Emilio Gutiérrez Caba Movies

Two young people learn about love as politics turn their world upside down in this drama from director Ana Diez. After a long and successful career as a soccer player, Xavi (Nicolas Pauls) retires from the game and moves to Spain, where one day to his surprise he happens upon Rosana (Maria Botto), a friend from his childhood in Uruguay. As Xavi and Rosana catch up on what has happened to them over the past thirty years, they flash back to 1973, when young Xavi (Pablo Arnoletti) and his father Manuel (Emilio Gutierrez Caba), a shoemaker, lived down the street from Rosana (Pia Rodriguez). Rosana's father Severgnini (Mauricio Davub) was the local chief of police, and found himself frequently dealing with military authorities as Marxist rebels began plotting an overthrow of Uruguay's leadership. While Manuel is largely apolitical, he has friends who are fighting with the rebels, and when he's warned of an upcoming action at a soccer match, he packs Xavi off to a cabin in the country, and as word is leaked to Severgnini, he sends Rosana off with him. The two youngsters soon find themselves caught in the web of first love, but as a coup throws all of Uruguay into chaos, the simplicity of their stay in the country proves short lived. Paisito (aka Small Country) was an official selection at the 2008 Malaga Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Spanish writer Ramón De España penned and directed this adaptation of his novel, a dark crime comedy about a young woman named Maribel who tires of waiting for her husband to die so she can collect the inheritance. After falling in love with a younger man, Maribel enlists the help of her new lover to hasten her husband's inevitable demise. Kill Me Tender was originally released as Haz Conmigo lo Que Quieras. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Two of Spain's biggest female stars headline this offbeat comedy about the battle of wills between good and evil. Heaven is not getting its fair share of business for the afterlife, so Lola (Victoria Abril), an angel who sings in a nightclub located beyond the pearly gates, is sent to Earth to drum up business by her boss, Marina (Fanny Ardant). Her first prospect is Manny (Demián Bichir), a prizefighter with an injury that could take his life at any time. As Lola tries to claim Manny's soul for the Lord, the wicked Jack Davenport (Gael García Bernal) believes that the Devil deserves the boxer's soul, and he sends one of Hell's waitresses, Carmen (Penélope Cruz), to seal the deal. On Earth, Lola takes the form of Manny's former love and urges him to mend fences with his mother, while seductive Carmen tries to persuade Manny to return to the ring, knowing that another fight would mean his death. While Lola and Carmen wage war over Manny's soul, they maintain their cover by working at a grocery store, where they both learn a few lessons about the pitfalls of earthly capitalism. Meanwhile, Manny is dealing with financial problems of his own -- he owes money to the city's corrupt police commissioner (Emilio Gutiérrez Caba), who is using his strong-arm men to "persuade" Manny to pay up. Released in Europe as Sin Noticias de Dios (which translates as No News From God), Don't Tempt Me was a box-office success in Spain when it was released in late 2001, though it wouldn't reach American theaters until 2003. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The fifth feature of noted Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia, La Comunidad is a frenetic black comedy set in a decrepit old house in the center of Madrid. One of the house's new residents is Julia Garcia (Carmen Maura, whose performance won her a best actress award at the 2000 San Sebastian Film Festival), a real estate agent who has taken an apartment to revive her sagging marriage. One day, while engaging in some bedroom bliss, Julia and her unemployed husband Ricardo (Jesus Bonilla) are attacked by cockroaches that rain down on them through a crack in the ceiling. During a subsequent investigation of the upstairs apartment, firemen discover a man's rotting corpse. Julia later conducts her own investigation of the apartment and discovers almost 15 million dollars hidden away under the floor boards -- the result of a soccer-pool win by the apartment's dead owner. She decides to take the winnings and run, but while removing the cash, meets her neighbor Ramona (Terele Pavez), who quickly becomes suspicious of Julia's activities. It turns out that everyone in the building knew about the money and agreed to share it amongst themselves, a plan severely compromised by Julia's desire to keep the money for herself. After inviting Julia to a welcome party held by the residents' association, her neighbors go to extreme lengths to get the money, and plenty of cartoon-colored murder and mayhem ensues. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

A disparate group of women deal with the foibles presented to them in contemporary society in this episodic comedy from Spain. The stories include Magdalena (Julieta Serrano) lecturing her daughter Teresa (Cristina Baeza) on why she can't hold on to a man; Neli (Carmen Balague) offering council to her friend Sofia (Laura Cepeda) on keeping her marriage from falling apart; Andrea (Mercedes Sampietro) explaining to her analyst her relationship with her supremely macho (and unfaithful) husband Emilio (Emilio Guiterrez Caba); Emilio's relationship with Reme (Eva Santolaria), a prostitute who wants him to leave Andrea and move in with her; close friends Mireia (Marina Gatell) and Eva (Anna Casas) battling over the same man; businesswoman Leo (Laura Conejero) struggling to hold on to her femininity in a masculine environment; and Paca (Eulalia Ramon) struggling to raise the money to buy a special pair of shoes for her son. Nosotras was the first feature from director Judith Colell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Victor wants to be a famous actor and so has come to Madrid in search of work. There he meets representatives of a Hollywood film company. They want him to appear in their next film as a real macho man. Meanwhile Victor works for a phone sex company and is called by lonely, closeted plastic surgeon, Ricardo and his "wife" Amanda. This riotous Spanish comedy chronicles what happens when Victor and Amanda fall in love. To help her get a divorce, he offers to take incriminating photos of himself and Ricardo making love so that she can sue for divorce. When he learns that Amanda is not Ricardo's wife, Victor is very surprised. Meanwhile, the real wife, Angela and her lover, her husband's business partner, want to kill Ricardo. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A group of asylum inmates escape with a truck during the Spanish Civil War in this actioner. The escaped lunatics first join a group of farmers loyal to the crown. After the local village doctor is killed, the group vents their wrath on both loyalists and rebels who align themselves with the forces of Franco. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Antonio (Jose M. Sacristan) is a vagabond traveler who hitches a ride into a small town. He takes a job in a restaurant before landing a better job in the local movie theater. Antonio remembers the owner as the woman who employed his acting troupe years before when he was a young child. He later gets mixed up in a plot to steal a valuable painting from a convent. The English title of Cara de Acelga is Spinach Face. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In his second successful starring role in 1983, Agustín Gonzalez is a father who runs a wine shop in Madrid, a city under a three-year siege (1936-1939) because the Nationalists forces of Francisco Franco need to take Madrid before the fascist dictator can be installed in power. The siege has left the Madrileños with very little food, living under the threat of bombs, and worrying about the prospects of defeat. It is the sense of impending disaster, of hunger and deprivation that is oddly missing from this cinematic interpretation of the play by Fernando Fernán Gómez. The daughter in the family (Victoria Abril) enters into a love affair with a soldier and ends up having a baby, the son (Gabino Diego) is coming of age with the maid - and life seems to go on with all its proverbial ups and downs. But without the sharp dialogue of the play itself, this film is not as tautly strung, or as convincingly real as the stage production. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on a 1943 book of the same title by Camilo José Cela, Colmena features the comings and goings of a wide variety of characters, all trying to survive in a poverty-stricken Madrid during World War II. Rather than feature any single story line, these people from all walks of life cross paths almost randomly as they come to a café to sip their one cup of coffee and work on a book, or pick up a prostitute, or get their shoes shined, or play billiards, or just warm themselves on a cold winter's day. This primary setting is complemented by a brothel where a dirt-poor journalist sleeps if there is a room available that night, while during the day he tries to make ends meet one way or another. The demeanor of the people in the café or in the brothel effectively conveys the atmosphere of a long-lost era that may have had hardships but also brought a subtle sense of camaraderie to very disparate human beings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in the late Franco era in a lonely region of northwestern Spain, this story examines the process by which a socially quite conservative "Miss Lonelyhearts" radio counsellor becomes a woman with a much broader view of life. The girl in question lives with her very religious sister in a large house and gives advice in keeping with the prevailing attitudes of the times. When a man seeks her out and determinedly woos her, she resists him, just as he resists everything she and her program stand for. Eventually, they have a tempestuous and even abusive short-lived affair. Despite the un-romantic ending of their relationship, something has stirred in her, and she questions her old ways of seeing things. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide