Adriana Roel Movies

Poverty-stricken women struggle with hardships at the lowest levels of Mexican society in this low-budget drama. Middle-aged Esperanza (Adriana Roel) has a mute son, two daughters, and an abusive husband. Esperanza and her friend Nicolasa (Angelica Aragon) recall past dreams and desires, before they were confronted by economic realities. Begun in 1987, this film was halted by a different incoming administration at IMCINE (Mexican Institute of Cinematography) but eventually completed in 1994. Shown at the 1998 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In this Mexican film, Don Gus (Ignacio Lopez Tarso) is a bureaucrat whose conscience bothers him whenever he sees anyone giving or taking a bribe (mordida in Spanish). The measures he takes to deal with this cause his wife endless anxiety and concern. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A land-owning aristocrat's daughter has gotten pregnant. Her boyfriend deserts her when she refuses an abortion, and her father plans to kill the baby. The family's longtime nurse knows all this, of course, and she steals the baby away to her faraway village. Years later, when the baby has become a doctor, he unknowingly returns to the town of his birth. He stumbles across clues to his origins and begins to investigate. This Mexican-made Spanish language anti-abortion film has been dubbed into English. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A movie about a popular singer's painful search for her lost son, with songs by Lamarque and Lico. ~ Rovi

Two of the most beautiful women in the European cinema of the 1960s -- Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau -- team up under the direction of Louis Malle in this engaging comedy/adventure. Maria Fitzgerald O'Malley (Bardot) is the daughter of an Irish political dissident who has traveled to Latin America with her father to take part in an anarchist political uprising. When her father is killed, Maria, left to her own devices, happens upon a traveling circus, where she strikes up a friendship with one of the performers, also named Maria (Moreau). Maria O'Malley joins up with the carnival, and she works up a dance routine with Maria; the act is a smash hit, especially after the Irish Maria accidentally loses part of her costume during a performance. Despite their success, the two Marias find themselves increasingly distressed with the poverty and brutality of the peasants' lives, and they soon decide to use their talents in support of revolutionary leader Flores (George Hamilton). Viva Maria!'s original ending was trimmed slightly for its American release, but the complete version was later released in the United States on DVD. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Julio Álemán stars in this fast-paced, often violent tragedy based on a true incident involving three young delinquents. The tale is directed byLuis Alcoriza, well known as a screenwriter for Luis Buñuel in films like Los Olvidados. Everything begins when two youths with nothing constructive on their minds decide to form a gang and go about terrorizing young couples. During one such episode, the female victim becomes attracted to the leader of the gang and so an odd, on-the-edge relationship begins. Now the group of three steal a car in Mexico City and take it joy-riding to Guadalajara where a suspicious used car salesman calls the police after they try to sell him the car. Desperate and with nowhere to turn, the trio have every reason to be frightened because the police have orders to shoot them on sight. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi