Ernesto Alterio Movies

Fernando Colomo directed this fact-based Spanish comedy-drama about leftist philosophy students Tomas (Jordi Molla) and Jaime (Ernesto Alterio), arrested in 1947 by Francoists and sent away to a Madrid prison for eight years. After their friend Velasco (Pepon Nieto) goes to Paris to enlist the aid of Michel (Samuel Le Bihan), noted for his ability to free political prisoners, Michel's girlfriend Kathy (Hedy Buress) and her actress friend Susan (Allison Smith) are enlisted to assist. Tomas and Jaime mount mules to make their escape and meet up with Kathy and Susan at a monastery, where romance takes flight, followed by darker events once the group moves on to Barcelona. Filmed in northwest Spain. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A wealth of romantic and familial complications face a musician en route to Cuba in the comedy Cuarteto de la Habana. Walther (Ernesto Alterio) is a Spanish jazz musician who gets word from a woman in Havana named Lita (Mirtha Ibarra) that she is his mother, whom he hasn't seen since he was a baby. Walther, excited by the prospect of a family reunion, catches a flight to Cuba, where he meets Segis (Javier Camara), a man who is soon to marry Diana (Laura Ramos). When Walther meets Diana, it's love at first sight, but it turns out there's a hitch -- Diana is Lita's daughter, and though her father was not Walther's father, being half-siblings is still enough to throw a serious spanner into the works. Director Fernando Colomo previously received acclaim for his film The Butterfly Effect. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The life and death of real-life terrorist Dolores Gonzalez helped inspire this troubling political drama. Yoyes (Ana Torrent) is a member of the ETA, a group of Basque terrorists staging political actions in Spain under the leadership of Argi (Inaki Aierra). Yoyes finds herself losing faith in the ETA's cause after Argi dies during a bombing; she soon drops out of terrorism, goes underground, and moves to Mexico, where she goes back to college and receives a Ph.D. A dozen years later, Yoyes travels to Paris when her husband Joxean (Ernesto Alterio) gets a teaching position with a French University. When Joxean decides to visit the Basque regions with their daughter Zurine (Laura Ballesta), Yoyes decides to join them, knowing it puts her at great personal risk. The Spanish government uses Yoyes' return for their own political ends, while her former ETA colleagues falsely believe that her presence there means that she has turned informant in exchange for permission to return home. Yoyes stars Ana Torrent, who first made a name for herself in the mid-1970s as a child actress in El Espiritu de la Colmena and Cria Cuervos. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Noted Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura follows up on his 1999 opus Goya with this wild and woolly reimagining of a 1930s adventure serial from the mind of a surrealist master. The film opens in the present with an aged Luis Buñuel listening to a script pitch about the search for a magical table smuggled from the Ottoman empire to Spain several centuries ago. As the spiel plods on, Buñuel's mind drifts, imagining himself during his prime with his buddies Salvador Dali and Garcia Lorca. The trio search for the missing item of furniture through the winding alleys and sewers of Toledo. Along the way, the actors playing Buñuel, Dali, and Lorca reflect on playing the parts of great artists while engaging in witty banter with one another. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Madrid in the wake of the Spanish Civil War serves as the setting for this epic period romance, starring Leonor Watling of Talk to Her fame. Watling is cast as Elvira, a young woman still reeling from the execution of her father and the imprisonment of her politically outspoken husband, Julio (Ernesto Alterio). Desperate to make ends meet, Elvira takes a position as a maid with the mysterious Pablo (Leonardo Sbaraglia), about whom Elvira's mother-in-law (Norma Aleandro) has serious doubts. It turns out that the half-German Pablo is aiding the escape of several prominent members of the Nazi party, a fact to which Elvira is oblivious when she begins an illicit affair with him. When Julio is released from prison, tensions come to the fore for the extended family and the mysterious outsider among them. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

The Spanish comedy Dias de Futbol (Soccer Days), written and directed by The Other Side of the Bed screenwriter David Serrano, is an ensemble film about an ex-convict. Antonio (Ernesto Alterio) returns to his circle of friends. His associates include Jorge (Alberto San Juan), who is as repressed and fearful as Antonio is outgoing and fearless. Jorge pines for Antonio's sister Violetta (Natalia Verbeke), but she is not inclined to reciprocate those feelings. Antonio feels he knows a thing or two about people having undergone therapy in prison and decides to build up Jorge's self-confidence by forming a soccer team. Among the new teammates are local policeman Miguel (Luis Bermejo), ambitious young actor Charlie (Pere Ponce), and bus driver Ramon (Roberto Alamo). The travails in their personal lives and their coming together as a team form the action in this character-driven vehicle. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The question as to how far a corporate drone would go to land a high-level position at a multinational corporation is explored in Argentinian director Marcelo Piñeyro's back-stabbing boardroom drama that takes its name from a mysterious human-resources strategy imported from the United States as a means of choosing the best man for the job. As the time for a decision draws near, the streets of Madrid are awash with anti-globalization protesters; and the tension between job applicants Carlos (Eduardo Noriega), Nieves (Najwa Nimri), Fernando (Eduard Fernández), Ana (Adriana Ozores), and Enrique (Ernesto Alterio) comes to a head. As the corporate lackeys engage in an increasingly dehumanizing series of psychological games and scorching betrayals, the choice of who will ultimately take the reins of the coveted position will ultimately depend on which applicant is willing to employ the most diabolical techniques of manipulation. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Spanish writer-director Emilio Martínez Lazáro's bawdy musical comedy romance Both Sides of the Bed (Los Dos Lados de la Cama, 2006) constitutes a sequel to that director's earlier musical The Other Side of the Bed (AKA El Otro Lado de la Cama, 2002). Just as that first film plays out the farcical romantic shenanigans of a group of single young men and their lovers, the sequel offers more of the same, but adds greater depth to the proceedings. The story finds Javier (Ernesto Alterio) and Marta (Veronica) celebrating their pending nuptials in a nightclub, on the evening before their wedding. They are accompanied by two friends romantically involved with one another, Pedro (Guillermo Toledo) and the chanteuse Raquel (Lucia Jimenez). The plans of each couple are soon undone by Marta's hesitation - the product of her undeclared lesbianism and carnal involvement with Raquel (evident when the women quietly slip off to the ladies' room and have intercourse). A third friend, Carlota (Pilar Castro), happens to stumble onto the women making it, but says nothing to the boys. The next morning, Marta jilts Javier, Raquel leaves Pedro, and the remainder of the film has the men gradually coming face-to-face with the girls' lesbianism, while forging a deeper bond with Carlota. Throughout the film, Lazáro laces his picture with bubble-gum music (predominantly breezy 1970s and 1980s Spanish pop hits) and electric choreography, performed by an ensemble of twenty dancers. In lieu of employing musical asides, the director integrates the musical numbers into individual scenes. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi