José M. Sacristán Movies

Mario Vargas Llosa: The Biography surveys the life and career of the critically acclaimed novelist. The writers shifting political views are charted, and explained within the context of his upbringing. The filmmakers touch briefly on a variety of his most famous works. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

This Portuguese language comedy is about a very contemporary love triangle. Caterina (Maria de Medeiros) is a beautiful, opportunistic and charming woman, a TV journalist. She pretends to be smitten by a handsome political do-gooder in order to gain an exclusive interview with him. She also uses him to father her baby. However, she is definitely not in love with him. Her true love is her lesbian girlfriend Te (Ana Bustorff). Caterina's pregnancy makes Te feel extremely insecure about their relationship. Caterina has been forced to co-host a program with career rival Francisco (Joaquim de Almeida), which neither she nor Francisco wanted. As their rivalry develops into friendship, Francisco begins to try to woo Caterina and he is not summarily rebuffed by her. This friendship only adds to Te's concerns as the movie goes on to its humorous (but very contemporary) happy ending. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This Spanish comedy set in a Valencia prison, contains political overtones. A promoter decides to organize a gala dinner to pay tribute to the political prisoners. Naturally the media is invited to the event. Every one at the dinner comes with his or her own agenda and it isn't long before anything that can go wrong does go wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

When he sees a motorcycle go over the side of the boardwalk at San Sebastian, crashing onto the beach, Jota goes to see what happened. He discovers that the vehicle was being driven by an attractive young woman. He calls an ambulance and gets onto it with her. When the emergency medical staff discover that she has amnesia, Jota takes advantage of the situation to claim that she's been living with him for the past few years. After she gets out of the hospital, the young woman accompanies him to a camping resort called "The Red Squirrel," and they have a number of adventures involving her obnoxious husband, who has been looking for her, and an equally obnoxious campsite neighbor. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Ismael ( Karra Elejalde) is a thief who, as this thriller opens, is robbing the home of a woman painter. When she unexpectedly returns while he is riffling through her possessions, he kills her without a second thought. At some point as he is escaping the scene, however, he discovers that the painter's daughter has witnessed the whole thing. Ten years later, he spies a young woman (Ana Alvarez) on the streets and feels certain that this is the one woman who could put him into prison. He kidnaps her, only to discover that she is permanently crazed, and has no capacity for doing much. Nonetheless, he keeps her tied up in a bed upstairs, much to the irritation of his girlfriend (Lio), who soon takes matters into her own hands. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This wacky comedy depicts a single day in and around the set of a movie on the Spanish Civil War being filmed in a working class Madrid neighborhood. Paloma, (Ana Belen), a bored housewife with a husband who is too concerned about being exploited by "the ruling classes" to work, must evade the romantic advances of an unattractive fishmonger, and cope with the attentions the male lover of a homosexual fascist is showering on her daughter. Meanwhile, she engages in a tryst with the equally bored fading film star Luis Doncel (Juan Luis Gallardo). Everyone on the set is waiting for the director to show up, but he's too heavily involved in a domestic dispute to work. Meanwhile, a series of strikes has brought Madrid to a virtual standstill. Director/co-writer Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez manages to satirize virtually every aspect of contemporary Spanish society, as well as relationships between the sexes. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The spirit, hopes, and failures of a troupe of itinerant performers in the 1950s create a poignant, humorous leitmotif in this drama by Fernando Fernan-Gomez. The story of the wandering players is told in flashbacks, as Carlos Galvan (Jose M. Sacristan) reminisces about the good times while under therapy with a psychiatrist in a senior citizens' home. Carlos and his lover Juanita (Laura del Sol), his teenage son, his father, and a few other actors try to eke out a living by putting on shows in small towns and villages. No one has very much money, but life is lived to the hilt, and Carlos himself has some pretty tall tales. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This entertaining comedy is set in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War when a group of Republican soldiers sneak into a village in enemy territory to steal a bull with plans of butchering it to feed themselves. Fate and the bull itself, however, have other plans. One of the surreptitious bull-snatchers knows the village well -- he grew up there, but that advantage alone cannot guarantee their success, as it turns out. The group of five would-be thieves dress themselves in uniforms of the Nationalist troops in an attempt to dissimulate their true identity. But instead of a neat getaway with a bull in tow, they are caught up in the "correo" or running of the bull, they get involved in a religious procession, and in the end, watch as the bull breaks out of a flimsy ring in a bullfight and heads for the hills. Still hungry, the group of men now have to worry about getting back to their own battalion before they are found out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This ostensible comedy about the affairs or non-existent affairs of television executive Federico José Sacristán and his actress wife Elena Victoria Abril) is almost as hard to believe as director Manuel Gutiérrez-Aragón's previous effort Feroz. Federico convinces a friend to attempt to seduce his wife in order to test her fidelity. She passes the test, but her husband is not satisfied, and so he asks his boss to seduce her. Events conspire to lead the boss in another direction -- it turns out he is more interested in a transvestite who is actually the secret lover of Federico, and the boss seduces him instead. Meanwhile, Elena is acting in a production of Don Juan in which two of her supposed lovers are playing her lovers -- and the story continues downhill from there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Confusion seems to settle over this drama like dust on a polished surface, until the layers are so thick that nothing is seen clearly any more. Andrés (José Sacristán) goes back to Spain from Mexico because a lawyer has sent for him. Andrés has inherited an enormous piece of property -- an old mansion of a house -- and although his half-brother offers him a good sum of money for the structure, Andrés hesitates. He wants to know more about the circumstances of his father's death which happened when Andrés was six; he is also becoming infatuated with the lawyer's daughter, and some men are threatening him -- men who may or may not be hired by his half-brother. In the end, Andrés fares better than the plot itself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Bernabe (José Sacristán) works as an artistic director for a publicity firm but his avocation is fawning after his bosses, sleeping with whomever might advance his career, and ignoring his wife. Life continues on in this vein until he meets a young model whom he invites up to his boss's temporarily vacant country house, pretending the house belongs to him. Not very far away, bulldozers and other machinery are clearing the beautifully wooded area so construction can start on an amusement park. Little does Bernabe realize that his potential new conquest is a seriously fanatical environmental advocate, and she arrives at the house with friends, gets Bernabe high and "out of it," and then she and her friends proceed to trash the construction machinery. Once Bernabe comes around again, he finds out what has happened, loses heart for his planned sexual escapade, and begins to appreciate his wife for the first time. Life hardly gets any better -- it turns out his long-suffering wife has fallen in love with someone from his office and she has left him. Bernabe should be sufficiently chastened to mend his ways, but will these setbacks, or any setbacks, be enough to alter his behavior? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi