Cine - Movies

Title: Como agua para chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
Released: 1992

Plot Summary

Very rarely does a film do justice to the book on which it's based, but, en mi opinión humilde, the movie Like Water for Chocolate does a great job. Perhaps one of the most well known Spanish-language films in the US that brings to mind the Latin American twist on Magical Realism, the story is about Tita and Pedro, a young couple who fall in love but are not able to marry because of Tita's family tradition. Pedro instead marries Tita's older sister as a way to be near Tita. Tita, who grew up in the kitchen helping and learning from her family cook Nacha, pours her passion into cooking which has a magical way of affecting her dinner guests.

Language Learning Notes

Title: Hable con ella (Talk to her)
Released: 2002

Plot Summary

Another great film by Spanish director Pedro Almoldóvar, Hable con ella is the story of the intersecting lives of two pairs, Alicia & Benigno and Lydia & Marco. Benigno and Marco meet in the hospital, where Benigno is the nurse taking care of Alicia and Marco visits his girlfriend Lydia. Both Alicia and Lydia are in comas from which they may not emerge, but Benigno believes the women are both capable of recovery and encourages Marco to "talk to her".

The film includes some essentially Spanish elements, like bullfighting and the dry olive-tree filled landscape of Andalucia, and also touches on some truly Almoldóvar themes: the mystery of the female heart, loneliness, isolation, and just plain strangeness (the silent film scene is one of the film's more bizarre moments).

Language Learning Notes

Title: Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens)
Released: 2000

Plot Summary

This mainstream Argentine film stars Gastón Pauls and Ricardo Darín who play two con artists trying to heist some rare and valuable stamps. Full of Argentine slang and quirky humor, this film is among my favorites. It provides some interesting plot twists and keeps you guessing who's really getting conned.

Title: Ladrón que Roba a Ladrón (To Rob a Thief)
Released: 2007

The law of honor among thieves is not to rob from each other. Certain moral codes are made to be broken, as is the case with Moctesuma Valdez, an Argentine "businessman" living in the US who preys on uninsured Latino immigrants by selling them products that promise to cure diseases, baldness, help you loose weight and increase manhood.

Title: El Espinazo del Diablo (The Devil's Backbone)
Released: 2001

Another great film produced by Guillermo del Toro, The Devil's Backbone is a film about superstition, fear and courage. The story takes place during the Spanish Civil War, which offers more of a backdrop than a focus to the film, conveying the sense of horror and darkness present at the time.

An unexploded bomb lands right outside of the Santa Lucia School, an orphanage for young boys who lost their parents during the war. The bomb provides the symbolic reminder of the growing pressure and mounting fear caused by the war: its presence is undeniable, yet nobody knows when it will finally explode.

The main story is about young Carlos, the most recent arrival to the Santa Lucia School, who discovers hidden secrets and is forced to deal with adult issues overnight.

Title: Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes)
Released: 1997

Plot Summary

This surreal Spanish film written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar stars Penélope Cruz and Eduardo Noriega, and provides the storyline for the American version of the film - Vanilla Sky.

Cesár (Noriega) is young, good-looking, and notorious for being a playboy. He meets Sofia (Cruz), and sees something in her that makes him want to pursue a more real relationship with her. Shortly after meeting, Cesár is in an accident that leaves his face disfigured which irreparably changes his life.

The story floats between fantasy and reality, thriller and drama, and Amenábar somehow manages to pull it all together in a wonderfully made film.

Spanish Language Learning Notes

Title:Love in the Time of Cholera (El amor en tiempos del cólera)
Released:2007

Movie and Plot Summary

I'm still not sure why this movie, based on the magical realism classic by Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Márquez, is in English. It's not just in English, but characters have Spanish accents perhaps only authentic in the case of Spaniard Javier Bardem, while the background dialog is in Spanish. For as authentic as other aspects like scenery and costumes may have been, changing the language that created this beautiful opening line seems like a mistake:

Era inevitable: el olor de las almendras amargas le recordaba siempre el destino de los amores contrariados.

It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.

Title: XXY
Released: 2007

Movie and Plot Summary

Being different is rarely easy, especially if you're a 15 year old hermaphrodite. This Argentine film deals with teenage angst and how the decisions we make alter our path.

Fifteen year old Alex faces having to make a decision about her gender when her mother invites a plastic surgeon and his family to stay at their family home by the sea. Alex's father resents the surgeon's presence, and accepts Alex completely as she is. Witnessing the difficulty Alex faces in personal relationships, her father comes to understand the complexity of the situation and society's inability to accept the undefined.

While certainly an interesting film concept, I would recommend XXY to people who like fringe independent movies, not Hollywood moviegoers.

Spanish Language Learning Notes

When we gave up our TiVo, my husband had to pull the machine out of my clutches as I was trying to get in my final recorded episodes of my favorite telenovela, Soñar no cuesta nada. I stand by the theory that watching telenovelas is a great way to learn Spanish.

Why you should find a Telenovela

To start with, the Spanish is generally slow and easy to understand, as the actors are trying to be as dramatic as possible. If you're an intermediate Spanish speaker and you turn on a soccer game with Spanish commentary, the news in Spanish, or Spanish talk radio, you will probably get frustrated because of how quickly people are talking. Not in a novela...