Juan Diego Movies

This historical drama, set in the '20s examines the strange, brief reign of a Latin American dictator. It was alternately shot in Havana and Mexico. The story is set in an unspecified Latin country and chronicles the daily life of the tyrannical dictator. One of his day's highlights is the signing of execution orders. His insane daughter must be physically restrained and is tied to her bed. Also included in the tale are a group of picked on Spaniards, a psychic woman, and effeminate Spanish ambassador, and a rebellious general. The film contains no violence. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

It is 1620, and the young King of Spain (Gabino Diego) is technically a married man, because the great churchmen have conducted a grand public wedding ceremony joining him with a wife. However, as the real rulers of the state, they have perversely kept him completely innocent in matters of sex, so that his marriage remains unconsummated. One day, one of the king's few friends sees to it that he gets to spend a little time with a high-class prostitute (Laura del Sol). In fact, she's so high class that she's the favorite whore for the Grand Inquisitor himself. After the king's initiation into the joys of the female body, he publicly declares his desire to see his queen naked, which scandalizes his prudish and very hypocritical court. The Inquisitor (Fernando Fernan Gomez), when he learns of the boy's meeting with the prostitute, issues two conflicting instructions to two different aides. He sends one to have her arrested and another to warn her to go into hiding. That kind of convoluted behavior is the norm in this humorous historical drama. One of the controversies the court entertains itself with is whether or not the king committed adultery with the prostitute, since it could be alleged that he wasn't quite completely married at the time, according to the legal and theological conventions of the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

With little dialog and exquisite, almost documentary-like images, Cabeza de Vaca offers a fascinating (if not mystical and at times just plain puzzling) foray back to early 16th-century America as it chronicles the exploits of the explorer Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca as he spends eight years traversing the wild lands surrounding the Gulf of Mexico. The story itself is based on the book Naufragio, Cabeza de Vaca's personal account. Cabeza de Vaca was the ship's treasurer on an ill-fated expedition to America. Marooned on the densely jungled Florida coast he becomes the unwilling guest of the Iguase Indians (for added realism and to help audiences understand how Cabeza de Vaca felt, the Native speech is not translated). He is enslaved and much of the story centers on his coming to grips with his strange new life and the people around him. Eventually he is taken to a powerful Iguase shaman who teaches him the healing arts, skills he is able to put to amazing use during his amazing journey. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Pantheon filmmaker Carlos Saura bounced back from a handful of failures with 1989's La Noche Oscura (The Dark Night). Juan Diego stars as San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross), the legendary 16th-century poet-prophet. Galvanized into action by the spirit of Santa Teresa de Jesus, San Juan fought to install reforms in the Carmelite Order. Like many another visionary, he was regarded as a heretic, and promptly subjected to the most appalling of tortures. Writer-director Saura manages to draw several parallels between the religious persecution of the 1700s and the political despotism of Fascist Spain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Laura (Angela Molina) is caught in a love triangle with her husband Tomas (Juan Diego) and his half-brother Adrian (Sergi Mateu) in this routine melodrama. When Tomas ignores her, Laura finds love in the arms of a local textile manufacturer, only to discover later that the man is her husband's half-brother. Tomas learns of the infidelity and seeks vengeance against Laura and Adrian. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this romantic farce, Macarena is a pretty French girl who has come to Cordoba in southern Spain in search of a man she believes may be her father. She finally tracks him and his clan down in a minor city museum: they have become squatters there during one of the museum curator's brief absences. Two policemen have been given the job of persuading the wacky family to vacate the premises. Their response to these blandishments is to threaten to destroy the museum's treasures. At the same time her maybe-father's two sons are putting the make on her, one of the policemen has taken up residence with the family and is dancing with them, as a police SWAT team prepares to storm the building. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Three college friends are reunited after 10 years in this routine drama. Told in a series of flashbacks, Tomas (Massimo Ghini) is a concert pianist who returns to Spain in hopes of looking up his two old friends. He finds one working in a recording studio, while the other has lost the use of his left arm after a series of setbacks that included time in prison and a suicide attempt. Juan Diego and Antonio Banderas co-star with Nina Van Pallandt and Anna Vasoni. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This is a comprehensive docudrama (focusing more on truth than fiction) on the two weeks in 1936 that preceded Francisco Franco's war for control of Spain. The "Dragon Rapide" was the name of the plane that carried the fascist Generalissimo to Morocco and the beginning of the end of the Republican government in Spain. Plots and counterplots by a seemingly infinite array of militarists plague Spanish politics as Franco gathers his forces together and makes his plans. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

La Corte de Faraon is a romp of a zarzuela ("operetta" is a loose translation) that first appeared in 1910 (original libretto by Guillermo Perrin and Miguel de Palacios, original music by Vicente Lleó). The Pharaoh rewards his victorious general Putifar (Josema Yuste) with a new bride, Lota (Ana Belen), but the general is more intrigued with his own ego on his wedding night, and in the morning he dashes off. Along comes Friar José (Antonio Banderas) with his soulful eyes and innocent sexuality, and Lota aggressively goes after him. He escapes, but when brought before the Queen, she follows Lota's precedent and the poor Friar barely escapes a second time with his virtue intact. (In the original the Friar is none other than Joseph of the colored coat.) In this updated version, the troupe of zarzuela players gets in trouble with the police, and the whole lot of them are hauled in for scandalous behavior. Between the on-stage and off-stage insanity, the singing, the dance numbers, the music, the slapstick, and the slams at censors, police, and political repression -- this zarzuela upholds the tradition of pleasing all types of viewers. Except Franco, that is -- he banned the operetta. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Basque country lies around the Gulf of Biscay, and one of its cities, Bilboa, is the setting for this turgid story of political intrigue. The Basque separatist movement has always been a point of contention in Spanish politics and provides the shady backdrop for this story about Lucas (Omero Antonutti), a Basque newspaper reporter who comes home after a long period in Argentina only to land in the middle of a conflict. He is badly beaten up but continues on to get a job with a newspaper unafraid of reporting on the factions that are a part of the Basque political scene. His lack of temerity, if not discretion, is certain to get him into even more trouble. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Meant to reflect the harsh realities of segments of society in 1960s, Franco-era Spain, this slow-moving, drawn-out story is about a struggling, impoverished family who work on the estate of a wealthy aristocrat. Paco (Alfredo Landa) is the head of his small family who constantly tries to placate his irascible overlords and also teaches them how to hunt birds. His wife Régula (Terele Pávez) is as subservient as Paco. The family is rounded out by a mute, crippled daughter, a son away at military service, and Azarias (Francisco Rabal), an uncle whose mental stability is in question. These individuals are contrasted with Señor Iván (Juan Diego) who rules over them with a detached incomprehension that brands the family as not much different than the animals he hunts. The señor has no compunction about shooting Azarias's pet bird, or forcing Paco to continue with a bird hunt even though he has fallen and broken his leg. Given the insane behavior of the aristocratic Iván, the half-crazy Azarias might be the only one to get through to him on his own level. The 1984 Cannes Film Festival awarded Alfredo Landa and Francisco Rabal a shared "Best Actor" Award for their roles in this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this comedy, an unmarried couple who imagine themselves to be politically very radical, vex their respective genuinely conservative parents by refusing to marry. They are happy enough to receive financial support, though, and after a baby is born to them, they begin to rethink their supposed radical principles. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi