Fernando Vivanco Movies
- 1998
The La Cuadrilla team (Luis Guridi and Santiago Aguilar) directed this Spanish black comedy about corrupt funeral worker Atilano (Manuel Manquina). Moonlighting by chopping fingers off bodies to obtain ID fingerprints, he can then withdraw money from bank accounts. Failed politician Ortega (Ramon Barea), working for the PR party, maneuvers Atilano into becoming a presidential candidate. As elections near, Atilano and the party's image consultant Sol (Laura Conejero) find romance in each other's arms. When Atilano's populist approach to politics becomes too popular, ambitious Antunez (Fernando Vivanco) does away with Sol -- and a maddened Atilano sets out to get revenge. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Manuel Manquina, Ramon Barea, (more)
- 1982
Bernabe (José Sacristán) works as an artistic director for a publicity firm but his avocation is fawning after his bosses, sleeping with whomever might advance his career, and ignoring his wife. Life continues on in this vein until he meets a young model whom he invites up to his boss's temporarily vacant country house, pretending the house belongs to him. Not very far away, bulldozers and other machinery are clearing the beautifully wooded area so construction can start on an amusement park. Little does Bernabe realize that his potential new conquest is a seriously fanatical environmental advocate, and she arrives at the house with friends, gets Bernabe high and "out of it," and then she and her friends proceed to trash the construction machinery. Once Bernabe comes around again, he finds out what has happened, loses heart for his planned sexual escapade, and begins to appreciate his wife for the first time. Life hardly gets any better -- it turns out his long-suffering wife has fallen in love with someone from his office and she has left him. Bernabe should be sufficiently chastened to mend his ways, but will these setbacks, or any setbacks, be enough to alter his behavior? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- José M. Sacristán, Christina Marsillach, (more)
- 1994
There are many minor occupations in the bullfighting profession aside from the one most people focus on. In this black comedy, Justino (Saturnino Garcia) is a sixty-two year old retired puntillero who lives a carefree life, hanging out at the local bar with his cronies while living with his married son. As a puntillero, his responsibility was to deliver the death-killing blow to bulls in the bullring if the matador failed to do so. One day his son and daughter-in-law irritate him for some reason and he finishes them off the same way and then stores their bodies in the apartment's freezer. After that, just about anyone who irritates him in any way is likely to die, from the policemen who didn't believe him when he confessed to them about killing his son, to a whole houseful of elderly people in an old-age home. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Saturnino Garcia
- 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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Xavier Elorriaga, Mario Pardo, (more)
- 1982
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
- Starring:
- Cecilia Roth, Imanol Arias, (more)
- 1986
Film noir and comedy are successfully thrown together in this off-beat story about Germain (Antonio Resines), a stage producer trying to put together the two leads and backing for his next drama. Germain is looking for a man to play a psychotic obsessed with his mother and a woman to play a seductress. For the male lead he finds Rufo (Imanol Arias) who depends on robbery for a living, takes care of his drug-addict mother, and has hallucinatory visions about the Pope. The female lead has three contenders: Germain's ex-girlfriend Nena (Amparo Munoz), his ex-wife Amelia (Assumpta Serna), and Lola (Patricia Adriani) a beguiling vamp he met in a taxi one day. Germain soon finds that casting can be a nightmare when Nena's husband (his potential backer) lusts after Lola, Nena has her amorous sights set on Rufo, and Germain's ex-wife Amelia runs after a soccer player. Add in a murder, and absurdity rules the day. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Imanol Arias, Amparo Muñoz, (more)
- 1988
When the forces of Gen. Francisco Franco overthrow the duly elected (but leftist) Republican government, soldiers loyal to the government head for the hills in northern Spain. The soldiers survive by making raids for food and by committing robbery and the kidnapping of a wealthy local. They spend years after the conflict in hiding, but their number soon dwindles to one when the rest are captured or shot. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Santiago Ramos, Antonio Resines, (more)
- 1997
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In this sequel to the acclaimed Sighs of Spain (and Portugal) (1995), two picaros, slick Juan (Juan Luis Galiardo) and his innocent pal Pepe (Juan Echanove) return to Spain with Angelica (Rosa Maria Sarda) and Carmela (Neus Asensi). Pepe and Juan, both in love with the same woman, are on the brink of suicide when they are invited by TV-host Lanzagorta (Javier Gurruchaga) to tell their story on his show, "There Is Always a Right Way." In a series of flashbacks from the TV studio, Lanzagorta leads his viewers through a morass of misery in a materialist society as experienced by Juan and Pepe, as he turns their suffering into mass entertainment. Filmed in the poverty-stricken back alleys of Madrid. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Juan Luis Galiardo, Juan Echanove, (more)
- 1984
Confusion seems to settle over this drama like dust on a polished surface, until the layers are so thick that nothing is seen clearly any more. Andrés (José Sacristán) goes back to Spain from Mexico because a lawyer has sent for him. Andrés has inherited an enormous piece of property -- an old mansion of a house -- and although his half-brother offers him a good sum of money for the structure, Andrés hesitates. He wants to know more about the circumstances of his father's death which happened when Andrés was six; he is also becoming infatuated with the lawyer's daughter, and some men are threatening him -- men who may or may not be hired by his half-brother. In the end, Andrés fares better than the plot itself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- José M. Sacristán, Fernando Fernán Gómez, (more)
- 1981
A young married couple living in Madrid decide to go their separate ways, a decision brought on by the person who moves into the apartment next to them. The jealous husband leaves his wife and takes up an apartment in another section of the building, taking some of the furniture with him when he goes. But the prospects for divorce alter as the film heads toward its conclusion, in a series of unexpected events. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Antonio Resines, Assumpta Serna, (more)
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