Ovidi Montllor Movies
- 1992
In 1939, Ramon (Jacques Penot) was a young man, caught up in his Barcelona family's involvement on the Republic side in the brutal Spanish Civil War. He and his family fled into exile ahead of Franco's troops. Now it is many years later, and he has come back to see how his old homestead fared in the intervening years. The only person he can find who is able to remember those years clearly is his family's old butler Claudio (Vittorio Gassman). This film is a sequel to the 1975 film by director Jaime Camino, Largas Vacaciones del 36. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Jacques Penot, (more)
- 1989
This confusing and meandering mystery concerns a double crime committed in a rural village in 1956. Greedy land speculators, soldiers on leave, a house of prostitution, and a smuggler with a mentally challenged daughter are the focus of this crime drama that lacks suspense and suffers from being to disconnected. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paco Rabal, Jose Maria Mazo, (more)
- 1987
Hector (Urbanus) is a 35-year-old mentally challenged adult who has spent most of his life in an orphanage. His opportunistic uncle Achiel (Frank Aendenboom) retrieves Hector in order to put him to work. Achiel hopes the move will free his own son from his chores and give him time to train for an upcoming bicycle competition. Hector's Aunt Ella (Sylvia Millecam) has dreams of becoming a Hollywood actress. After the uncle dies, Aunt Ella falls for Hector in this familiar comedy theme -- a child caught in the body of a man. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Urbanus, Sylvia Millecam, (more)
- 1987
Ona (Ovidi Montllor) is a young woman who has a love affair with the guitar player Manolo in this romantic drama. Despite having a ticket on a departing steamer, he elects to stay in Barcelona with the woman he loves. The two share a memorable day with each other and pledge their mutual love in contrast to their friends who casually engage in sex and use drugs. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfredo Luchetti, Ovidi Montllor, (more)
- 1984
This routine story of love, murder, and witchcraft is set in 17th century northern Spain (in Basque country). A priest is trying to ferret out the truth in a 20-year-old tragedy involving a woman accused of witchcraft, her husband, and a jealous lover. Through a series of flashbacks, it is revealed that a young pregnant woman is jealous of Gabrielle (Angela Molina), who married the woman's lover. Deranged by anger at her betrayal, the mother-to-be murders her lover -- now Gabrielle's husband -- and then manages to convincingly charge Gabrielle with witchcraft. The result is that Gabrielle gets sent to prison, and the unbalanced young mother has her child and then inters herself in a nunnery (a common refuge for unwed mothers). The priest himself may be connected to this unhappy story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ángela Molina, Imanol Arias, (more)
- 1984
An excellent performance by the lead actor, Ovidi Montllor as Hector, does not help the unremittingly pessimistic view of life presented in this film about an abused young man and his solitary existence as a farmer in a remote part of Valencia in southwestern Spain. (For verisimilitude, the dialogue is in Spanish and a regional dialect called Alcoyano.) The other farmers are getting out while they can to look for work elsewhere, but not Hector who in spite of being regularly beaten by his father, stays to tend his goats and take care of his grandmother. Although Hector is almost seduced in one sequence, his choice to remain here does not seem reasonable, and leads to even more tragedy in his already bleak life. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ovidi Montllor, Aldo Sanbrell, (more)
- 1981
In this fictionalized docudrama, 30 Basque terrorists escape from prison in Segovia not long after Franco dies (1975) and make their way to the French border. They dig a tunnel out of the prison and flee into the mountains without too much difficulty, but then after some help from a truck driver, the French border patrols spot them as they continue on foot. Some are picked up and brought back to prison, others escape to France, and among those escapees, one is telling this story in 1977, just before King Juan Carlos extended an amnesty to all 30 and they were released. It would seem that the Basque separatist movement was behind the 30 men, yet the reasons for their original incarceration are never made quite clear. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Xavier Elorriaga, Mario Pardo, (more)
- 1980
- PG
The complex relationship between a thirteen-year-old girl (Ana Torrent) and an old man living in lonely but wealthy splendor is the focus of this drama. Alejandro (Hector Alterio) spends his time playing chess on a computer, riding his horses, or enjoying classical music. His life starts to change under the influence of young Goyita (Torrent) who slowly becomes a friend and then begins to impose on him in not-so-subtle ways. First she wants him to burn his dead wife's clothing, and before long she intends to involve him in a plot of revenge against a Civil Guard. Torrent received a 1980 Best Actress award at the Montreal Film Festival for her performance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Héctor Alterio, Ana Torrent, (more)
- 1980
This perplexing comedy-drama is provincial in setting and dialogue. Juan (Ovidi Montllor) is a local villager who spends an evening with Esperanza (Eva Leon) or "Hope," an itinerant singer. She has come to town for a festival and leaves the next day. Once she has left, Juan is suddenly mute and listless, leading his family to place him in a mental hospital. The inmates in the institution seem no worse than people on the outside and better than the nun who manages their care. Juan adjusts without great difficulty until he has a vision of Esperanza and upsets the status quo around him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ovidi Montllor, Eva Leon, (more)
- 1980
The angst of middle age attacks an otherwise level-headed advertising executive in this routine drama from Jaime Camino. The unhappy ad man punches out a traffic cop in the middle of yet another exasperating gridlock and ends up on the wrong side of a set of bars to cool his ardor for awhile. After he gets out, he makes friends with a bank robber and brings him home, where long involved exchanges with his wife do nothing to help him make up his mind about his mid-life crisis. Meandering from pillar to post, both the ad exec and the script seem to have become lost at sea. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juan Luis Galiardo, Fiorella Faltoyano, (more)
- 1980
A tragic series of historical incidents is effectively and compellingly revealed in this ugly story about avarice and power struggles in the world of arms sales and politics. The setting is Barcelona at the end of World War I, and the Spanish weapons manufacturer Savolta (Omero Anonutti) is having trouble with union discontent. While he is trying to sell weapons to the French, one of his company representatives is secretly selling to the Germans. An accountant discovers the deals with Germany, tips off a journalist, and he goes to Savolta to blackmail him into accepting the unions' demands. The result is a bloodbath, as hired thugs kill off all the protagonists and even some of their families while the cheating representative assumes control of the company and the unions are broken. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1979
The last president of Catalonia, Lluis Companys i Jover, escaped to France after the Spanish Civil War, but was returned to Spain by the Vichy (collaborationist) government in 1940. He was later tried and executed, presumably for treason. This Catalan and Spanish-language movie follows his story from the fall of Barcelona to Franco's troops, to the time of Companys' capture and imprisonment. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1979
A British writer goes to live in a Spanish village while he looks into the mysterious life of a 19th century wanderer who was allegedly slain by La Sabina, a mythical lady dragon. The writer becomes lovers with an American visitor and then falls in love with an enigmatic beauty from town. Things get really confusing when the writer's good friend arrives with his wife. When the writer's all-out campaign to seduce the local woman fails, tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carol Kane, Jon Finch, (more)
- 1978
The Spanish Saint from Valencia, Vincent Ferrer (1350-1419) was a Dominican priest whose life was marked by extraordinary asceticism. He was noteworthy for his preaching tours through Europe: his sermons convinced many people of that time to take their faith seriously. This Spanish film is a spoof of the famous saint's life. It shows Father Vincent (Albert Boadella) struggling humorously to resist temptations (especially carnal ones) and performing miracles with aplomb. Some of the situations push the bounds of good taste, and the film was denounced by the Catholic hierarchy ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ovidi Montllor, Ángela Molina, (more)
- 1976
Political circumstances draw the people in this film into the ill-fated Spanish rebellion of 1909, which sought the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII. Set mainly in Cataluña and its capital Barcelona, the story begins in 1899 with soldiers returning from the Cuban front of the disastrous Spanish-American War, and it revolves around the romantic aspirations of two sisters who are swept up into the dangerous intrigues of the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Xavier Elorriaga, Francisco Casares, (more)
- 1975
In this complex drama, a drifter brings his new girlfriend home for a visit. The girl's real flame is an escaped convict, who looks her up. Before she can leave with her convict lover, the drifter's mother kills her. Even though the mother had an incestuous relationship with her son, the son is determined to kill his mother, believing that she killed his one true love. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ovidi Montllor
