Gonzalo Vega Movies
- 2010
After the wreckage of an alien spacecraft is found on Earth, a paranormal specialist named Mariel and her elite task force investigate the event and also what might happen next, as the crash comes with a message of impending doom for humanity. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alejandra Barros, Manuel Balbi, (more)
Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Priego directs the romantic drama The Truce, the second filmed adaptation of the novel by Mario Benedetti. Gonzalo Vega stars as a fiftysomething widower living in Vera Cruz with a high position in a shipping company. Just when he's thinking about retiring, he meets the conventionally attractive young secretary Laura (Adriana Fonseca). He falls in love with her and she convinces him that life is worth living. Only then is he able to connect with his college student daughter (Maité Embil), sleazy older son (Arath de la Torre), and gay younger son (Rodrigo Vidal). The Truce was shown at the 2003 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gonzalo Vega, Adriana Fonseca, (more)
Five women from wildly divergent backgrounds find themselves swapping views on feminism, politics, and culture in this talky ensemble drama. Magdalena (Diana Bracho) is the coordinator of Mexico City's Latin American Women's Film Festival, and she's brought together five women to review and rate the year's entries. Joan (Geraldine Chaplin) is a lesbian film writer from New York whose views on the cinema are just as extreme as her position on gender politics. Maruja (Ana Torrent) is a mainstream film producer from Spain. Mariana (Carmen Montejo) is a veteran filmmaker whose career broke new ground for women in the Latin American film industry. Balsher (Carola Reyna) is a political filmmaker exiled from her native land. And Julia (Haydee de Lev) is a woman from Uruguay who has spent nearly a decade and a half in prison. As the women gather to watch a variety of different films made by women, they often find themselves arguing about the issues raised by the films and about how they impact women and society as a whole. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carola Reyna, Geraldine Chaplin, (more)
- 1994
This Spanish film, shot in the lovely Huesca region, pokes gentle fun at the showbiz aspirations of five monks in a lonely monastery. When the grouchy old screenwriter cannot meet his deadline for the script for a new and already dull movie, he and his partner end up sequestered in a Spanish monastery. The five monks cannot help but add their two pesos worth every chance they get. The screenwriter also finds unwanted advice from the town baker who believes the script, which was set in 19th-century Scotland and written for Sean Connery, would be more interesting if it were a modern Spanish story with local settings. The baker, a pretty young woman, has many great ideas for the film. She, the screenwriter and his partner end up in a triangle that parallels the triangle in the story. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fernando Rey, Maribel Verdú, (more)
This dreamy and somewhat improbable tale set in the Mexican countryside has been compared with the fantasy-laden social satires of (Luis Bunuel). Not coincidentally, the director of this film, Luis Alcoriza has worked with Bunuel. In the story, Candelario (Gonzalo Vega), a rugged unemployed man, calls on Don Lazaro (Ernesto Gomez Cruz) the owner of a farm estate, and asks for a place to stay in return for his labors. Extremely capable, before too long, he has been given responsibility for the management of the farm. The owner's wife Chabela (Marla Rojo), finds Candelario appealing, and they are soon embroiled in a romance. When the Don Lazaro attempts to put an end to this dalliance, he suffers an accident which diminishes his mental age to that of a child. The drifter has become the new patrone, and is accepted as such by all around him. This is not much to his liking, and before long he takes off again. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gonzalo Vega, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, (more)
A terrifying drama about a deranged killer on the loose set inside an apartment building, the story starts with a mild-mannered, part-time clarinetist for the local church. He has a hair fetish and has filled his closet with ponytails and braids from women who were sure his razor was the last thing they would see before having their throat slashed. In the same building a young wife is kept locked at home by a jealous husband who is convinced she could not remain faithful to him any other way. The moment she gets out (in hope of finding someone else), she comes across the clarinetist who has killed someone this time -- and she must run for her life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gonzalo Vega, Maribel Guardia, (more)
- 1983
Director José Luis García Agraz, an independent filmmaker, opens this fast-paced drama with a murder and in flashbacks tells the story of how the assassin, Rodrigo Saracho (Gonzalo Vega) was caught in circumstances slightly beyond his control and left with no way out except to descend further and further down the moral scale. The man remembers how he began as an aspiring boxer in Mexico City, innocent of the seamier side of the ring, and how crime bosses slowly involve him first in a few "minor" transgressions, such as throwing a fight, and then in ever-more-serious criminal activity. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gonzalo Vega, Blanca Guerra, (more)
In this French-Mexican-Spanish film that hops back and forth between the narration's present and its past, viewers watch Antonieta (Isabelle Adjani) as she is involved in the turbulent Mexican political scene in the first decades of the 20th century -- as she goes to Paris and commits suicide in the Notre Dame cathedral of that city, and then, in a confusing segment of the film, as she is seen with the present-day Parisian author (Hanna Schygulla) who is researching the story of Antonieta's death and who is a witness to her suicide. The film does not follow that chronology exactly, rather introducing the Parisian author first, and taking the author to Mexico for her research where she sees film clips from the political turmoil of the 1910s-1920s and gradually gets to "know" Antonieta -- though in the end, it could be said that no one seems to know Antonieta really well, or why she would want to kill herself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Isabelle Adjani, Hanna Schygulla, (more)
- 1980
- R
In this youthful adventure, six adolescents head for a vacation in Arizona and end up stranded in the desert after their car crashes. They decide to hike to the closest town. En route they encounter drug smugglers who are willing to kill to keep their location a secret. Bloody mayhem ensues as the young people try to flee for safety. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Ray Milland, (more)
- 1980
A scheming rebel marauder uses his lover's lovely daughter as bait to entice unsuspecting soldiers into a death trap. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Katy Jurado, Gonzalo Vega, (more)
- 1980
When it comes to his family, there's no limits to the sacrifices this man will make to assure their happiness. ~ Rovi
This social-themed drama is set in 1950's Mexico, where three sisters known as the "Poquianchis" run a prostitution ring protected by the municpal and state authorities. In 1964, the discovery of several young people who had been assassinated and buried on the sisters' order led to a scrutiny surrounding the corruption involved in the controversial Mexican justice system. Las Poquianchis is directed by Felipe Cazals.
~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diana Bracho, Jorge Martinez de Hoyos, (more)
In a Mexican village, the local whorehouse is run by an elderly transvestite man and his daughter. One of the house's regular customers is a truck driver with a violent turn of mind. One day, he loses control entirely. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucha Villa, Ana Martin, (more)
