Jose Sazatornil Movies

Hotel Danubio is a remake of José Antonio Nieves Conde's 1955 thriller, Red Fish, and was produced by José Luis Garci as part of a series of remakes of classic Spanish films. The film opens during a violent storm on the "Coast of Death" in 1955, the scene of a crime, and then jumps back in time to show what motivated the crime. Hugo (Santiago Ramos) is a struggling novelist, an older man in love with a pretty showgirl, Ivón (Carmen Morales). Hugo keeps telling Ivón that he plans to marry her as soon as he gets some money together, perhaps when his novel is published. But the prying Ivón finds a bank statement addressed to Hugo's house for someone named "Carlos," who has a lot of money. Suspecting that he's deceiving her, she angrily confronts Hugo. He explains that Carlos is his son, an architecture student, and that the money is Carlos' inheritance from a wealthy aunt who has disowned Hugo. Ivón visits Hugo's apartment, where she is intrigued to find a sexy photo of herself in Carlos' desk drawer. She begins to think that the wealthy young man has a crush on his father's girlfriend. She sends Carlos a note and a ticket to her show, and asks him to meet her. Hugo soon learns that Ivón is pursuing Carlos, and eventually confronts her about it, setting in motion a bold plan to steal the inheritance and salvage their love. Hotel Danubio was written and directed by Antonio Giménez-Rico, and was presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2004 as part of the series Spanish Cinema Now. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Eschewing a realistic depiction of Franco's Spain in the 1940s, director Fernando Trueba uses a touch of sarcastic humor in painting a 16-year-old's brief stay in a TB sanatorium. Manolo (Jorge Sanz) is one of two brothers who ends up in a tuberculosis sanatorium that is specifically designed for somewhat younger children. Manolo's problem is that he is experiencing the first stirrings of sexual desire and cannot look upon the female nurses and staff with the innocent eyes of the other children. His first overtures to one of the nurses meets with rejection; in fact, the nurse leaves the sanatorium. Manolo really asks for trouble when he falls for another pretty nurse and she herself becomes attracted to him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The title of this comedy refers to a section of Madrid known for its posh restaurants. When a German chef chops off his wife's head with a meat cleaver on the last night before the business closes for the season, the owner takes pity on the chef's only child and hides the high-school student in his home. The boy leaves with his pretty math tutor after impregnating his own godmother. The owner throws a lavish dance to end the season, as the chef appears throughout the film seemingly unmolested by the justice system. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Few sacred cows go un-gored in this satirical Spanish movie. In Spain, as in England, instead of getting together over a round of golf, it is customary for the power elite to gather at a country estate for a long weekend of "hunting," which basically consists of standing in one spot shooting at game which is being driven toward the hunters. Between shots, the elite converse. In the story, a Catalan businessman pays an impoverished nobleman for the use of his country estate and its game. He is hosting this party to win the goodwill of a group of investors whom he hopes will back one of his schemes. Sprinkled among the businessmen are some more twisted types, every one of them a genuine aristocrat or the member of some government or other -- even a dictator in exile from his Latin American country. A powerful but disapproving priest surveys the scene with outspoken scorn. When the businessman learns that he has backed the wrong horse, and that a new government is being formed, he scrambles to curry favor with those few of his guests who are part of the next group to come to power. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this comedy, an unmarried couple who imagine themselves to be politically very radical, vex their respective genuinely conservative parents by refusing to marry. They are happy enough to receive financial support, though, and after a baby is born to them, they begin to rethink their supposed radical principles. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi