Jose Luis Olaizola Movies
- 1999
Veteran Spanish director Luis Garcia Berlanga created this anarchic black comedy about sexual impotence and millennial anxiety. Though a Paris-based plastic surgeon spends much of his time and wealth on prostitutes, he is plagued by impotence. Despondent, he plans to commit suicide. After happening upon a bike with "Paris-Timbuktu" painted on it, he decides to bike from France to Africa and kill himself there on New Year's Eve. But when his plans are thwarted in Spain by a painful boil on his bottom, he is forced to room with a pair of sisters in a remote village. Through them, he finds himself increasingly immersed in the local community, populated by the likes of a clergyman suspected of murder, a nudist garage mechanic, and a bizarre champion cyclist. Paris-Timbuktu was screened at the 1999 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Concha Velasco, (more)
In 1970, a dysfunctional family spends the summer in Ibiza on the southern coast of Spain. Julia (Veronica Forque) is married to adulterous Fernando (Antonio Resines), who departs when he's caught in the act by Julia. Julia's two daughters Elena (Maria Adamez) and Veronica (Silvia Abascal) are both attracted to hippie Ezequiel (Fele Martinez). Meanwhile, Julia's eldest son Cucho (Pepon Nieto) falls for free-spirited Susi (Clara Sanchis). Julia attempts to keep her family together amid the hedonistic lifestyles of the '70s. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Verónica Forqué, Antonio Resines, (more)
- 1996
Love leads to vengeance in this thriller that is based on a novel by Joaquin Leguina. Inspector Paco attends a funeral where he encounters his former police partner Angel. This inspires a flashback. The year was 1942, the Spanish Civil War raged, and Paco and Angel were investigating a triple homicide that occurred in the home of the deceased. Back at the funeral, the two meet Julia, the daughter of the dead man whom they knew back during the war. She tells Angel all the details of her life since then and in so doing gives him the clues he needs to finally solve the case. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
This lively western from Spain centers on the exploits of a wealthy young troublemaker who escapes from a Franciscan monastery and teams up with a handsome country boy who has run away from the Army. Together the two try to become outlaws and pose as gang members under the notorious El Argentino, an outlaw who plies his trade upon the border of Portugal and Galicia in northern Spain. The two "bandidos" steal horses and rob a taxman as they flee for the border. Along the way another fellow joins them. Much to their surprise, the fellow turns out to be a female reporter for the New York Times, hoping to interview El Argentino. Unfortunately, the outlaws have never met him. They meet him soon enough when he captures them. Proving to be a vain but basically good-hearted outlaw, he spares them and together they all take off with the Civil Guard hot on their trail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This Spanish comedy set in a Valencia prison, contains political overtones. A promoter decides to organize a gala dinner to pay tribute to the political prisoners. Naturally the media is invited to the event. Every one at the dinner comes with his or her own agenda and it isn't long before anything that can go wrong does go wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Sazatornil, José M. Sacristán, (more)
- 1993
Carmen (Mercedes Sampietro) is a puzzle to all the people who surround her: her parents, her grown son, and a charming literature professor. They cannot understand how she can prefer solitude to being in their company. Her work certainly thrives in solitude, as she is a restorer of old paintings. She is content to care for one of her infant grandchildren and a new puppy in splendid isolation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mercedes Sampietro, José M. Sacristán, (more)
- 1992
In Basque country, feuds, governments, and wars come and go, while cows placidly observe the strange behaviors of the humans who care for them. In 1875, during a massacre inspired by an out-of-control family feud, a farmer and his friend find themselves in a ditch together. One of them dies, and the other survives by playing possum using his friend's blood as a disguise. As the film flashes forward in time, the man is now a grandfather who amuses himself by painting the tranquil gaze of cows over and over again, while he observes that his son is having an affair with his dead friend's granddaughter. Finally, during the Civil War in 1936, violence again mars the life of the family, as the illegitimate son of the earlier affair attempts to make headway with his life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emma Suarez, Carmelo Gómez, (more)
- 1988
When the forces of Gen. Francisco Franco overthrow the duly elected (but leftist) Republican government, soldiers loyal to the government head for the hills in northern Spain. The soldiers survive by making raids for food and by committing robbery and the kidnapping of a wealthy local. They spend years after the conflict in hiding, but their number soon dwindles to one when the rest are captured or shot. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Santiago Ramos, Antonio Resines, (more)
- 1987
In this comedy, a manufacturer of turrón, a candy which resembles the honey-almond confection halvah, wants to promote it outside the regions of southern Spain where it is a traditional Christmas treat. It is particularly associated with a festival during which the wars between the Christians and the Moors are ritually reenacted. The manufacturer and his sons travel to a Madrid food festival to sell, sell, sell. The father also persuades his reluctant daughter, a woman with political ambitions, to use her connections to help promote their candy. With some difficulty, they garner a mention in a women's weekly magazine and on a television program. In a macabre comedy scene, having returned home, the manufacturer dies and is put in a coffin that is too small and is paraded down the street during the aforementioned festival in Alicante. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Fernán Gómez, Andres Pajares, (more)
- 1985
In this downbeat and drawn-out story of personal woe in exile, Martin (Federico Luppi) takes his daughter and leaves Uruguay to live in a specific city in northwestern Spain. Passing himself off as a basketball coach (a total scam -- he knows zip about the game), he manages to support the two of them and at the same time, he goes out looking for the woman he once loved. Meanwhile, his wife's divorce lawyer is requesting the daughter to come home and live with her mother, and when Martin finally hunts down his former lover, she has about as much interest in him as his estranged wife. The exiled Uruguayan is definitely between a rock and a hard place, as his circumstances deteriorate from there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Federico Luppi, Charo Lopez, (more)
- 1983
Confusion seems to settle over this drama like dust on a polished surface, until the layers are so thick that nothing is seen clearly any more. Andrés (José Sacristán) goes back to Spain from Mexico because a lawyer has sent for him. Andrés has inherited an enormous piece of property -- an old mansion of a house -- and although his half-brother offers him a good sum of money for the structure, Andrés hesitates. He wants to know more about the circumstances of his father's death which happened when Andrés was six; he is also becoming infatuated with the lawyer's daughter, and some men are threatening him -- men who may or may not be hired by his half-brother. In the end, Andrés fares better than the plot itself. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José M. Sacristán, Fernando Fernán Gómez, (more)
