Marisa de Leza Movies
- 1983
This sequel to Valentina jumps ahead eight years where the gentle-poet Pepe is studying in a university and doing an internship in a pharmacy lab. Though it has nearly been a decade, he is still in love with the beautiful Valentina. Unfortunately, things in Spain are getting more tense as his countrymen prepare to rebel against the oppressive government. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miguel Molina, Christina Marsillach, (more)
- 1982
- PG
A soldier in a French prison camp circa spins the yarns of his youth to entertain his follow inmates in this drama from Spanish director Antonio Jose Betancor. As the defeated Spanish Republican army soldiers ponder their circumstances while serving time behind enemy lines, the stories of Jose Garces' (Antonio Canal) childhood, and his love for Valentina (Paloma Gomez), a neighbor girl in his small northeastern Spain community, transport the downbeat soldiers to a happier time. A raucious little rascal who never failed to get into trouble, the smitten youngster beams his declarations of love from the rooftops via semaphore while simultaniously developing a taste for poetry. Despite the trouble he may have caused by killing her father's breeding pigeons, Jose learns what it takes to become a respectable man when his kindly priest and tutor tell him the tales of history's most valiant men. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Jorge Sanz, (more)
- 1959
Set during one day in Retiro Park in Madrid, this series of static skits involves people interacting in the park or sitting on benches, and talking. People passing through the park include a gentleman looking for a wealthy woman to romance. The woman he encounters, and other characters, alternate between the comic and the melodramatic as the skits unfold. Based mainly on dialogue rather than action, this day in the park features talented actors with not that much to say underneath it all. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luisa della Noce, Fernando Rey, (more)
- 1959
This slow-paced, uneven costume drama centers on the life and times of the legendary Andalucian bandolero, Diego Corrientes-Mateos, born in August of 1759 in the town of Utrera. Set against a backdrop of scenic countryside landscapes and idyllic small towns, Corrientes' story unfolds. As this film illustrates, he took up a nomadic existence through no fault of his own, and robbed from the rich to give to the poor. His generosity is his most salient character trait, along with his refusal to kill or harm anyone he robbed. Sought by his arch-nemesis Don Francisco de Bruma, the regent of Seville, Corrientes was betrayed and captured in March of 1781. After three weeks in abominable conditions in a solitary cell, he was dragged to his place of execution, hanged, and then dismembered. He was twenty-four years old. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Suárez, Marisa de Leza, (more)
The short life and quick death of Alexander the Great is recounted in this literate historical epic. Decked out in a blonde wig, Richard Burton stars as the Grecian warrior who conquered the known world while only in his twenties, then wept because there were no more worlds left to conquer. While the film's 141 minutes are occasionally bogged down by near-existential dialogue sequences (What doth it profit a man etc. etc.), the battle sequences are among the best and most accurate ever filmed. Fredric March and Danielle Darieux costar as Alexander's parents Philip of Macedonia and Olympius, Claire Bloom does what she can with the nothing role of Alexander's wife Barsine, and Michael Hordern and Harry Andrews are cast as Demosthenes and Darrius, respectively. Lensed in Spain and Italy, Alexander the Great conquered no new worlds at the box-office, perhaps because Richard Burton, brilliant though he was, hadn't yet attained "saleability". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Fredric March, (more)
