Virginia Mataix Movies
- 1994
This uplifting film, set in a 19th-century Spanish convent, quietly comments upon the limitations of leading the spiritual and isolated life of a nun. The peaceful routine of the nuns is interrupted by the sudden arrival of an abandoned baby girl. The girl, whom they named Teresa after the Mother Superior, is formally adopted by the town doctor, but is actually raised by the loving hands of the nuns. The film follows their experiences as they learn a more earthly form of love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fiorella Faltoyano, Alfredo Landa, (more)
The events that led Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to write her horror masterpiece Frankenstein provide the basis of this haunting, romantic drama. The story opens aboard a beat up schooner as it carefully makes its way through a massive broken ice pack near the North Pole. There Shelley writes her fantastic tale and reminisces about the events of the previous summer when she was courted by the poetic Percy Byshe Shelley. They elope and go to Switzerland where they become friends with dashing Lord Byron and his companion Dr. Polidori. Shelley's sister Claire accompanies them and gets romantically entangled with Byron. The group subsequently spends some idyllic almost hedonistic weeks at Byron's villa. Over the next few years, strange, tragic and troubling events occur and whenever they do, Shelley sees her monster lurking in the shadows. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hugh Grant, Lizzy McInnerny, (more)
- 1986
Four protagonists carry the action in this adventure story about betrayal, the high seas, and illegal shipping. Patxi (Alfredo Landa) is a widowed sea captain who becomes friends with Esteban, a ship's machinist (Imanol Arias), and the two end up going to Africa where they get in trouble and land in jail. Patxi's daughter Begona (Virginia Mataix) is being romantically pursued by the corrupt owner of a shipping line who is trading in illegal arms (Carlos Lucena). Ignoring her erstwhile suitor, she flies off to get her father and Esteban out of their predicament. But tragedy has already struck: Patxi is dead, and Esteban and Begona go back home where they seek justice. Much of Bandera Negra was shot in the Basque area of Spain, and the film was sponsored by the Basque regional government. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfredo Landa, Imanol Arias, (more)
- 1984
In this prison-break drama, based on a true story, and set in a Spanish prison, highly intelligent Basque separatists plan and execute an elaborate break-out and high-tail it for France. Unfortunately, they are captured at the border. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Paco (Antonio Resines) is an architect and artist of sorts, and although he is married he has affairs that cut a wide swath through the professions: a medical student, a reporter, an actress, a teacher, and others -- and in no case is Paco at a loss for words. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Resines, Silvia Munt, (more)
- 1978
Film director Juan Antonio Bardem was a problem for the Franco regime: he was too well known internationally for the government to shut him up completely, and too outspokenly left-wing to be left to function freely. He caused no end of problems for the Spanish regime. After Franco passed away, he was free to make more overtly pro-communist films, including Siete Dias de Enero, which won prizes and praise in Moscow when it was shown there. The story is based on an incident that occurred in Madrid in 1977, when some militant anti-communists gunned down a small gathering of communist lawyers. In the film, the murdered lawyers are shown as being outstanding paragons of idealism. Despite his previous importance and popularity as a filmmaker, this film was a definite failure at the boxoffice. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Sanchez Pollack, Virginia Mataix, (more)
