Verónica Forqué Movies

Actors and egos are lampooned in this witty satire written and directed by Spanish filmmaker Joaquin Oristrell. Isabel (Veronica Forque) is a popular acting teacher running a school in Madrid. One day, she runs across a script written by famed film director Mario Fabra (Daniel Jimenez Cacho). As she reads it, she realizes that the script is about a brief but unforgettable fling she had with the filmmaker 21 years previous. She promptly calls up Mario and arranges lunch. Their reunion is nervous and awkward as if their ardor has not cooled one whit in spite of the fact that each is involved with someone else -- Isabel is dating a younger acting coach named Alberto (Jorge Sanz) while Mario is with a beautiful though neurotic TV star named Cecilia (Candela Pena). For his latest film, Mario is looking for fresh faces and asks Isabel to line up some of her better students for an audition. Soon everyone in the school is preparing scenes from theater's canon of masterpieces, from Hamlet to Oedipus. In the process, actors clash and egos inflate. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

In 1970, a dysfunctional family spends the summer in Ibiza on the southern coast of Spain. Julia (Veronica Forque) is married to adulterous Fernando (Antonio Resines), who departs when he's caught in the act by Julia. Julia's two daughters Elena (Maria Adamez) and Veronica (Silvia Abascal) are both attracted to hippie Ezequiel (Fele Martinez). Meanwhile, Julia's eldest son Cucho (Pepon Nieto) falls for free-spirited Susi (Clara Sanchis). Julia attempts to keep her family together amid the hedonistic lifestyles of the '70s. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Amor Porpio tells the tale of a woman whose life turns upside-down after her banker husbands disappears with a large sum of money from his company. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Two wild-living sex workers have to disguise themselves as pillars of the community for the sake of their families in this outrageous comedy from Spain. Gloria (Veronica Forque) is an exotic dancer, who, to her initial dismay, is given a new performing partner at the club where she works -- Manu (Jorge Sanz), a handsome young man, who, unfortunately, has precious little dancing experience. Manu comes from a prominent and respectable family, but thinks dancing would be fun, and a simple way to make some money. Despite a rocky start, Gloria and Manu get to be good friends, and he responds well when she shows him the ropes of their new routines. Eventually, Gloria and Manu end up sharing a flat, but when Manu's parents announce they're going to pay a visit, he and Gloria have to transform themselves from a pair of libertines into a normal middle-class couple practically overnight. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

According to Spanish legend, every All Souls Eve, the ghost of the legendary lover Don Juan Tenorio rises up from purgatory to walk the earth in hopes of doing the single good deed necessary for him to be freed from limbo. Unfortunately, though Don Juan has risen 450 times since his death, he has yet to succeed. This erotic Spanish comedy begins on the last day in October in 1990 and chronicles the great lover's latest try. Though times keep changing, Don Juan's distinctive garb does not and he seems out of place on the streets of modern Seville. Luckily, he stumbles across a local production of the play Don Juan. The temperamental actor happens to look just like the real Don Juan and a mix-up leads to the real McCoy playing himself on stage. The other cast members are puzzled at the sudden change in the lead actor from arrogant, egotistical cad to amiable charmer. He goes on to give a stunning performance. Meanwhile, the actor gets his own comeuppance at the hands of a beautiful robber. Things really get to hopping later in the evening at the cast party when both the actor and the real Don are there at the same time. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Chusa is a fashionable and party-loving denizen of modern-day Madrid. Some of her flashy lifestyle is paid for by her amateur hashish-smuggling operation. Like many others, she often flies down to Morocco to score some of this marijuana-derived drug and then smuggles it back in various places on her body. She would like to smuggle more but needs a reliable courier. One candidate for the operation is Elena, an old friend of hers. However, there is just one problem: Elena is a virgin, and at least one of her body orifices won't accommodate much of the drug. Chusa asks her policeman boyfriend to help Elena past this handicap, and he reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately for her, the two friends become much friendlier than she had intended, and soon she is on her own, her smuggling plans in a shambles. When she gets to Morocco, she experiences even more setbacks. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A German television director is sent to Spain to cover the 50th anniversary of the Spanish Civil war in this plodding drama. He spends most of his time passing time that has nothing to do with his assigned project. Documentary footage of the war is shown and no new insights are given during the director's half-hearted research of a historical event about which he knows next to nothing. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Eschewing a realistic depiction of Franco's Spain in the 1940s, director Fernando Trueba uses a touch of sarcastic humor in painting a 16-year-old's brief stay in a TB sanatorium. Manolo (Jorge Sanz) is one of two brothers who ends up in a tuberculosis sanatorium that is specifically designed for somewhat younger children. Manolo's problem is that he is experiencing the first stirrings of sexual desire and cannot look upon the female nurses and staff with the innocent eyes of the other children. His first overtures to one of the nurses meets with rejection; in fact, the nurse leaves the sanatorium. Manolo really asks for trouble when he falls for another pretty nurse and she herself becomes attracted to him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this conventional comedy of manners, two men in the publishing business run into trouble both in the boardroom and in the bedroom. Their venture is starting to run out of black ink, and one of them is very suspicious of his wife's loyalties. Add in a right-wing author of children's stories, a hooker, a secretary driven to her wits' end (not a long journey), and the stage is set for comedy -- if only the script would follow suit. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In this non-narrative film by first-time director Rafael Gordon, a young limousine driver and his friends discuss their qualms about the society they live in, while they drift from situation to situation. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Told from a four-year-old's perspective, this film explores one day in the life of Quico (Lolo Garcia), the child of a middle-class Madrid family. His adored father (Hector Alterio) fought with Franco's troops against the Republicans, and never tires of telling the boy stories of his exploits. Among the toddler's many endearing pranks on that day alone, he pretends to have swallowed a needle, floods the bathroom by stopping up the toilet, and generally misinterprets everything he hears to fit what he is able to understand. Meanwhile, the boy also sees and understands a great deal more than the grown-ups around him would be happy knowing about: such as that his parents aren't getting along and that the maid has a lover. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A young inquisitor is assigned to investigate the near-fatal accident of the Spanish Inquisitor General at a royal palace. Suspicion swifly falls on a washerwoman and her mother, and despite the young man's best efforts (for he has fallen in love with the mother), he cannot save them. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi