Films, Movies, Cine - Spanish Language or just about Spanish speakers (hispanohablantes).
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: Antes que anochezca (Before Night Falls)
Released: 2000
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: Ana y los otros (Ana and the Others)
Released: 2003
The short review: unless you like boring movies, this movie is not for you. Ana y los otros is the story about 20-something Ana taking a trip to Parana, the city where she grew up, to see old friends and to find an old flame. I am a sucker for Argentine movies, but was seriously disappointed with this one. The whole time I kept thinking "what is this movie even about?" It was a series of inconsequential scenes of Ana sitting at a park bench, Ana going to the beach, Ana having a bo-oring conversation with a girl at the beach, and so on. When I read the back of the movie case and found:
"An extraordinary film whose characters treat the biggest and most dramatic crisis lived by the Argentinean people in a whole new light. Regardless of stereotypical political speeches and blames, the film underlines in a unique manner the importance of hope and the real value of life."
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside)
Released: 2004
Submitted by Nikki on
Based on a true story, this film is about two university students in Franco-era Spain who are caught painting anti-government graffiti (which interestingly is still visible at the University of Barcelona). In an effort to make an example of the students and to show that political dissidents will not be tolerated, the students are sentenced to 8 years in prison. Through the help of a French activist and his politically-involved Canadian girlfriend, the students escape from prison and spend the rest of the movie trying to get out of Spain.
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: La lengua de las mariposas (Butterfly)
Released: 1999
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: Maria, llena eres de gracia (Maria Full of Grace)
Released: 2004
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: Diarios de Motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries)
Released: 2004
The Motorcycle Diaries is a film adapted from Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s autobiographical travel story by the same name. Guevara, played by Gael García Bernal, at 23 years old is finishing up with his medical degree at the University of Buenos Aires and decides that he needs to see the world (is this the original story of our time?). He and his best friend Alberto Granado, played by Rodrigo de la Serna, plan a trip by motorcycle through South America. The story is one of Ernesto and Alberto’s deepening friendship, adventures, and humorous mishaps, including one of my favorite scenes when they arrive in a small town and impersonate well-know doctors so that they can get their bike fixed and are later chased out of town for flirting with the mechanic’s wife.
Submitted by Nikki on
Title: Mala Educación (Bad Education)
Released: 2004
La Mala Educación (Bad Education) is the latest film from the kooky, transvestite-obsessed Spanish director, Pedro Almodóvar. Perhaps most notable for its hot protagonist, Gabriel García Bernal, who American audiences (mainly the ladies) started to notice in coming-of-age story Y tu máma también and most recently in The Motorcycle Diaries.
Submitted by Greg on
Title:Belle Epoque (The Age of Beauty)
Released:1992
The story of a defector from the Spanish Army of 1931 - this curious tale of love, adultery, and a view into the life in a rural Spanish town left us a bit surprised.
