Victoria Abril Movies
One of Europe's most popular and respected actresses, Victoria Abril has made her mark in more than 60 films produced in France, Italy, and her native Spain. First introduced to American audiences through the work of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who directed her in the controversial Atame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, 1990), the sensual, brown-eyed actress has gained a Stateside cult following, but remains thoroughly European in her choice of films and the roles she plays.Abril first earned wide recognition in Spain as a 14-year-old model on the popular television shows Uno, dos, tres, responda otra vez and 625 lineas. Born Victoria Merida Rojas in Malaga on July 4, 1959, she began studying as a ballet dancer at the age of seven, but following her celebrated turn on TV, segued into acting in the mid-'70s. Abril made her major screen debut in Vincente Aranda's Cambio de Sexo, a 1976 drama that cast her as an effeminate young man who undergoes a sex change. That same year, the actress made her first English-language film, Robin and Marian, in which she played the relatively minor role of a Spanish queen. She went on to do prolific work for the rest of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s, and in 1990 had her first collaboration with Almodóvar, for whom she starred as a drug-addicted porn actress taken hostage by an obsessive fan (Antonio Banderas) in Atame!. The film was a success in Spain -- where Abril earned a Goya Best Actress nomination for her performance -- and proved to be a controversial sensation in the States, where its plot outraged certain feminist groups. Abril collaborated with Almodóvar on two more films, Tacones Lejanos (1991) -- in which she played the estranged daughter of an actress (Marisa Paredes), and Kika (1993) -- in which she had a supporting role as an over-the-top tabloid TV program hostess.
Abril scored particular critical acclaim as a darkly amorous landlady in Vincente Aranda's Amantes (1991), winning a Best Actress Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance. Further acclaim came her way with Nadie Hablara de Nosotras Cuando Hayamos Muerto (1995), for which her portrayal of an alcoholic prostitute earned her a Goya and a Best Actress award at the San Sebastian Film Festival. A starring role in the French romantic comedy Gazon Maudit (1995), which cast her as a housewife torn between her unfaithful husband and a butch female truck driver, further increased Abril's popularity. She continued to star in films that emphasized her playful, flamboyant sexuality, maintaining her reputation as one of Europe's most colorful and vibrant performers. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 1984
- R
This technically impressive throwback to the early days of film noir stars Richard Berry as Bruno, a young actor who seems to get blamed for everything. Spotting a gorgeous female shoplifter (Victoria Abril) in trouble, Bruno decides to help her and gets arrested in her place. While lamenting his fate in prison, he is blamed for an escape attempt in which a psychotic guard (Richard Bohringer) is shot. When Bruno's sentence is lengthened, the guard makes his life a nightmare until the terrorized prisoner must lash out in the ultimate rebellion against (and surrender to) his inescapable fate. Director Denis Amar's moody film is strong on atmosphere but weak in characterization, despite an impressively sadistic turn by Bohringer, and the movie leaves the viewer flat rather than moved. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Berry, Richard Bohringer, (more)
- 1982
Based on a 1943 book of the same title by Camilo José Cela, Colmena features the comings and goings of a wide variety of characters, all trying to survive in a poverty-stricken Madrid during World War II. Rather than feature any single story line, these people from all walks of life cross paths almost randomly as they come to a café to sip their one cup of coffee and work on a book, or pick up a prostitute, or get their shoes shined, or play billiards, or just warm themselves on a cold winter's day. This primary setting is complemented by a brothel where a dirt-poor journalist sleeps if there is a room available that night, while during the day he tries to make ends meet one way or another. The demeanor of the people in the café or in the brothel effectively conveys the atmosphere of a long-lost era that may have had hardships but also brought a subtle sense of camaraderie to very disparate human beings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Ana Belén, (more)
- 1985
An accomplished and "enchanting" fantasy-romance, this story of a couple's love for each other and a pixie's benevolent intervention in their lives is entertaining from beginning to end. Cesar (Francisco Rabal) is a fake sorcerer and travels with his wife Pilar (Concha Velasco) in a combination bus and house, performing magic shows for the public. One time when they are stuck in a ditch in the middle of nowhere, a young woman named Saga (Victoria Abril) helps them get out and back on the road again. It soon becomes clear by her actions that Saga is a friendly pixie-witch. She and her warlock cohort cause Cesar's fake magic to really work -- and that is just the beginning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Francisco Rabal, Concha Velasco, (more)
- 1979
Slow in parts but still engaging and well-acted, this drama by Vicente Aranda explores the changing nature of a former fascist, Luis Forest (Lautaro Murua), and his relationship to his niece Mariana (Victoria Abril). Luis has retired to the seacoast to devote himself to writing his memoirs and ruminating over his failed marriage. His sister is worried about him and so she sends her daughter Mariana to check up on how he is doing. The wildly carefree Mariana and her silent photographer friend shake up Luis' staid world. Slowly, Mariana's taunting and teasing break down Luis' intellectual barriers and as that happens she becomes more interested in him. As flashbacks indicate, Luis was not the militant fascist everyone imagined. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lautaro Murúa, Victoria Abril, (more)
- 1984
This ostensible comedy about the affairs or non-existent affairs of television executive Federico José Sacristán and his actress wife Elena Victoria Abril) is almost as hard to believe as director Manuel Gutiérrez-Aragón's previous effort Feroz. Federico convinces a friend to attempt to seduce his wife in order to test her fidelity. She passes the test, but her husband is not satisfied, and so he asks his boss to seduce her. Events conspire to lead the boss in another direction -- it turns out he is more interested in a transvestite who is actually the secret lover of Federico, and the boss seduces him instead. Meanwhile, Elena is acting in a production of Don Juan in which two of her supposed lovers are playing her lovers -- and the story continues downhill from there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- José M. Sacristán, Victoria Abril, (more)
- 1984
In his second successful starring role in 1983, Agustín Gonzalez is a father who runs a wine shop in Madrid, a city under a three-year siege (1936-1939) because the Nationalists forces of Francisco Franco need to take Madrid before the fascist dictator can be installed in power. The siege has left the Madrileños with very little food, living under the threat of bombs, and worrying about the prospects of defeat. It is the sense of impending disaster, of hunger and deprivation that is oddly missing from this cinematic interpretation of the play by Fernando Fernán Gómez. The daughter in the family (Victoria Abril) enters into a love affair with a soldier and ends up having a baby, the son (Gabino Diego) is coming of age with the maid - and life seems to go on with all its proverbial ups and downs. But without the sharp dialogue of the play itself, this film is not as tautly strung, or as convincingly real as the stage production. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Amparo Soler Leal, Agustin Gonzalez, (more)
- 1983
Based on Erskine Caldwell's novel, Le Batard could also refer to this French film born from an American novel, with the American South transformed into the south of France. An unemotive Gerard Klein is Patrice, the Paris automobile mechanic who travels to Marseille to identify the body of his loose-living and long-lost mother, who has been found murdered. After proceeding to kill off her barroom boss, he meanders around the south of France looking for sexual relationships. He comes across a teenage musician and is attracted enough to her obvious appeal to establish a more permanent liaison, taking her with him to Paris to set up housekeeping -- for she is pregnant. Soon she is driven to the limits of depression and boredom caring for their home and a new baby, and he has reached his limits of confinement and responsibility -- so he takes off again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gerard Klein, Julie Jezequel, (more)
- 1984
The emotional interplay between an arguing couple, in love but not happy with their relationship, is meant to be the sustaining force in this crime drama with little other action. Thomas (Christophe Malavoy) has been blackmailed into carrying a shipment of explosives in his Peugeot to Egypt, where the devices will be forwarded to guerrillas on Cyprus. He brings his lover Veronique (Victoria Abril) along for the dangerous ride from Switzerland to the south, knowing the explosives can be easily detonated by accident and enemy agents as well as government agents are out to capture him. Both protagonists have a short fuse themselves, and as they separate and then come back together, their final destination looms ever closer in more ways than one. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christophe Malavoy, Victoria Abril, (more)
This big-budget Spanish drama pays tribute to the courageous women who sacrificed their lives during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Maria's peaceful life as a nun is shattered when revolutionary anarchists force her and her sisters to flee their convent sanctuary. Maria ends up hiding in a brothel where she meets the good-hearted whore Charo. Their peace is in turn destroyed by the sudden arrival of Pilar, a passionate, idealistic member of the Free Women organization. Her fiery speeches and strong arm tactics compel the hookers and Maria to join their fight. A handsome ex-priest also joins them as they fight with the anarchists in Zaragoza. Following a small victory, the formerly trench-bound, battle-weary women celebrate, but then Maria finds herself faced with the destruction and death that goes with war. Later the former priest informs the women that they will not be allowed to fight upon the front lines and the women are left with broken ideals and angry hearts that lead them into one last, violent battle. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1991
- R
Vicente Aranda's Lovers is set in Spain, mostly in Madrid, during the 1950s. The story line is reminiscent of Theodore Dreiser's classic An American Tragedy (which was filmed as A Place in the Sun), wherein a passive, amoral, and shallow protagonist inadvertently destroys the lives of two women who love him. The handsome Paco (Jorge Sanz, who also starred in Belle Epoque and has been called "the Spanish Tom Cruise") is a young soldier involved with a virginal maid, Trini (Maribel Verdu of Y Tu Mama Tambien). Trini is saving her money and planning for their wedding, but Paco tells her not to worry, that he will find a job and save money for them. Paco leaves the army, but has trouble finding and keeping a steady job. He ends up renting a cheap room from Luisa (Spanish superstar Victoria Abril, best known for her work in Pedro Almodovar's films), a beautiful and mysterious widow. Before long, Luisa has seduced the sexually frustrated Paco, and involved him in her moneymaking scams. Trini quickly figures out what is going on, and makes a desperate effort to win back Paco's affection. Paco is obsessed with the sexually experienced and voracious older woman, but is unable to break off his long-term relationship with Trini. He attempts to string them both along, with disastrous results. The film was the first of veteran filmmaker Aranda to get a theatrical release in the United States, thanks largely to Abril's star power, and caused a minor sensation with its sexual explicitness, in particular the infamous "handkerchief scene." ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Jorge Sanz, (more)
- 2002
Directed by Marcello Cesena, Mari del Sud (Our Tropical Island) follows a dysfunctional family whose idea of concealing their bankruptcy from friends and family is hiding in the basement of their palatial home while they're presumed to be vacationing. The basement is a disgusting place to live; rat-infested and stocked only with pickled vegetables, trips to the supermarket and attempts to counter their meddling neighbors become full-scale commando operations. As the situation snowballs, the family is unwittingly pushed into a catharsis which will bring them together in a way they hadn't thought possible. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diego Abatantuono, Giulia Steigerwalt, (more)
- 1980
The slow mental and emotional disintegration of the mother of an autistic child is the main theme of this evocative psychological drama by J.A. Salgot. Since incest and murder are also involved, this is not exactly a film for all audiences. Clara (Victoria Abril) is graphically shown giving birth and subsequently followed as she tries to cope with the ever-more obvious autism of her new son. She leads a normal life as a keypunch operator, but her son's affliction takes its toll. She experiments with illegal drugs, eventually loses her job, and slowly recedes into a shell that is almost as impenetrable as her son's. There seems to be no ordinary way out of her gradual decline, no solution to her problem that started long ago when she refused to give her son up to an institution. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril
Fabled Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima was the guiding hand behind the fast-paced French comedy Max, Mon Amour. The "Max" with whom the elegant Charlotte Rampling falls in love is a circus chimpanzee (played by a short-statured man in a monkey suit). Charlotte's British-ambassador husband Anthony Higgins has long suspected that his wife was cheating on him, but he certainly isn't prepared for her simian paramour. Amazingly, the film never descends into goofiness: Oshima uses his unorthodox plotline to poke holes in the self-protective pretensions of the Bourgeoisie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Charlotte Rampling, Anthony Higgins, (more)
- 2008
With this high-concept, all-star French comedy (it features at least sixteen Gallic marquee names including Michel Blanc and Josiane Balasko), director Jean-Michel Ribes sets out to skewer the pretentiousness of the European art world. It's just a typical, ordinary day at a French art museum, but the cast of characters on display here finds the terrain anything but easy to navigate; they include a mother who literally becomes an art exhibit when her body is coated in plastic and put on display, a minister shocked to his core by artistic displays of sexual organs, a curator suffering from acute botanophobia, a stowaway who hides out in the principal art room, and many other idiosyncratic misfits. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Blanc, Simon Abkarian, (more)
- 1999
- NR
In this sly comedy of manners, Anne (Victoria Abril) is a free-spirited single mother whose three children were all fathered by different men, none of whom are currently in contact with Anne and none of whom know that Anne bore their offspring. Anne's son Victor (Pierre-Jean Cherit) has started asking his mother questions about who his father is and where he's gone; Anne, however, isn't sure just what to tell him, or any of his siblings, about their Dads without things becoming embarrassing. However, when Anne takes the kids on a vacation to Mexico, she realizes she'd better come up with an explanation and quick, since all three of her former beaux happen to be staying at the same resort where Anne and her brood are registered. Mon père, ma mère, mes frères et mes soeurs was the first directorial credit for actress Charlotte de Turckheim, who also appears in the film as Jeanne. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Charlotte de Turckheim, (more)
- 1995
This stylish, taut and unpredictable Spanish thriller is laced with black comedy and social consciousness as it tells the convoluted tale centering on alcoholic, unlucky Gloria Duque, an impoverished Mexico City prostitute. She is first seen performing fellatio on several crooks as they make another drug deal. Something goes awry and violence erupts and two corrupt drug agents and a local gangster die. Eduardo, an Argentine hit man survives and he does not kill Gloria. Just before one of the agents died, he handed Gloria a list of international money-laundering businesses and when things settle down she flies to Madrid, her hometown. There she sees her husband, a bullfighter in an irreversible coma, and begins living off of her mother-in-law's money. Doña Julia cares about her daughter-in-law and tries to get her to give up the booze, go to school and earn a respectable living, but Gloria is stubborn and insists on making it her own way. Unfortunately, her way is to rob a furrier, a front for one of the illicit businesses. Meanwhile, back in Mexico, Eduardo prepares to fly to Spain and complete his latest assignment: to kill Gloria and bring back the valuable list. Fortunately for her, just before Eduardo gets to her, Eduardo sees the light and turns to God instead of killing, but in the end, it is Doña Julia who holds the key to Gloria's final salvation. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Essentially a tale of romance mixed in with a dash of politics, this engrossing story involves Engracia (Victoria Abril), a young Mexican prostitute working just south of the border with the U.S., and two American border guards who are among her clients: Mitch (Scott Wilson), a tough, go-by-the-book Anglo who has no deep affection for Mexicans, and Chuck (Jeff Delgar), an idealistic new border guard who has yet to learn the ropes. In a few instances, the film exposes the prejudice against Mexicans, but otherwise, politics is secondary to what happens next. Chuck falls in love with Engracia, and the two get married in Mexico -- and then he smuggles her across the border that he himself has been hired to guard. Sure enough, the vile Mitch gets into the act and quite clearly, both Chuck and Engracia are heading for trouble. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Carradine, Scott Wilson, (more)
- 1984
Fernando Rey plays a Spanish cardinal who returns to his home town thirty years after leaving for Rome. Rey knew that he'd left an illegitimate daughter behind, but was unaware that he also has a granddaughter (Victoria Abril). The girl is embroiled in an affair with Rey's own brother (Francisco Rabal), a Marxist activist. The filmmakers' sympathies are more with Marxism than Catholicism, but politics are secondary to the kinky romantic intrigues. Evidently Fernando Rey didn't consider Our Father (original Spanish title: Padre Nuestro) significant enough to list on his official, published resume. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal, (more)
- 1987
Director Felix Rotaeta adapted the screenplay of Placer de Matar from own novel. Victoria Abril, who was incredibly busy when the film was made in 1987, plays the leading role (she wasn't exactly the heroine), while Berta Riaza costars as her mother. It's a thriller with plot twists aplenty; to give away too much would be to spoil the surprises. Here's a hint: the film's English-language title is The Pleasure of Killing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Antonio Banderas, Mathieu Carrière, (more)
Though the story told in Robin and Marian is unfamiliar to most audiences, it is actually quite faithful to several of the ancient Robin Hood legends. During the Crusades, Robin (Sean Connery) is still loyal to King Richard the Lionheart (Richard Harris), but even he has trouble adjusting to the monarch's ever-increasing paranoia and lunacy. After Richard's death, Robin returns to England, his first visit to his home turf in 20 years. He looks up his beloved Maid Marian (Audrey Hepburn, last seen in 1967's Wait Until Dark), who is now a middle-aged nun. No sooner do Robin and Marian renew their relationship than the aging Merry Men demand Robin's services in thwarting their old foe, the Sheriff of Nottingham (Robert Shaw). Marian is aghast that the long-standing feud between Robin and the sheriff threatens to expand into wholesale bloodshed. The two venerable enemies agree to one last mano a mano battle -- only to watch helplessly as the all-out war they'd tried to avoid commences anyway. Both the tragic climax and Robin's last, defiant arrow shot are drawn directly from authentic Robin Hood ballads of the 14th and 15th centuries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, (more)
- 1990
Guerilla wars against the major powers have been a factor in Central American politics for a long time. This biographical drama is based on the life of Nicaragua's prototypical 20th century guerilla, Augusto C. Sandino (born as Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino). His name and life were the inspiration for the anti-U.S. forces in that country fifty years after his death: they called themselves the Sandanistas. It is helpful to remember, and this movie demonstrates, that the U.S. military has been actively involved with the domestic politics of Nicaragua many times in this century, most notably during the 1912 invasion which resulted in over twenty continuous years of U.S. military intervention. In the story, Sandino loves two women: his wife, who remains at home, and his warlike mistress, a guerilla who accompanies him into the jungle. He has a tendency (common at the time) of wanting to trust politicians. As a result, he was betrayed by Anastasio Somoza in 1933, and vanished from sight. Somoza soon became the sole ruler of Nicaragua (from 1936 to 1956). The free-thinking rebel, who renamed himself Augusto César Sandino in the late 1920s, identified strongly with the indios or indigenous people of the region, and proposed a political agenda under which the countries of the Central America would unite against European exploitation. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, (more)
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