenzo fantasizes about the lives of all of these women until
a horrific event sends him into a suicidal depression. This may
sound obscure or flat, but Sex
and Lucía unfolds clearly and beautifully, featuring
stunning visual images of both nature and flesh, and weaving a
poetic spell much like the director's previous film, The
Lovers of the Arctic Circle.
Review by Bret Fetzer
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The Devil's Backbone / El espinazo del diablo
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Drama / Crime (2001)
Spain / Mexico
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Eduardo Noriega (II), Marisa Paredes |
Seething passions, wandering
ghosts, and an unexploded bomb fill this beautifully filmed tale
of war and suspense. Though The
Devil's Backbone was advertised as a horror movie in the
States, it's really more of a drama that happens to have ghosts
in it. During the Spanish Civil War, young Carlos is abandoned
at a completely isolated orphanage. The tensions therein have
been building for years, exacerbated by the unexploded bomb resting
menacingly in the courtyard. Bullies scheme, tempers flare, and
a ghost that visits Carlos's bed seems to be the key to it all.
The movie is full of excellent performances, especially by Marisa
Paredes as the gruff-but-kind headmistress, Eduardo Noriega as
the handyman with secrets to keep, and Federico Luppi as the benevolent
professor who likes to keep deformed fetuses in jars. A rich,
satisfying drama with some good, spooky fun thrown in.
Review by Ali Davis
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