Victoria Abril Movies

This tense and brutal, Spanish-language crime thriller from Mexico concerns four female bank robbers (Pilar Lopez de Ayala, Ariadna Gil, Victoria Abril and Elena Anaya) whose latest heist puts them in a head-to-head clash with the local mob in Mexico City. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A con man finds himself up against an adversary he hasn't the strength to challenge in this crime drama from Spain. Ernesto (Ernesto Alterio) is a man who grew up learning the easier way to get out of trouble was to lie, and over the years, he's built a career out of his gift for twisting the truth as a con man. Teaming up with two experienced grifters, Manco (Manuel Alexandre) and Federico (Federico Luppi), Ernesto is able to pull off a major scam involving the Spanish Army that scores the three a major payday. This should put Ernesto and his partners on Easy Street, but things begin to go sour when Ernesto is reunited with a former girlfriend, Pilar (Victoria Abril). Ernesto is a soft touch for anything that Pilar might suggest, and when she plots a big con for him and his partners, he offers no objections. However, when Manco dies under hazy circumstances and Ernesto's childhood pal Gipsy (Alejandro Casaseca) conveniently appears wanting to take his place, Ernesto begins to suspect that he may be the one being scammed. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Directed by Marcello Cesena, Mari del Sud (Our Tropical Island) follows a dysfunctional family whose idea of concealing their bankruptcy from friends and family is hiding in the basement of their palatial home while they're presumed to be vacationing. The basement is a disgusting place to live; rat-infested and stocked only with pickled vegetables, trips to the supermarket and attempts to counter their meddling neighbors become full-scale commando operations. As the situation snowballs, the family is unwittingly pushed into a catharsis which will bring them together in a way they hadn't thought possible. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

A slacker finds himself dealing with girl trouble he never knew existed in this offbeat comedy set in Iceland. Hlynur (Hilmir Snær Gudnason) is a 28-year-old layabout who lives with his mother, Berglind (Hanna María Karlsdóttir), in a run-down section of Reykjavík. Though he doesn't have a job, Hlynur makes enough off the dole to spend his evenings drinking beer, and has a girlfriend, Hofi (Thrúdur Vilhjálmdóttir), who regards his lack of ambition with a mildly annoyed tolerance. Berglind decides to take in a boarder, Lola Milagros (Victoria Abril), a lovely young woman from Spain who gives dance lessons. Hlynur is instantly captivated with Lola and begins making a play for her, even though she's an open and unapologetic lesbian. In the midst of a drunken New Year's Eve party, Hlynur wears down Lola's resistance, and the two ring in the new year having sex. Lola soon discovers she's pregnant, but Hlynur is startled to learn that Lola and Berglind are now lovers and they intend to raise the child together -- meaning he's not only competing with his mother for the same woman, but that his child will be brought up as his sibling. As if this weren't enough, Hlynur soon learns that Hofi is also carrying his child. 101 Reykjavík was the debut feature from writer/director Baltasar Kormákur, and received an enthusiastic reception at the 2000 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Often referred to as a cousin to Pedro Almodovar or Bigas Luna, Manuel Gomez Pereira has been covering up his sharp social satire behind nice exteriors in his previous five films. No more nice guy, says Pereira, in an erotic tale of sex-o-mania. And with who else but ravishing Victoria Abril in the role of radio show assistant Miranda who just can't get enough! Miranda meets budding screenwriter Javier (Javier Bardem) during a group therapy session for sex addicts. Javier cannot live without regular telephone sex, while Miranda goes out every night in search of quick sexual encounters. They make love in the back of an abandoned car which has a corpse hidden inside its trunk. Miranda's jealous husband is the cop investigating the case.and it soon looks like Javier has been framed. There is quite a bit of Hitchcock here, which is acknowledged by Pereira. But on the whole, the film does not have a strong structure to carry the weight; the sex addiction theme of the first part goes out of focus when several subplots (unidentified corpse, etc.) distract the audience, resulting in a soft porno picture with little plausibility. The redeeming factor is the convincing acting by the sensual Victoria Abril. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Marcello Mastroianni plays several different roles in this off-beat, witty exploration of a man with multiple personalities from world-class filmmaker Raúl Ruiz. Mastroianni first appears as Parisian traveling salesman Mateo Strano who suddenly shows up at the home of Maria, the wife he abandoned twenty years before. She eventually remarried Andre. Mateo begins telling the skeptical Andre that he never really left Marie. Instead he was bewitched by fairies and has been living in the apartment across the street the entire time. He seems so serious, that he is able to lure Andre to the alleged apartment. There Mateo murders him with a hammer and then calmly returns to Maria who seems nonplused by the sudden turn. With pride she shows Mateo their adopted daughter. Mastroianni next appears as Sorbonne professor of negative anthropology Georges Vickers, a grown man who still lives with his cranky mother until he inexplicably leaves to become a vagrant. Living on the streets, he encounters Tania, a streetwalker with a passion for the philosophies of author Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan. The hooker and the tramp stay together until the day that Vickers returns and he leaves. It is soon afterward that he discovers that Tania is really the president of a major corporation. When he learns that she has been jailed for attempting to murder her creepy ex-husband, Vickers uses his clout to save her. The story then jumps to a newlywed couple happily struggling in a humble garret. Their lives change dramatically when a benefactor suddenly appears and provides them with a marvelous country house. They are also given a mute butler (Mastroianni) who answers their every beck and call. It doesn't take the couple long to figure out that the sinister valet (who actually owns the chateau) is quietly poisoning them. In terror they leave, but later he finds them and demands that they give him their baby daughter. He gives the child to Maria, Mateo's wife. Mastroianni's fourth persona, that of industrial magnate Luc Alamand then appears. He is in trouble when he learns that the wife, daughter, and sister he manufactured to impress potential clients are actually coming. The stress causes the sudden emergence of his other disparate personalities. Interestingly, though each live wildly different lives, they are clearly the same mild-mannered, self-effacing character. The comedy in the story works on wildly different levels with sight gags and puns running simultaneously with literary and cultural satire. Beneath it all runs a serious message about the destructiveness and confusion caused by trying to create a single European culture. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This stylish, taut and unpredictable Spanish thriller is laced with black comedy and social consciousness as it tells the convoluted tale centering on alcoholic, unlucky Gloria Duque, an impoverished Mexico City prostitute. She is first seen performing fellatio on several crooks as they make another drug deal. Something goes awry and violence erupts and two corrupt drug agents and a local gangster die. Eduardo, an Argentine hit man survives and he does not kill Gloria. Just before one of the agents died, he handed Gloria a list of international money-laundering businesses and when things settle down she flies to Madrid, her hometown. There she sees her husband, a bullfighter in an irreversible coma, and begins living off of her mother-in-law's money. Doña Julia cares about her daughter-in-law and tries to get her to give up the booze, go to school and earn a respectable living, but Gloria is stubborn and insists on making it her own way. Unfortunately, her way is to rob a furrier, a front for one of the illicit businesses. Meanwhile, back in Mexico, Eduardo prepares to fly to Spain and complete his latest assignment: to kill Gloria and bring back the valuable list. Fortunately for her, just before Eduardo gets to her, Eduardo sees the light and turns to God instead of killing, but in the end, it is Doña Julia who holds the key to Gloria's final salvation. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Clad in a blonde wig, Joe Pesci stars as the title character, a luckless actor. Unable to make it in the real showbiz world, Jimmy starts fantasizing about fame and fortune. His delusions eventually turn into reality when, through a fluke, Jimmy becomes known to one and all as "Jericho," a Robin Hood-like vigilante. Victoria Abril appears in a supporting role and the film's climax features a number of cameo performances. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, a dying man makes a final, desperate bid to steal his ex-wife away from her new spouse. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi