Carmen Maura Movies
Carmen Maura is a giant of Spanish cinema, a woman who has won numerous international awards for her work. Once the celebrated host of a Spanish television show, El Noche, and cabaret artist, Carmen Maura's star as a queen of cinema rose with that of Pedro Almodóvar.Maura began her film career in 1970, turning in great performances in films such as The Man in Hiding (1970); Fernando Colomo's Paper Tigers (1977); and Carlos Saura's 1978 film Blindfolded Eyes. The actress appeared in Almodóvar's very first film, Pepi, Luci, Bom, in 1980. Their collaboration lasted through seven films, including What Have I Done to Deserve This? and Dark Habits, both made in 1984, and The Law of Desire (1986). In the process, Maura showed the range of her abilities, as she portrayed the unusual characters that Almodóvar favors, such as a lesbian nun and a transsexual actress involved in a love triangle with her brother, played by Antonio Banderas. The two worked again in an Almodóvar vehicle that was destined to catapult them all to international stardom. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was released in 1988. The film won numerous awards, launched Banderos' career in America, and led Carmen Maura to the winners' circle for the European Film Award for Best Actress.
Her starring role as Pepa contains all the classic elements of an Almodóvar film. She is a strong and capable woman, in distress at her lover's impersonal bet, as he breaks up with her via a note and her answering machine. Her current condition of pregnancy makes his sudden departure all the more upsetting. As she teeters on the brink of insanity, her world is invaded by others vying for her time and attention at a most inopportune time: she is preparing to take her own life. Maura's gifts for comedy and pathos are evident in the hilarious scene in her apartment in which she tends to the needs of others, notably played by Banderos, Rossy de Palma, and Maria Barranco, while coming to terms with her own predicament. Almodóvar, always the admirer of the strength of women, has Pepa discovering that very fact for herself. By giving her compassion generously to others, she saves herself and is ready to face life once more.
Maura won the European Film Festival Best Actress award again in 1990 for her title role in Saura's Ay, Carmela!, with her riveting performance as an entertainer during the Spanish Civil War. Among her noteworthy contributions to cinema in the '90s were her characterizations in Happiness Is in the Field, directed by Etienne Chatiliez, in 1995; Téchiné's Alice and Martin (1998); and Common Wealth (2000), the latest film from Alex de la Eglesia. The luminous Carmen Maura is still going strong in the 21st century, having completed work in Eva Lesmes' The Hold-Up in 2001. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi
- 1981
In the three days before an operation on the cancer that is threatening to kill her, a film director (Mercedes Sampietro) remembers a few of the most poignant and meaningful relationships and dreams of her life. The premise for this partially autobiographical movie was taken from the real-life dilemma of the actual director, Pilar Miro. Miro had to undergo dangerous open-heart surgery and used her own experience to co-write the screenplay for Gary Cooper, Who Art in Heaven. In the film, the director's romantic involvement with a journalist and an art student, as well as how she views the results of those relationships, are aspects of her life that get careful scrutiny. A photograph of Gary Cooper just before he died brings mortality sharply into focus for her, hence the title of the film. She also considers her ambitions, dreams that may no longer have time to come true -- and wonders if they ever had a chance anyway. As the surgery approaches, the director's own pessimism colors her view of the life she has spent until that moment. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mercedes Sampietro, Jon Finch, (more)
- 1980
An outrageous comedy that throws viewers into a culture shock. A suggestive satire about women who ignore society's rules. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Carmen Maura, Eva Siva, (more)
- 1980
In this scary Spanish thriller, a young girl's husband rents her a lovely home just outside of Madrid so she can spend the last three months of her pregnancy in peace and luxury. Unfortunately, just as they arrive at the home, the girl realizes that it is the place where she had secretly had an illegal abortion five years before. The clinic is long-gone, but this doesn't ease the woman's disquiet. Things get even worse when she learns that her upstairs neighbor is the old abortionist's assistant. This woman has gone insane and keeps all the abortion tools and jars full of fetuses in the attic. In the end, the assistant loses all reason and tries to destroy the pregnant girl and the home. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Javier Escriva, Silvia Aguila, (more)
- 1980
One man's inability to develop any serious, committed relationships with women is the focus of this standard romantic drama by Fernando Mendez-Leite. Pedro (Xabier Elorriaga) teaches literature in an all girls school and is clearly dedicated to his profession. After he meets Aurora (Marilina Ross) at a party, she turns out to be more than he can emotionally handle. An Argentinian exile, Aurora has all the passion that Pedro seems to have missed in his life. Deciding he would rather switch than change, Pedro goes looking for other women, but in all the wrong places. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Xavier Elorriaga, Marilina Ross, (more)
- 1978
While attending an international conference which seeks to reduce the incidence of the use of torture by nations around the globe, a movie director (Jose Luis Gomez) encounters a woman (Geraldine Chaplin) whom he decides to cast in a play about state torture. As events proceed, he and the woman, the wife of a dentist, become lovers. All along, however, right-wing types have been persecuting, and the whole endeavor goes sour. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin, José Luis Gómez, (more)
- 1977
In this non-narrative film, a salesgirl becomes embroiled in a lengthy discussion with a soldier and a film director. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Kiti Manver, (more)
- 1977
When Generalissimo Francisco Franco relinquished power and then died in 1975, Spain had lived with him as its leader for so long that everyone in the country (even his opponents) felt his absence keenly. An era had ended and a new one begun. At the same time, some serious partying could begin, and Spain could finally rejoin Europe as a modern country. This film marks two important debuts: for Carmen Maura as a screen actress, and for the director, Fernando Colomo. In this film, a trio of people involved in an amicable love triangle explore their new sense of freedom after Franco's departure by attending political rallies, taking drugs, and discussing philosophy, and partying with their equally disoriented friends. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carmen Maura
- 1976
Teresa (Ana Belen) is an aristocrat's daughter and doesn't give a fig for the lives of mere servants. However, she is erotically drawn to one of her servant's sons, and that is not something she will ever ignore. On the night of a party celebrating her betrothal to another aristocrat, she lures the boy into her room and indulges in frenzied lovemaking with him. In the hubbub and confusion, he hits his head on a bedpost and dies. She entices yet another into her room and induces him to help her get the boy's body to the lake, whereupon she kills her helper and returns to the party looking like the cat that swallowed the canary. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Frederic de Pasquale, (more)
- 1970
A man withdraws from society by staying in his attic for thirty years in this symbolic feature of isolation. His wife and daughter live in the house and remain his only contact to the outside world. He emerges after three decades to find himself completely incapable of acting or thinking as he did before his self imposed isolation ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yelena Samarina, Julieta Serrano, (more)
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