Eduardo Blanco Movies
- 2008
Suburban ennui manifests itself in a disturbing manner in this black comedy from Spain. Berta (Silvia Marso) and Esteban (Alberto Jimenez) are a couple living in an upscale planned community with their children Oliver (Samuel Viyuela Gonzalez) and Lucia (Andrea Blasco Sierra). While on the surface Berta and Esteban seem happy and successful, in truth they're both suffering from depression, anxiety and loss of sexual appetite, and their children are becoming as neurotic as their folks. One day, a dead bird drops from the sky and lands at Berta's feet; she panics and warns the kids to stay away from the street where it happened, through Oliver sneaks out to rescue the bird's corpse. Living down the street are Hugo (Eduardo Blanco) and Monica (Claudia Fontan), who want their neighbors to think they're wealthy even though they're nearly broke, and while their friends think they've sent their daughter Greta (Ines Aldea) to an exclusive private school in America, she's actually locked up in the house and forbidden to show herself. Birds continue to turn up dead around the neighborhood, and Hugo and Esteban take it upon themselves to find out what's killing them when they aren't busy spying on a pair of teenage girls living close by. Pajaros Muertos (aka Dead Birds) was the first feature film from the sibling directing team of Guillermo Sempere and Jorge Sempere. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eduardo Blanco, Silvia Marso, (more)
- 2007
A woman confronts some surprising issues of gender and justice in this drama from Argentinean filmmaker Antonio Gonzalez-Vigil. Malena (Maria Marull) is a psychiatrist who specializes in feminist issues and how women are often victimized in contemporary society. One evening, Malena sees a man brutally attacking a streetwalker; she comes to the prostitute's aid, and clubs the assailant over the head with a crowbar. Malena soon learns that the streetwalker wasn't actually a woman but a man in drag, and the man attacking her was a well-connected member of the local police department who died from the blows to his head. Malena feels it's her responsibility to break the news to the policeman's wife, but the widow Adriana (Dalia Elnecave) is curiously unmoved, and takes the opportunity to open up about the flaws in their relationship. Naranjo En Flor (aka Flower of Seduction) was an official selection at the 2008 Malaga Spanish Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Eduardo Blanco, Maria Marull, (more)
A dignified mother who is about to become the recipient of some very bad news unexpectedly turns the tables on her recently laid-off son in director Santiago Carlos Oves' award-winning family drama. Jaime is a family man whose wife and two children mean the world to him. His 82-year-old mother has always taken pride in her independence, and when Jaime and his wife Dorita purchase an apartment for Jaime's mother, the aging woman couldn't be happier. Unfortunately Jaime has recently been laid off by his company, and in order to maintain the payments on his beautiful house and support his family, Jaime realizes that he will have to sell the apartment in which his mother currently resides. Upon breaking the news to his mother, however, Jaime soon finds that his own revelation is just the tip of the iceberg, and that dear old mom has some pretty shocking news of her own to share. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A family wedding brings out the best and the worst in the various parties involved in this warm but pointed comedy-drama. Rafael Belvedere (Ricardo Darin) makes his living running the restaurant ran by his father, Nino (Hector Alterio), and the combination of a stressful job and familial tensions are wearing him down to a frazzle. Rafael is divorced from his wife, Sandra (Claudia Fontan), he's all but a stranger to his daughter, Vicky (Gimena Nobile), and it's been almost a year since he last paid a visit to his mother, Norma (Norma Aleandro), who is battling Alzheimer's in a retirement home. Rafael has a girlfriend, Naty (Natalia Verbeke), but after a long day of work and dealing with his father, she finds he rarely wants to do anything but watch old reruns on television. With Norma's health declining, Nino decides that he wants to renew their wedding vows and give his wife the nice church service he couldn't afford when he was younger; however, arranging the affair turns out to be far more complicated than either Rafael or Nino imagined, and the circumstances lead to some profound changes for father, son, and the rest of the family. El Hijo de la Novia was directed by Juan Jose Campanella, who in recent years has been dividing his time between helming feature films in his native Argentina and directing episodic television in America. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ricardo Darín, Héctor Alterio, (more)
