Luis Ciges Movies

El Milagro de P. Tinto is the first full-length film of Madrid-born Javier Fesser, whose career behind the camera had previously been in advertising. The story, which follows the saga of an ordinary Catholic family, appears to be very conventional: Young P. Tinto wants to be the father of a large family when he grows up. He dreams of having a bunch of healthy kids as soon as he finds himself a woman. Fifteen years later, we find him living with blind Olivia in a valley off the beaten track where the express train for the North has stopped only once in the last five years. Time passes, but the children he has dreamed of do not arrive. Fifty years later, when the couple has given up all hope, a miracle takes place, the 'miracle' alluded to in the title of the film, which will make possible the continuation of the Tinto family from one generation to the next. But the new arrival is not only a long time coming but also appears to be from a highly unusual source. In the final analysis, this family portrait is anything but conventional. Javier Fesser uses offbeat set designs borrowed from comic strips and cartoons as he concocts a fantastic and entertaining cocktail of social satire and surreal comedy reminiscent of Theo Van Dormael's Toto the Hero. The film received a Special Mention from the jury at the 1999 Locarno International Film Festival for its style, humor, and originality. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, 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

In this romantic farce, Macarena is a pretty French girl who has come to Cordoba in southern Spain in search of a man she believes may be her father. She finally tracks him and his clan down in a minor city museum: they have become squatters there during one of the museum curator's brief absences. Two policemen have been given the job of persuading the wacky family to vacate the premises. Their response to these blandishments is to threaten to destroy the museum's treasures. At the same time her maybe-father's two sons are putting the make on her, one of the policemen has taken up residence with the family and is dancing with them, as a police SWAT team prepares to storm the building. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this comedy, a manufacturer of turrón, a candy which resembles the honey-almond confection halvah, wants to promote it outside the regions of southern Spain where it is a traditional Christmas treat. It is particularly associated with a festival during which the wars between the Christians and the Moors are ritually reenacted. The manufacturer and his sons travel to a Madrid food festival to sell, sell, sell. The father also persuades his reluctant daughter, a woman with political ambitions, to use her connections to help promote their candy. With some difficulty, they garner a mention in a women's weekly magazine and on a television program. In a macabre comedy scene, having returned home, the manufacturer dies and is put in a coffin that is too small and is paraded down the street during the aforementioned festival in Alicante. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

After their wealthy fascist father dies, Ana and her sister Laura have the job of settling his estate. The two sisters have not seen one another for some time and imagine they have nothing in common. Ana stayed at home and married a pretty ordinary middle-class man, Laura moved to Paris and lives a far more glamorous life. Complicating their difficult task is the fact that it is taking place during Holy Week, and all sorts of processions and ceremonies are taking place in the streets around them, and ordinary commercial life is at a standstill. The tension between the two women eases somewhat as they come to grips with their common past and, along with their father, bury some of the myths that have overshadowed both of them. The director of this film, Rafael Azcona, is known for his penchant for mocking conservative Spain's many sacred cows, and he continues that tradition in this occasionally comic drama. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

La Corte de Faraon is a romp of a zarzuela ("operetta" is a loose translation) that first appeared in 1910 (original libretto by Guillermo Perrin and Miguel de Palacios, original music by Vicente Lleó). The Pharaoh rewards his victorious general Putifar (Josema Yuste) with a new bride, Lota (Ana Belen), but the general is more intrigued with his own ego on his wedding night, and in the morning he dashes off. Along comes Friar José (Antonio Banderas) with his soulful eyes and innocent sexuality, and Lota aggressively goes after him. He escapes, but when brought before the Queen, she follows Lota's precedent and the poor Friar barely escapes a second time with his virtue intact. (In the original the Friar is none other than Joseph of the colored coat.) In this updated version, the troupe of zarzuela players gets in trouble with the police, and the whole lot of them are hauled in for scandalous behavior. Between the on-stage and off-stage insanity, the singing, the dance numbers, the music, the slapstick, and the slams at censors, police, and political repression -- this zarzuela upholds the tradition of pleasing all types of viewers. Except Franco, that is -- he banned the operetta. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's films are colorful, sexy, and very funny, and this one is a perfect introduction to his work. An emperor's son, Reza Niro (Imanol Arias), comes to Madrid in disguise and sleeps with Sadeq (Antonio Banderas), an Islamic terrorist with a highly developed sense of smell. Sadeq's group wants to kidnap Reza, who disguises himself as a punk rock singer and falls in love with Sexilia (Cecilia Roth), a nymphomaniac singer for a rival band. There's also a wealthy woman (Helga Line) who wants Reza's sperm for an artificial insemination, a delirious dry-cleaner who sleeps with his own daughter, and other bizarre characters. Almodovar takes delight in intersecting lives, chance meetings, and humor that springs from the strangest of situations. He also has the rare talent of presenting potentially offensive material in such a whimsical and affectionate fashion that no matter what his characters do, the audience loves them as much as he does. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This is the third film in a sequence that started in 1978, about the Marquis de Leguineches, his hopeless son Luis José, his mistress/servant Viti, and in this instance, a Catholic priest. The Marquis has been living in Madrid since he lost his villa, and when his father-in-law dies, the family gets together and that becomes a catalyst for thinking more directly about their future. This leads to the Marquis' decision to leave Spain with the family's money, yet it will be difficult to cross the border without having their wealth confiscated by the authorities. So the Marquis fakes a broken leg and stashes the wealth inside his cast on a journey to Lourdes to seek a miracle. Unfortunately, France is no more amenable than Spain to the wealthy aristocracy since Mitterand's socialist government has just been elected into power. Between his unwieldy cast, the crazy family members, and the problem of where to go next to keep his fortune intact, the Marquis has a rough time of it. The repartée among the Marquis' family members and friends will entertain most audiences, but the originality of the 1978 family has worn thin by now and will be difficult to stretch into yet another episode in the future. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A Marquis (Luis Escobar) suddenly becomes inspired to reclaim his palace, now gone to seed, right in the heart of Madrid. He and his son head for the city, without taking into account that his wife, the aged Marquesa is thoroughly ensconsed in the palace, has been for more than 40 years, and has no intention of leaving. In order to settle the issue, the Marquis decides to get his wife committed - not an unreasonable proposition given the fact that she has preferred to stay in bed all these years. Variously eccentric characters pop in and out of the palace as the Marquis tries to implement his plan, without much success. The Marquesa, in turn, manages to force him and her former lover into a duel in the garden and pulls out a shotgun to put them out of their misery and her life. Things backfire, so to speak, and the Spanish State comes into the picture, perhaps it will have more success where its old - very old - aristocracy has failed to measure up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This allegorical drama is said to depict the state of Spanish society under Franco's dictatorship, and the film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1978. In the story, nothing can possibly go wrong at the annual dinner of the fishing club. Nothing will go wrong. The members are determined to see it just that way, despite evidence to the contrary. A mob of outsiders just tried to crash the party. The cooks briefly went on strike but were persuaded to serve up the members' catch of trout anyway. The fish is liberally dosed with good-tasting sauces. Despite the awful taste, the fish cannot possibly be rotten -- after all, the loyal members of the club just caught them. Nothing is wrong with the members either, although they appear to be dying. The party will go on, the usual self-congratulatory speeches will be made, and the awards will be given. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Spoofing local "true love confessions," this Spanish comic farce/melodrama tells the stories of a middle-aged resident of Madrid (Jacques Dufilho) and of a pregnant young woman from the countryside who longs for stardom. The man answers a personal ad in the newspaper, has a liaison with the already pregnant girl, and winds up raising her baby. She leaves him after the baby is born, and becomes a big star. The man sees her once more as she is performing as the headliner at a nightclub, but she dies onstage. The movie spoofs many aspects of Spanish society of the time, including the sappier forms of popular music. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi