Mario Camus Movies

An aging author's life story sets the stage for an look back at the political turmoil and social upheaval of Argentina in the 1950s and '60s in this historical drama from filmmaker Adolfo Aristarain. Acclaimed novelist Joaquín Góñez (José Sacristán) has agreed to write his memoirs, and young Manuel Cueto (Juan Diego Botto) has been hired by his publisher to transcribe his dictation. Cueto, however, soon discovers his job is more complex than imagined; the disillusioned Góñez has been suffering from writer's block, and Cueto must ingratiate himself with the author in order to draw him out. Góñez was raised by a pair of open-minded musicians, and he enjoyed an especially cordial relationship with his mother, Roma (Susú Pecoraro). When his father died, Góñez and Roma were left on their own, and she had a difficult time adjusting to her loss while raising her son. As he grows older and the '50s give way to the '60s, Góñez (now also played by Botto) becomes a bohemian hipster who has quit school to hang out with his girlfriend, Betty (Carla Crespo), and their circle of creatively minded pals. As Góñez begins his life as a writer, he also becomes more aware of politics, and his activist friends soon find themselves roughly handled by the police; as his ideals are challenged and his romantic relationships begin to crumble, Góñez falls into a romance with his best friend's wife, leading to an emotional crisis that leads him back to Roma. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

One of the finest filmmakers of Spain, Mario Camus turns his lens to a joyful and sad period of Spanish history in this historical drama about one man's struggle for a better life towards the end of the 18th century. Onofre Bouvila (Olivier Martinez) is a young man who has not had much luck in his short life. His father abandoned the family to make his fortune in Cuba and the boy grew up in misery with his suffering mother. Now grown up, he decides to make it in the big city and arrives in Barcelona on the eve of the Universal Exposition of 1888. He is immediately attracted to his landlord's beautiful daughter, Delfina (Emma Suarez), who has other plans for him. While the city is drowning in poverty and disease, the criminal gangs are having a field day. Onofre's attempts at finding a job fail. He is thrown out of his lodgings for lack of money to pay the rent. Just at that moment, Delfina appears with an answer to the problem. She puts him to work distributing revolutionary pamphlets for her anarchist organization to the workers at the Exposition. The relationship between the two young people soon turns into a passionate one, but a violent encounter with the police brings back unpleasant memories of the domestic misery Onofre left behind. He realizes that politics will not help him in his quest for fortune, which was the reason he came to Barcelona in the first place. The only thing standing in the way of social climber Onofre is his deep love for Delfina, and he is caught between ambition and love. La Ciudad de los Prodigios (The City of Marvels), which is based on Eduardo Mendoza's best-selling novel, was in competition at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Based on a popular novel by Spanish author Antonio Gala, this romantic melodrama centers on the struggles on a Seville rancher's dissatisfied wife. Poor Palmira; her husband Willy has not slept with her in ages, her teenaged son is sexually confused, her sister a lesbian, and her daughter is seeing a man on the sly. Matters worsen when Palmira finds out that her husband is having an affair, that her daughter is pregnant with a hemophiliac child and her son has died in a motorcycle accident. If that weren't enough, she learns of his homosexuality shortly after the funeral from his bisexual best friend, the one with whom Palmira had a brief affair. Overwhelmed, Palmira leaves the family to search for herself and for her long-lost first love. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this keen-witted, darkly comical Spanish allegory, the death of the family dog nearly destroys a successful businessman's well-ordered middle-class life. Up until the dog gets mysteriously ill, Andre led an idyllic suburban existence with his wife and two kids. Concerned for the ailing pet, he brings it to the veterinarian who tells Andre that the dog is terminally ill and must be put to death without delay. In his shock, Andre agrees and the dog dies swiftly, but then another problem arises: the vet has no way to dispose of the body because it is a weekend and so Andre must do it himself while feverishly thinking of a way to tell his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Ana (Carmen Maura) is a veterinarian living in the country with her daughter. She has a comfortable, settled life. From time to time, Dario (Fernando Valverde), one of her co-workers, stops by her farmhouse for a meal, but otherwise her life seems placid and timeless. This all changes when she meets Jose (Joaquim de Almeida), a handsome young man who becomes her lover. Not until she is thoroughly involved with him does she discover that he is an ex-convict and an arms smuggler. Inevitably, she is drawn into some shady business. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In 1946, Darman (Terence Stamp) followed orders from his Communist Party superiors, and went to Spain to kill someone the party had designated as a traitor, and he hasn't been comfortable with himself ever since. Now, it is 1962, and he receives word that he is wanted to perform a similar service. Obediently, he leaves his cozy, book-lined cottage in Britain and heads to Poland, where he gets his orders in some detail. Then he heads for Madrid, evading the Falangist regime's police forces and contacting the city's underground communists. He continues going through the motions of locating his victim, even though he is still very ambivalent about his assignment. At the end, he gets off the hook because another communist does the job. The complex situation grows more complex, leading to a final shootout. This political thriller is based on a novel by Antonio M. Molina and was quite well received in Spain. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this somber and slow-moving drama, the overbearing mother of six daughters is consumed by the emotional trauma of her husband's death. One daughter is compelled to hang herself when she realizes she will never escape her mother's icy emotional grip. The story is taken from the play by Federico Garcia Lorca. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

While at a Spanish resort town, a wealthy man is lifted of $3 million as part of a nefarious scheme. ~ John Bush, Rovi

The poetic and iconoclastic lights of Bohemia have been dimmed in this interpretation of the original play by Ramon Valle-Inclan. Set at the turn of the 20th century in Madrid, the focus is on a perpetual drunk, the blind Max Estrella (Francisco Rabal) and his verses, sayings, and total disregard for his wife and daughter as he pursues both the bottle and the muse. His friend, Don Latino (Agustin Gonzalez) accompanies Max on his travels through the city. Max is rarely sober and can be found in unlikely situations, such as dressing down a government minister for his bourgeois success or commiserating with an anarchist in prison. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Gonzalo (Arturo Fernández) is a local "playboy" type who has landed in jail and is forced to talk one of the inmates, Gines (Francisco Rabal) into protecting him against the rowdier low-lifes in the prison. Gonzalo promises that when he is on the outside in a few months, he will repay Gines for the protection he needs now. Little does he know that the payment will involve hiring Gines as his gardener -- a gardener who would rather run Gonzalo's business ventures than pull weeds. It is the conflict between the meddling, tough-guy prisoner and the sophisticated Gonzalo that causes the most unexpected results in this comedy about the immiscibility of oil and water. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

At the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), there was still some resistance from small groups hiding in Spain's numerous small rural mountain regions. In this story, Juana is a schoolteacher who misses her lover, one of those hold-out guerillas who is hiding in the hills to continue fighting the Guardia Civil. She takes a school-teaching job in a remote area of the Santander Province in order to have a chance to see him once more. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi