Villanueva Cosse Movies

Gerardo Herrero directed this Spanish-Argentine-German-French period fantasy drama set in turn-of-the century Buenos Aires. After widowed Roque (Jose Coronado) killed a man in Spain, he emigrated to Argentina with his young son Ramon (Francisco Corbalan). With his friend Hermann (Peter Lohmeyer), Roque works for a tobacco distributor. A ghost, Maidana (Federico Luppi), murdered by a "cutthroat and philosopher," reveals himself to only two people -- Roque and brothel-owner Teresa, aka Piera (Maribel Verdu) -- a situation which brings Roque and Piera together romantically. Shown in competition at the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Juan has been haunted by memories of his family's southern ranch for a long time but has not found any good reasons to revisit it for many years now. It was a favorite place in his childhood. Recently, he has had dreams in which he is stabbed to death there. When he falls and receives some serious head injuries, his doctors perform surgery on him and then tell him to take a long rest. This is just the excuse he needs to visit the ranch, and he heads south to encounter whatever fate awaits him there. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In 1985 the exquisitely-wrought Argentine comedy-drama King and his Movie earned international awards including the Venice Film Festival's Silver Lion for "First Film." It is the story of an obsessed filmmaker's attempts to make his long-dreamed of epic account of the King of Patagonia and Araraucania. Unfortunately, the director meets major obstacles at every turn. First of all, word leaked out to the press that the director, Chaves, was making his magnum opus and he must constantly dodge them while feverishly attempting to execute his preproduction tasks. His biggest headache comes from his search for the perfect actor to portray his king. When all of the professional auditions are rejected, Chaves turns to the street. Unfortunately, he chooses a street-dwelling hippie, who mistake Chaves and his assistants for cops and flees. He later shaves his head to help hide. Still the determined Chaves manages to catch up and convince him to play the part. Finally Chaves assembles cast and crew and prepares to go south to shoot the film. Unfortunately, his backer suddenly withdraws with all the film's finances and flees abroad leaving Chavez with no money with which to pay his production people. Many of the actors immediately abandon ship and once again Chaves hits the streets to find his players. He must also pare his crew down to the bare minimum. After an arduous journey, the group make it to the locale. By this time they are so broke that they cannot afford lodging and end up staying at an orphanage until an actor makes untoward advances towards a youngster and gets them booted out. About this time, the crew, not wanting to sleep in tents, take off. The cast joins them. Despite this final crushing blow, Chaves will not abandon the film and so portrays the king himself, using mannequins for extras to create some of the films most haunting and surreal scenes. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on a true incident that happened in 1935 in the Argentine Senate, this fictionalized account of the murder of a senator avoids the main issue of the killing: those accused of complicity in the murder were acquitted by the senators of the ruling Conservative Party. This film focuses on the character and life of the murderer instead of addressing the serious political corruption of the time. The intended victim, the democratic leader Lisandro De La Torre (Pepe Soriano) attacked the government for selling out the nation's lucrative meat-packing trade to a foreign company, and when ex-police chief Valdez-Cora (Miguel Angle Solá) tried to gun De La Torre down in the parliament building, he killed another senator, Enzo Bordabehere (Arturo Bonín) by accident. The corruption and abuses of Valdez-Cora cause his own Conservative Party to throw him off the police force, at which point he becomes the bodyguard of a senator and cattle rancher (in reality, he was hired by the Minister of Agriculture as a bodyguard). The exploits of Valdez-Cora get him involved in the world of prostitution and eventually force his wife and daughter to leave him for good. His life gives ample play to scenes of sex and violence, although the lead actors rise above these lower levels of the script. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

When a wife with two children discovers that her husband has been having an affair with another woman, she is so deeply wounded that she leaves home, will not talk to him again, and refuses to accept her mother's advice that she reconcile with the unfaithful spouse. Her world, as she had known it, has ended and now she drifts for awhile, trying to find a new place for herself, while still seeing her mother and children. Her quest begins to bear fruit when she meets a gay man at a therapy session and they become fast friends. She also finds a temporary home at the apartment of a happy-go-lucky roommate who has a "revolving door" stream of boyfriends. The woman slowly starts to edge out of her depression, gets a job, and starts having a relationship or two again. She goes so far as to spend an afternoon with her husband at a secluded rendezvous, and while seemingly torn between her old existence or a new, independent life, after that moment with her husband, she changes for good. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi