Amparo Muñoz Movies
Gerardo Chijona directs this screwball comedy hailing from Cuba. Macho truck driver Candido (Enrique Molina) forbids his drop-dead gorgeous daughter Sissy (Thais Valdes) to become a dancer at Havana's hippest club, the Tropicana, though she does so anyway. On the job, Candido accidentally smashes into hunky biker Sergito (Vladimir Cruz) who has a star-shaped mole on his butt, just like Candido. Out of guilt, he brings Sergito home to recuperate. Though Sissy is more than delighted at having this injured Adonis lollygagging about the house, Candido's buddy Promedio (Litico Rodriguez) fears a potential sexual encounter. As all of this is going on, Candido's arch-nemesis Armando (Santiago Alfonso), a choreographer at the Tropicana, tries to strike vengeance by seducing Sissy. When she rebuffs the creep, she is demoted to chorus girl. As the film progresses, subplots are layered upon subplots until the film's delirious denouement. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alicia Bustamante
- 1996
This is a quirky drama/fantasy about a deeply twisted young woman, Azucena (Mercedes Ortega), and her progress from religious mania to a relationship with a peculiar young man who is as seriously warped by his own past as she is by hers. Azucena grew up watching her mother, a prostitute, having sex with her customers. Now grown, she finds the idea of sex intensely repulsive and is an extremely devout Catholic. After escaping a rape attempt by one of her few male friends, Cesar (Miguel Alonso), she has a vision of the Virgin, who tells her to go to a certain nightclub. There she meets Narciso (Gustavo Salmeron), a muscular, handsome transvestite. Narciso's parents, among other things, require him to wear women's underwear. Azucena and Narciso get along quite well. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1996
In this Spanish language film, we are taken to the touching 55th birthday celebration of paterfamilias Santiago (Juan L. Galliardo). Among those attending are his wife Carmen (Amparo Munoz), his brother Ventura (Chete Lera) and Ventura's wife Sole (Agata Lys), and his children. As the film develops, we discover that all these people are actors whom Santiago has hired to ease him over the loneliness of this moment in his life. The imposture is particularly evident when Santiago is quizzing some of the actors to make sure they remember their parts properly. Things become tense when someone who knows Santiago slightly and is unaware of the day's impostures comes by and compliments him on the normality of his family life. There is yet more tension when Santiago beds Carmen, who is in reality Ventura's wife. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This routine, dark melodrama features the downward slide of Daniel (Antonio Canto), a respectable young man who is transformed by his single-minded, blind pursuit of Helena, an attractive older woman (Amparo Munoz). After Daniel breaks his jaw in an accident (and therefore cannot speak much), he is partially cut off from those around him. Whether for that reason or another, he turns his back on his daily life to chase after Helena once they have met. His neurotic pursuit of the woman takes him into a demi-monde of profligates and decadence, a downward spiral that seems destined to end in tragedy unless he can pull himself out in time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Canto, Amparo Muñoz, (more)
- 1986
Film noir and comedy are successfully thrown together in this off-beat story about Germain (Antonio Resines), a stage producer trying to put together the two leads and backing for his next drama. Germain is looking for a man to play a psychotic obsessed with his mother and a woman to play a seductress. For the male lead he finds Rufo (Imanol Arias) who depends on robbery for a living, takes care of his drug-addict mother, and has hallucinatory visions about the Pope. The female lead has three contenders: Germain's ex-girlfriend Nena (Amparo Munoz), his ex-wife Amelia (Assumpta Serna), and Lola (Patricia Adriani) a beguiling vamp he met in a taxi one day. Germain soon finds that casting can be a nightmare when Nena's husband (his potential backer) lusts after Lola, Nena has her amorous sights set on Rufo, and Germain's ex-wife Amelia runs after a soccer player. Add in a murder, and absurdity rules the day. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Imanol Arias, Amparo Muñoz, (more)
- 1985
In this standard tale of crime and deception, an innocent postman (Antonio Resines) is duped into carrying drugs into the country (Spain) by a woman who takes advantage of him in more ways than one. She is, in a sense, a "Mate Hari," a woman who drinks so much of the popular Argentine beverage mate, that she is nicknamed the "queen" of that drink. Her cohorts also take advantage of the poor postman -- he is variously cajoled and threatened and robbed of some of his own profits. Long-standing cliches of Latinos as seen from the viewpoint of Spaniards make these low-life South Americans thickly accented and prone to break out in a tango at the slightest provocation -- though they are supposed to be from Argentina after all. The inevitable accounting eventually comes, as might be expected.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Muñoz, Antonio Resines, (more)
- 1984
Using the viewpoint of real school children slowly finding out about Federico García Lorca, director Jaime Camino unveils the life, literary works, and personality of Spain's great writer, tragically murdered by the gunfire of fascist soldiers in 1936 when he was only 38 years old. Just as important as the loss of García Lorca is the fact that the school children are not too clear on who he was or why there was a Civil War in 1936 -- both are vague and unfamiliar topics. A re-enactment of the poet's murder is shocking in its brutality, all the more so once Camino has provided excerpts from the poet's dramas and verse, and his genius and sensitivity are brought home. Included in this informative documentary are scenes from Granada, where García Lorca was born, and of places he knew well, such as New York City and Seville, with a recollection of the Spain of his day provided through old newsreels and photographs. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Luis Gómez, Amparo Muñoz, (more)
- 1982
In this movie with a title that refers to putting off an important discussion ("we'll talk tonight, dear"), a major fault line running right under a newly-constructed nuclear power plant is the "important discussion" that needs attending. The head engineer at the plant warns its director of the danger, but the director has other things to do with his time. He does not want to ruin his company's future and his own chances for promotion with a scary scenario of a disaster that may never happen, so instead, he focuses on his love life. He is a classic macho with priorities that run to the bedroom rather than the boardroom. He has a homosexual son who clearly needs some more attention, and his woman of the moment loves him even as his integrity is lying inert on a dung heap. Meanwhile, his friend the company engineer is tormented by the potential for disaster at the soon-to-be inaugurated power plant, but there seems to be very little that he can do about it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Muñoz
- 1981
A waiter (Amparo Munoz) with the personality of a house plant but not quite that intelligent, gets by on his good looks as he enjoys the favors of women. A duchess lands him a job as a gardener in the palatial spread of one of the ministers of Adolfo Suarez (Prime Minister in Spain at this time). The wife of the minister (impotent himself) seduces the mindless gardener, and apparently finds something lacking because then she goes after the minister's secretary. Unbeknownest to her, the gardener has just converted her into a budding mother. Meanwhile, terrorists decide to kidnap the gardener as a kind of bait (or practice run) for kidnapping the minister. Although it is not revealed until later, the secretary is in league with the terrorists, but then so is the minister. The whole lot of them, in fact, is really controlled by an international ring of corporate types promoting the use of nuclear energy. In brief, an impotent, secretly terrorist minister with a pregnant wife, stupid yet randy gardener, and lesbian, terrorist secretary is running part of the Spanish government, apparently about to be taken over by nuclear energy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Muñoz, Simon Andreu, (more)
- 1981
The story of Sister Patrocinio, the "Nun of the Wounds" is told in a series of flashbacks to life in Madrid in the 1830s, when she lived. The government had just changed over into the more liberal hands of Mendizabal, and Sister Patrocinio was so worried about the broad-minded attitudes of the times that she surrepticiously inflicted wounds on herself like those Christ had suffered, implying there was some sort of miracle at work to get the people believing as they should once again. The deceptive Sister is played by a former Miss Spain, Amparo Munoz, who it is assumed, would be worth looking at wounded or not. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Muñoz, Fernando Rey, (more)
- 1980
A mix of characters and actions create only a semblance of a plot in this confusing tale of intrigue, undefined crimes, and incest. A newspaper reporter is working on a story about a criminal serving time in jail. He interviews the prisoner, has an affair with the criminal's daughter, and also spends some time in bed with his editor's wife. His amorous life is an adjunct to his searching out the details of the prisoner's case -- though tragedy strikes before the journalist can wrap everything up. In the meantime, it becomes clear that the daughter and imprisoned father had an incestuous relationship, raising more questions than answers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Luis Gómez, Luis Politti, (more)
- 1979
- R
For the Spanish Mama Turns a Hundred, director Carlos Saura reassembles many of his cast members from his 1972 Anna and the Wolves. As Mama reaches the century mark, her wolf-pack relatives go fang and claw after currying her favor in hopes of a large legacy. The film is set during the Franco regime, permitting Saura to use his greedy family as a microcosm of all that had gone bad in Spain since the Civil War. Though potentially grim, Mama Turns a Hundred is essentially a comedy, though many of the laughs are of the "shock of recognition" variety, especially for those who've come from a similarly avaricious family. The film was originally released as Mama Cumple Cien Anos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin, Amparo Muñoz, (more)
