Luis De Icaza Movies

Humor and tragedy mingle in this film, which examines the lives of a handful of people living in a large Mexico City apartment complex. Teresa (Lorena Rojas) has an unexpected encounter with a boy she knew from high school; where she once taunted him as a bookworm, she now finds herself attracted to him sexually. Horacio (Rafael Sanchez Navarro) loses his job, and his wife Eva (Veronica Merchant) responds by demanding a divorce. Josafat (Salvador Garcini) and his wife Ruth (Toni Marcin) are a deeply religious couple who are not sure how to react to their new upstairs neighbors (Cristina Michaus and Odiseo Bichir), who have sex loudly, enthusiastically, and frequently. Celina (Ana Martin) is a prostitute who finds herself attracted to her teenage son Santiago (Jairo Gomez); Santiago, on the other hand, seems uncertain about his sexuality, and sometimes plays peeping Tom with one of the gay men in the building when he isn't trying on Celina's clothes. And elderly Mr. Cano (Jorge Galvan) finds his children rushing to his side after he has a stroke, though they aren't as interested in helping him once they discover he's lost his money and there is no inheritance for them. Corazones Rotos was shown at the 2001 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set in 17th century Mexico, Ave Maria tells the story of Maria Ines (Tere Lopez Tarin), a novice at a Spanish mission whose father is a major figure in the court of Spain. Maria is exceptionally bright and a student of astronomy, botany, and cartography, but her desire to expand her horizons does not make her popular with the friars of the mission, especially Father Serra (Alfredo Sevilla). When Maria's father kills himself, she finds she is no longer a favored novice at the convent, demoted to performing physical labor rather than intellectual exercises. Maria becomes delusional and starts hearing voices as she obsessively cleans the floors of the chapel. Abandoning her inheritance and her last vestiges of privilege, she leaves the mission to work among the poor, where she is said to be able to heal the sick with her faith. The fathers at the convent are outraged, and one, Father Cuna (Damian Alcazar), who has already killed Father Serra to seize control of the mission, makes it clear that Maria is to be stopped at all cost. The directorial debut from Eduardo Rossoff, Ave Maria was shown at the 1999 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An aging ex-prostitute comes to terms with her questionable past in this Mexican comedy from director Carlos Garcia Aqraz. In her youth Amelia del Valle was known as La Paloma de Marsella (The Pigeon of Marsella). Now, as Amelia enters her twilight years, she looks to the past with a newfound sense of peace while anticipating the future with no fear of death or old age. Later, an adventurous Amelia throws caution into the wind by accepting an opportunity to appear on television as she learns that life can still hold wonderful surprises and great adventures. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This surreal variant on the classic vampire tale is the directorial debut of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who garnered international acclaim and several awards. The film tells the story of elderly antique dealer Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi, in a role originally written for Max Von Sydow) who, with his eight-year-old granddaughter Aurora (Tamara Shanath), discovers an ancient artifact secreted within a statue obtained from the estate of a 16th-century alchemist. Unbeknownst to Gris, the device -- which resembles an ornate, gilded mechanical beetle -- houses an immortal parasite which will grant eternal life to its host. Naturally, there is a terrible price for this gift, which Gris is doomed to discover after the object anchors itself to his body. He begins to develop an extreme aversion to daylight, as well as an agonizing thirst for human blood. To compound matters, dying millionaire Dieter de la Guardia (Claudio Brook) has learned of the device's existence -- thanks to an occult tome obtained from its inventor -- and wishes to obtain it for his own use. To this end he employs his vain, brutish nephew Angel (Ron Perlman) to retrieve it for him. Angel's techniques are less than subtle, and he inevitably winds up killing Gris in his futile search for the artifact... but death is not permanent for the host of the Cronos, and he rises from the mortuary slab to reunite with the long-suffering Aurora. Together they confront de la Guardia and his nephew one last time, hoping to find a way to reverse the horrible process before Gris suffers the same monstrous fate as the device's creator. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide