Luis García Berlanga
The early days of the future genius of Spanish cinema Luis García Berlanga, from his birth in Valencia in 1921 to his departure to Madrid in 1947 to become a filmmaker.
Documentary about Spanish director Luis García Berlanga's "The Executioner" (1963)
The story of Enrique Herreros (1903-1977), cartoonist, advertiser, poster designer, talent manager, actor, producer and filmmaker, and the most daring of mountaineers; the man who, along with his companions from the so-called “other Generation of '27,” brought Hollywood to Madrid's Gran Vía, turning a grey and sinister post-war city into the capital of an incipient and ambitious cultural industry.
A walk through the work of Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010) that is neither a documentary nor a narrative movie, but a tribute to one of the greatest directors of Spanish cinema. Anything can happen: the performers are not themselves, but their characters; there are no interviews, but greetings; a series of entrances and exits. A joyful reunion, a celebration of life.
A documentary on the revolutionary life and career of director Juan Antonio Bardem, including interviews with many of his colleagues, including Luis Garcia Berlanga.
How the cinema industry does not respect the author's work as it was conceived, how manipulates the motion pictures in order to make them easier to watch by an undemanding audience or even how mutilates them to adapt the original formats and runtimes to the restrictive frame of the television screen and the abusive requirements of advertising. (Followed by “Filmmakers in Action.”)
The teacher explains to her students, step by step and with full details and live examples, how are the different types of execution: the electric chair, the garrote, the gallows ..
The story of an old surgeon and with impotence problems that believes he's near to death. But before throwing in the towel and take the bike goes from Paris to Timbuktu African French. And midway through the unique inner journey, the hero will stop and inn in Calabuch. And the place that impressed both decide to stay there with his peculiar people: killing a nun, a priest convicted felon, a lesbian mayor ...
A prison in Valencia hosts an event recognizing political prisoners jailed during Franco’s reign. The reunion proves more raucous than the organizers intended.
A family owned a nougat factory moves to Madrid to promote your product in a food fair, against the advice of family patriarch and founder of the company, Don Fernando Planchadell, which remains true to its principles.
Carmen leaves her husband Julio to go live with an intellectual who has made a career in the United States. While, Julio goes away to live of rent to house of an aristocrat come to less. After meeting several colorful characters, Julio decides to recover Carmen.
A platoon of mismatched republican soldiers cross the front-line to steal the bull that the enemy is going to fight on the saint patron date of the village. In addition to ruining the nationals' celebration they want the animal in order to butcher it and feed their famished troops. They get caught in the procession and have to go through a series of funny and pathetic incidents before they can get back to their side. Written by Mary Solari
In order to solve economic problems, "Leguineche" family decide to move to France with their limited belongings.
A set of nine stories whose central theme is eroticism. The different directors of the film deal from philosophical aspects to others that are almost pornographic, but always with a common denominator: sensuality.
A catalan manufacturer of intercoms travels to Madrid, accompanied by his mistress, to attend a hunt that he has organized. Its main purpose is to mix with people of high society to improve their business. All seems well until the owner of the farm shows full authority over James, who is the real organizer of the meeting. The celebration is diverse characters who live next to absurd situations.
When Michel gets the life-sized sex doll he ordered, shipped directly from Japan, he is only intrigued by it at first. Then the silent unresponsiveness of the thing begins to haunt him, and he finds himself reacting to it as if it were an equally unresponsive living woman. As time passes, more and more of his life is spent trying to satisfy or placate its relentless silence, and he goes somewhat mad. He dresses the doll and takes it with him wherever he goes. When his usually very tolerant wife discovers what is going on, her jealousy knows no bounds and she attempts to imitate this threatening love-object. The light-hearted quality of this addle-pated fantasy darkens quickly when various neighborhood men attempt to put the doll to its originally intended use.
A funny story of count Alfredo aka Didino (little Alfred) and countess Mafalda - his bloodsucking and over-controlling mother.
Leo Pozas, native from Burgos and high bank clerk, arrives to a town on the Costa Brava, with his mother to marry Loli. Unexpectedly, Leo's mother died. This may mean the suspension of the wedding, a year of mourning and, perhaps, another relief, so that Leo and Loli hide the corpse of the old betrothal until after the wedding...
Barcelona 1967. The pop culture revolution. Jordi (Patrick Bauchau) is a rich playboy who runs around with a bunch of high-end hippies, smoking, drinking, dancing and daydreaming about Tuset Street, an effort to develop a popular street in the newer section of Barcelona after the models of Haight Ashbury Street in San Francisco and Carnaby Street in London. Jordi and his gang represent the new Barcelona, wealthy, artificial and striving for imported sophistication. On the older side of the city is El Paralelo, the theater district. At El Molino, one of its many music halls, performs Violeta (Sara Montiel), a showgirl in the old style tradition who supplements her singing income with prostitution. Somehow Violeta represents the old values, the "real world" living along side an artificial creation such as Tuset.
Ricardo is an executive who has great success with women and behaves almost like a play-boy. His wife, Carmen, an attractive housewife without children, it feels ignored by him and seeks solace from her mother, who proposes Carmen a change in the way she acts in order to do not lose permanently her husband or even fall into madness.
Initially a made-to-order documentary on Spain, the film becomes an open-ended work-in-the-making about the creative process. “Settling in the Spanish capital to make a documentary, Hanoun sketches out for us the different steps involved in making a film. The author turns his hesitations, his doubts and difficult working conditions into the constituents of his work”. (Raphaël Bassan)
Paquita and her brother Venancio, both single and childish, live in a small town near Madrid. Their bossy eldest sister Ignacia, also an old maid, dominates them. One night, Paquita hears her sister tell somebody about her intention to sell all the family wealth. Once the money is gathered, she wishes to travel to Paris with the mysterious person and get rid of her brother and sister.
An undertaker gets married to an old executioner's daughter and, although he doesn't like it, must continue the profession of his father-in-law after his retirement.
"Les quatre vérités" aka "The Four Truths" is a movie anthology that consists of four segments, all loosely parodying fables from the 17th-century French poet Jean de la Fontaine. The US cut usually features only 3 segments.
In a small Spanish town, during the Christmas holidays, a group of rich old ladies organize a peculiar event that consists of inviting a homeless person to sit down to dinner at their wealthy table. Plácido, a humble worker, is hired by the organizers to participate in a parade with his three-wheeled vehicle, a seemingly simple mission that will not be easy for him to accomplish.
Comedy about the surreal holiday of two teenage Spanish girls, where they meet a bizarre assortment of villains and new friends.
In the village of Fuentecilla, there is a medicinal spa which was very popular in the past but that now has been forgotten by the public. In order to bring back the tourists, the "prominent men" of the village organize a fake miracle: the apparition of San Dimas, the local patron saint, which will take place every Thursday night. At first it works, but trouble begins when a stranger appears, claiming that he knows what's going on and making peculiar demands in exchange for his silence. Written by Pablo Montoya
Professor Hamilton, a naive Nuclear scientist who once thought bombs were good for humanity, realizes his mistake and runs away from his inventions. He hides in Calabuch, a beautiful seaside town where people still believe in humor and friendship.
In 1914, a young woman is taken to a coastal resort by her parents to find her a suitable husband.
Juan and Carmen are a humble couple living in Madrid. She does the housework and he works as an electrician in a film studio. Their dreams of wellness come true when they win a contest sponsored by a soap brand…
After finding out that North American people are visiting the Spanish villages, the citizens of Villar del Río start preparing themselves to welcome them when they arrive.
A mutilated man walks, leaning on a crutch, through the Ciudad Universitaria de Madrid stadium, where the students are exercising. The place was once the scene of one of the bloodiest episodes of Madrid's defence. The man, who lost a leg in the same place, remembers what happened during the Civil War while contemplating the skies covered with clouds and what is still left of shattered walls, walls pierced by shrapnel and trenches.
