Ángela Molina Movies

A young man who has grown up on the streets wants to do right by his mother -- even as he lives outside the law -- in this stylish action drama from Spain. Ricky (Mario Casas) was only 12 years old when he was left to fend for himself after his mother Pura (Angela Molina) ended up in jail on prostitution charges. Even though she let him down, Ricky is still devoted to his mom as he pedals goods on the street to support himself and lives with a makeshift family that includes Angelito (Vicente Romero), a low-rent pimp; his half-bright sidekick The Kid (Luciano Caceres); Angelito's drug-addicted lover Scrag (Macarena Gomez); and Princess (Damaso Conde), an eccentric cross-dresser convinced she's descended from royalty. Eager to give his mother a better life, Ricky wants to open a brothel that she can run when she's released from prison, and with some help from Angelito and The Kid, he's nearly gotten the illegal business off the ground when he discovers Pura's growing senility would make it impossible for her to run the establishment. Even worse, local gangster El Chino (Dario Grandinetti) doesn't like Ricky giving him competition and demands a huge protection payment if the business is to stay open. Ricky doesn't have the sort of bankroll El Chino demands, so he and his partners make a desperate attempt to raise the cash by kidnapping Veronica (Blanca Suarez), whose father is a powerful but dishonest police detective (Antonio de la Torre). Carne de Néon (aka Neon Flesh) was written and directed by Paco Cabezas, who adapted the story from a short subject he made in 2005. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

As the title implies, Christian Molina's no-prisoners erotic drama takes a head-on plunge into the complex world of a nymphomaniac. Belen Fabra stars as Val, a svelte 28-year-old young woman with an insatiable sexual appetite and a towering level of erotic curiosity, both of which propel her on to one bedroom liaison after another. She spends her days bedding countless lovers and making copulation the centerpiece of her world; in time, Val's obsessions prompt her to build a career out of prostitution and help her find legitimate love with a man. The legendary Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Charles Chaplin and ex-romantic partner of Carlos Saura, contributes a supporting role as Abuela. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

For her sophomore feature, El Triunfo (aka El Triunfo: The Beat of the Streets), filmmaker Mireia Ros (La Moños, 1997) crafts a somewhat gentle, evocative crime drama -- a period piece -- laden with heavy doses of colorful Spanish rumba music and dance, but undergirded with the ever-present threat of orgiastic violence. The narrative unfolds in the mid-'80s, in a nameless Spanish city overruled by thick ethnic gangs of Arabic and African extraction. A quartet of young friends, Nen (Antonio Fernández Montoya), Palito (Cheto), Tostao (Francisco Conde), and addict Topo (Javier Ambrossi), share an impassioned desire to use their gifts for rumba dancing as a vehicle out of potential crime and destitution, and thus, out of the city proper, despite their understanding -- on some level -- that this dream is impossible. Conflict brews when the lead character, Nen, enters a volatile love triangle with local girl Susi (Marieta Orozco), who is romantically entangled with Mediano (Miquel Sitjar) -- a gangster's son with ties to the local syndicate head, Gandhi (Juan Diego). Nen soon gets in over his head with Mediano; however, because Gandhi carries a yen for Nen's mother, Chata (a pub owner abandoned by her husband years earlier), the woman is able to use that attraction as a leverage point to save her son. The boy then uncovers the disturbing truth about the reason behind his father's absence. Ros concludes the film with an uplifting rumba number performed by much of the cast at a nuptial celebration. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Carnage, an example of what the French call un film chorale, tells several intertwining stories. In the central tale, a young second-generation bullfighter, Victor (Julien Lescarret), is gored, and is rushed to the hospital in critical condition. A little girl, Winnie (Raphaëlle Molinier), sits next to a massive Great Dane and watches the fateful bullfight on television, and becomes obsessed with the bull. A university researcher, Jacques (Jacques Gamblin of Safe Conduct), cheats on his massively pregnant wife, Betty (Lio), who hides a critical fact about her pregnancy from him. Jacques' brother, Luc (Bernard Sens), an amateur taxidermist, lives with their mother, Rosie (Esther Gorintin), who loves him, but withholds a family secret. Winnie's teacher, Jeanne (Lucia Sanchez), struggles to understand her neurotic mother, Alicia (Ángela Molina), when she visits. When her car is dented by a shopping cart, Carlotta (Chiara Mastroianni), a struggling actress, meets Alexis (Clovis Cornillac), a suicidal philosopher/skater who offers to lead her to the culprits. Carnage, the debut feature from writer/director Delphine Gleize, won the Sutherland Trophy at the 2002 London Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the 2002 Stockholm Film Festival. It was also shown at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and at Lincoln Center in New York as part of their 2003 Rendez-Vouz with French Cinema. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

A woman finds herself going from having no man in her life to having more suitors than she can handle in this offbeat romantic drama. Rosa (Angela Molina) is an artist in her early forties who is recently divorced and looking for a new relationship. Unfortunately, few immediate prospects are on the horizon, and Rosa spends much of her free time commiserating with her close friend Jaime (Eusebio Poncela), a gay actor her own age. After consulting Andronica (Julieta Serrano), a fortune teller, Rosa is told that relationships with three different men are on the horizon for her, and soon she finds herself falling for Gustavo (Daniel Freire), an architect from Argentina. While in Spain, Gustavo is staying at a hotel run by Greta (Mirtha Ibarra), who is the unwitting center of a web of romantic entanglements; her daughter, Ana (Maria Isasi), is involved with Juan (Enrique Alcides), a delivery boy for a pizza parlor who also has his eye on Rosa, while Greta's ex-husband (Bob Wilson) is also hoping to win Rosa's heart, in his case through poetry. Sagitario was the first feature film from Vicente Molina Foix, a noted novelist and film critic in his native Spain. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

An attorney's reckless personal life catches up with him -- or does it? -- in this whodunit. Valerio Grau (Lino Capolicchio) is a successful lawyer with a secret. For the past ten years, he's been having an affair with Lauretta (Angela Molina), who is also an attorney and also married. One day, Valerio suddenly dies after drinking a cup of poisoned coffee, and Lauretta's husband (Giancarlo Monticelli), a judge, immediately becomes a suspect. Pani (Ivano Marescotti), the city attorney assigned to the case, thinks the judge is the most likely culprit, and hires Piero (Carlo Cecchi), a detective struggling to work past a career embarrassment, to find out what he can about the judge. Piero is assigned to work alongside an assistant magistrate (Rinaldo Rocco) who once worked with Valerio and shares Pani's suspicions, but Piero isn't so certain, and he discovers that Lauretta was not the only "other woman" in Valerio's life. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The troubled career of blacklisted director Herbert Biberman, who endured a considerable struggle to make the 1954 pro-Labor film Salt of the Earth, provides the centerpiece for this historical drama. The film opens at the 1937 Academy Awards, where Biberman's wife, Gale Sondergaard (Greta Scacchi), wins the first ever "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar. Although the anti-Fascist sentiment in her acceptance speech gets her labeled a "commie" by some observers, she and Biberman (played here by Jeff Goldblum) are placed under contract at Warner Bros. Ten years later, with Cold War paranoia growing, a group of predominantly Jewish Hollywood directors -- Biberman, Sondergaard, Danny Kaye, and Dalton Trumbo among them -- are labeled Communists and questioned before Congress. Refusing to name names, Biberman is thrown in prison for six months; his wife's similar refusal to testify severely threatened her career as well. After his release from prison, Biberman, no longer able to work in Hollywood, strikes out on his own with other blacklistees, producer Paul Jarrico (John Sessions) and writer Michael Wilson (Geraint Wyn Davies), to make Salt of the Earth. Biberman's production is far from easy, however, as it comes under attack from both the FBI and redneck vigilantes. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Argentine director Alejando Agresti directed this surreal, allegorical Argentine-French-Dutch- Spanish comedy-drama. Winner of the "Golden Shell Grand Prize" at the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival, the absurdist tale is set during the '70s. Young Buenos Aires cabdriver Soledad (Vera Fogwill), tired of fending off molesting passengers and dealing with her exploitative boss, keeps driving her cab straight out of the city and into the mountains, arriving at a remote and dusty Patagonian village, Rio Pico. The town's only contact with the outside world is a cinema which shows film reels out of sequence or upside-down -- as referenced in the title's reversal of Gone With the Wind. This has impacted on local inhabitants, causing them to speak in non sequiturs. Soledad checks into an inn run by Doña Maria (Angela Molina), and when locals find out she was a journalism student, they ask her to host their newsreels about life in Rio Pico. Her new job as news anchor leads to a romance with film critic Pedro (Fabian Vena). Doña Marie finds love blossoming when faded French film star Edgar Wexley (Jean Rochefort) arrives in town as a result of massive amounts of fan mail. Village scientist Antonio (Ulises Dumont) makes regular jaunts to Buenos Aires with his discoveries (such as the theory of relativity), only to be told these were previously discovered in earlier decades. Change comes to Rio Pico when electricity and television arrive, and the town's magical, idiosyncratic appeal begins to fade. Also shown at the 1998 Chicago Film Festival. Spanish and French dialogue. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

One might consider this violent adaptation of the classical Greek tragedy as Sophocles with a South American twist. Set amidst the rebel wars (representing the Theban plagues) of contemporary Colombia, Mayor Edipo (Oedipus) must mediate a peace deal between conflicting guerrilla groups and the army. It is raining when he leaves. His journey is interrupted when he gets into a shoot out on a lonely bridge. Returning fire, Edipo somehow escapes. As soon as he gets to town he hears that a prominent leader, Layo was brutally slain. No one knows who shot him. Meanwhile a blind seer wanders town making dire prophecies concerning Edipo's future. It is he who tells the mayor that Layo was murdered by a family member. Edipo's fate is sealed when he gets involved with the beautiful and much older Yocasta, a woman who last had sex thirty years before with her husband Layo. She got pregnant and bore a son... Tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Ema (Angela Molina) shares a home with Jorge (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), a college instructor. She herself is a scholar, and may soon be moving to Boston to study, if her grant comes through. Meanwhile, she and Jorge are talking of getting married. One day, they come home to discover a young punkster, Ernesto, calmly sitting in their home, just as if he belonged there. Ema's all for throwing the bum out, but Jorge finds his presumption fascinating. It is almost the last straw when Ernesto brings his girlfriend over to stay as well, but then things get really dicey: Jorge appears to be losing his mind. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Although he was once a colonel in Argentina, the principal character in this film is now a wealthy exile living in Paris with his beloved wife, who has been unable to bear children. To fill this void in their lives, he feeds and clothes abandoned children, raising them in his mansion as if they were his own. As would never be the case in real life today, in this fantasized story set in 1925, no one objects to this behavior, and they live pleasantly and enjoyably together. Things grow considerably more animated when a stage magician places his very attractive daughter in the colonel's household, which stirs a lively romantic interest from his boys and from the great man himself. This amiable international production is based on a novel by Jules Supervielle and features performances from three of Europe's best known actors, Marcello Mastroianni, Angela Molina and Michel Piccoli. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The name of mystery writer Edgar Neville may be relatively unknown in the U.S., but his novels have been the source for quite a number of films made in Europe. In this humorous story, set in Madrid, a woman (Angela Molina) standing in the rain is offered rides from two different cars. Either ride she takes will change her life significantly. At this point, the movie backs up and a narrator explains that from here on, the movie will explore both possible fates. The first car is being driven by a wealthy goofball (Imanol Arias) who is considerably older than the woman. If she gets in his car, she will marry him. The second car is being driven by an artist (Antonio Banderas) whom she is attracted to. Oddly, she still winds up marrying the rich guy, but when he dies of a heart attack, she can now look up the artist. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Guerilla wars against the major powers have been a factor in Central American politics for a long time. This biographical drama is based on the life of Nicaragua's prototypical 20th century guerilla, Augusto C. Sandino (born as Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino). His name and life were the inspiration for the anti-U.S. forces in that country fifty years after his death: they called themselves the Sandanistas. It is helpful to remember, and this movie demonstrates, that the U.S. military has been actively involved with the domestic politics of Nicaragua many times in this century, most notably during the 1912 invasion which resulted in over twenty continuous years of U.S. military intervention. In the story, Sandino loves two women: his wife, who remains at home, and his warlike mistress, a guerilla who accompanies him into the jungle. He has a tendency (common at the time) of wanting to trust politicians. As a result, he was betrayed by Anastasio Somoza in 1933, and vanished from sight. Somoza soon became the sole ruler of Nicaragua (from 1936 to 1956). The free-thinking rebel, who renamed himself Augusto César Sandino in the late 1920s, identified strongly with the indios or indigenous people of the region, and proposed a political agenda under which the countries of the Central America would unite against European exploitation. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi