Jose Vivo Movies

A laid-back spoof of knights in shining armor, El Caballero del Dragon is set in a medieval European village, but the knight's armor is actually a spacesuit. Boetius (Klaus Kinski) is a necromancer and alchemist fawning after the near-senile Count of Rue (Jose Vivo). Opposite Boetius is Fray Lupo (Fernando Rey) a vile, hypocritical priest who also seeks the Count's favor. Meanwhile, a knight (Harvey Keitel) is romancing the Count's beautiful daughter Alba (Maria Lamor). When a "dragon" appears on the scene, it is actually the alien Ix (Miguel Bose) in a spacesuit. Ix meets the local VIPs and after some scandalous intrigue, his space ship takes off with two earthlings, leaving Ix for dead and the necromancer Boetius with his work cut out for him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Fernando Rey plays a Spanish cardinal who returns to his home town thirty years after leaving for Rome. Rey knew that he'd left an illegitimate daughter behind, but was unaware that he also has a granddaughter (Victoria Abril). The girl is embroiled in an affair with Rey's own brother (Francisco Rabal), a Marxist activist. The filmmakers' sympathies are more with Marxism than Catholicism, but politics are secondary to the kinky romantic intrigues. Evidently Fernando Rey didn't consider Our Father (original Spanish title: Padre Nuestro) significant enough to list on his official, published resume. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

For the Spanish Mama Turns a Hundred, director Carlos Saura reassembles many of his cast members from his 1972 Anna and the Wolves. As Mama reaches the century mark, her wolf-pack relatives go fang and claw after currying her favor in hopes of a large legacy. The film is set during the Franco regime, permitting Saura to use his greedy family as a microcosm of all that had gone bad in Spain since the Civil War. Though potentially grim, Mama Turns a Hundred is essentially a comedy, though many of the laughs are of the "shock of recognition" variety, especially for those who've come from a similarly avaricious family. The film was originally released as Mama Cumple Cien Anos. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on a novel by Jose Cruset, and packed with violence and riotousness, this film tells the story of a humanitarian bookseller in 16th-century Granada who manages to open Spain's first mental institution. The story takes place several generations after the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from Spain. Juan de Dios (Timothy Dalton), after experiencing and witnessing brutalities visited upon the people of Spain, vows to spend his life helping others. In fulfillment of his vow, he faces down the Inquisition and suffers greatly. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Set near Barcelona at the time of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, this epic drama explores the adventures suffered by an uncommitted vacationing family caught unawares by the conflict. In focusing on the war's effects on the family, this film was able to offer much more devastating commentary than would normally have been permitted in the late Franco era. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This unwieldy Spanish drama tells the story of what happens in a conservative country region, sometime in the past, when the new director of a home for mentally deranged women attempts to bring more modern and humane methods to the management and treatment of his charges. The staff and the neighboring villagers and officials resist his changes, considering them no better than witchcraft. He has some success with his patients but cannot make headway with those who hired him. When he leads his charges through the village as a form of protest march, his days in charge are over. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi