Ariadna Gil

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, All Movie Guide

A thirteen year-old girl from a scenic village in Argentina strikes up a tender friendship with a cynical architect hired to design a house for his Buenos Aires client in director Alberto Lecci's heartfelt drama. Carlos (Gaston Pauls) arrives in the picturesque pueblo of Purmamarca to design a house for one of his wealthy clients. Recently separated from his wife, the lifelong urbanite has little patience for the placid, small-town logic displayed by the local populace. Carlos soon finds his scorn for the country-dwellers disarmed, however, by the unguarded honesty of his adolescent, self-appointed guide Estela (Marina Vilte). Though the pair enters into a platonic relationship that helps each to form a better understanding of the world that exists outside of their respective comfort zones, Carlos and Estela soon find the delicate balance of their friendship disrupted when Carlos' estranged wife Ana (Ariadna Gil) makes an unexpected appearance in the town. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

With his gentle ensemble comedy Bienvenido a casa (aka Welcome Home), Spanish director David Trueba meditates on one man's passage from youth to the emotional maturity of adulthood. In the process, Trueba takes a wise and reflective look at the dynamics of contemporary relationships, romantic and otherwise. Alejo Sauras is Samuel, an aspiring photographer who makes the broad leap from his rural village in the Spanish countryside -- where he lives under the thumb of his domineering mother -- to the wonderland of urban Madrid. He moves in with his girlfriend, Eva (Pilar Lopez de Ayala), and accepts a position as resident photojournalist for a local culture magazine, where his eccentric colleagues include a slightly embittered, blind movie critic (with a blind guide dog), a burnt-out sports columnist, and a depressed vocalist/instrumentalist who pens the music column. Through the various employees, Trueba reveals a spectrum of attitudes toward love and romance. The remainder of the story finds Samuel teaming up with the magazine's reporter, Sandra, for an investigative story on a murder related to human trafficking. Meanwhile, Samuel begins to grapple, privately, with problems in his marital life -- specifically, how to preserve the love, romance, and devotion he feels for Eva (and she for him). Samuel's watchful mother cautions him not to repeat the same mistakes that she once made -- but the past comes back to haunt Samuel in the guise of a fateful encounter with a childhood friend, Nieves. Then, suddenly, Eva announces her pregnancy. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A woman uncovers some unsettling truths about her country and its history in this drama from Spain. Lola (Ariadna Gil) is a writer who feels creatively stifled and hasn't been able to work out a new idea in months. Looking for something to clear her creative block, She takes an assignment to write a piece about Rafael Sanchez Mazas (Ramon Fontsere), a writer who sided with the fascists during the Spanish Civil War. While legend has it Mazas was killed by Republican troops, the truth is he was given protection and shelter by Friends of the Forest, a group of men who lived in the woods. As Lola tries to search out Joaquim Figueras, one of the last surviving Friends of the Forest, she discovers a soldier who captured Mazas and was prepared to shoot him, but opted to let him go at the last moment. As Lola's writer's block dissolves, she digs deeper in search of the truth about this elusive man and his mysterious actions during the war. Soldados de Salamina was based on a true story and the real-life Joaquim Figueras appears in the film, along with several other people who took part in the shelter and capture of Mazas. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Sergei Bodrov takes a break from his usual socio-political dramas in Bear's Kiss, a surreal fairy tale following Lola (Rebecca Liljeberg), the 14-year-old daughter of long-time circus employees, and her love affair with a shape-shifting bear who calls himself Misha (Sergei Bodrov Jr.). When her father, Marco (Maurizio Donadoni), is killed in a tragic car accident, the circus caravan travels to Spain, where several gypsy fortune-tellers explain the mysterious art of shape-shifting and the responsibilities it entails. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Three famous vocalists find their lives don't harmonize well off-stage in this farcical comedy. Armand Dupres (George Hamilton), Ricardo Palacios (Joe Mantegna), and Fabrizio Bernini (Danny Aiello) are three well-respected opera singers who have risen to superstardom thanks to a successful series of recordings and performances as a trio. However, after a disastrous concert in Mexico City, the three singers (all possessing king-sized egos) split up the act and refuse to talk to one another. A few years later, Palacios' career has taken a nosedive, and he's willing to set aside his differences and put the group back together. However, that's before he discovers that Dupres is engaged to marry his rebellious daughter Carmen (Ariadna Gil), and that his ex-wife has married Bernini. Can Palacios stop the wedding between Dupres and Carmen, win back his wife from Bernini, and still get the trio back on the road? ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

One man's search for love takes him on an unexpected journey in this purposefully offbeat romantic comedy, which picks up where Eliseo Subiela's El Lado Oscuro Del Corazon left off. Struggling poet Oliverio (Dario Grandinetti) is still looking for the perfect woman, though his standards are a bit on the high side; he wants a woman whose passion will literally allow him to fly, and those who fail to make the grade disappear down a trap door near his bed. Oliverio is taken with Miranda (Carolina Peleritti), but while he wants love without commitments, she wants a stable relationship, so he sets out to find Ana (Sandra Ballesteros), an upscale prostitute with whom he once had a fiery affair. As it turns out, Ana is willing to offer Oliverio a one-night-stand, but with a daughter to look after, she isn't interested in much more than that. With his constant companions Female Death (Nacha Guevara) and Time (Manuel Bandera) at his side, Oliverio decides to travel to the coast of Spain in hopes of finding Alejandra (Ariadna Gil), a lovely high-wire artist he's seen on a circus poster. Oliverio meets Alejandra and tries to win her heart, but before she'll get involved with him, she demands that he prove his love by performing a dangerous tightrope routine, leaving Oliverio to wonder if this is more commitment than he can handle. Bringing back many of the players and locations from the first film, El Lado Oscuro Del Corazon 2 received its North American premier at the 2001 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the working-class Paris suburb of Montreuil, Jimmy's (Bruno Solo) restaurant, the Bombay Bar, is on the verge of being closed down by creditors. Jimmy is despondent -- the fact that his wife is about to have a baby isn't helping matters -- when he and his business partner Fifi (Lorant Deutsch) find unlikely inspiration in the form of "Riches et Sympas," a TV show dedicated to the lives of the rich and famous. Figuring that getting the "right" people to frequent their business will ensure its reputation, Jimmy and Fifi persuade Jimmy's friend, the laid-back, unemployed Mike (Samuel Le Bihan), to pose as a nobleman and lure his moneyed associates to the Bombay Bar. Mike agrees, and after crashing a posh charity ball, he finds himself being taken in by the likes of society fixture Arthus de Poulignac (Lambert Wilson) and Evrard (Guillaume Gallienne), the latter of whom ensconces Mike in his private mansion. Unfortunately, Mike soon becomes a little too fond of his newly-acquired lifestyle, leaving Jimmy to wonder what to do with the monster he unwittingly created. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Gerardo Vera directs this romantic drama about self-destructive love and sexual confusion. Alberto (Jordi Molla) is a respected aeronautical engineer married to artist Elena (Ariadna Gil) and has a son. Yet Alberto soon finds himself seduced by the wiles of hunky orthopedic surgeon Diego (Javier Bardem). Alberto admits to being unfaithful to his wife -- after she confronts him with incriminating evidence -- but he does not reveal that he cheated on her with a man. Seeking revenge, Elena goes out and sleeps with her co-worker Rafa (Javier Albala). Later, though Elena tries to welcome her errant husband back, he continues to shuttle between her and his gay lover. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Actor Jacques Weber made his directorial debut with this film adaptation of Don Juan written in 1665 by Moliere (1622-1673). In early 17th-century Spain, two women (Penelope Cruz, Ariadne Gil) believe Don Juan (Weber) when he promises marriage to both, but they soon are left to ponder his whereabouts. However, the brothers of Elvire (Emmanuelle Beart), also abandoned by Don Juan, are out for revenge. Musical interludes (a cappella chorales, guitar) are by Bruno Coulais. After Moliere faced clerical opposition to Tartuffe (1664), it was banned, and he then wrote Don Juan, also subjected to continual attacks. For more on Moliere and Don Juan, go to the summary of Frederick Wiseman's La Comedie Francaise ou L'amour Joue (1996). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Spanish author Manuel Vincent, this drama chronicles the coming-of-age of a young man who grew up in Spain during the late '50s, the time when Franco's regime was dominating the country. The film opens in 1957 as Manuel returns from boarding school to his home village in Valencia. While trying to readjust to village life and his old friends and family, Manuel joins the ranks among those who follows El Bola, a cigar-chomping, portly, boisterous fellow with an official demeanor that has everyone around him fooled into thinking him a man with high-ranking connections. El Bola decides it is time for Manuel to lose his virginity and so tries to convince the youth to visit the town brothel, but Manuel is not interested. His heart has been captured by a pretty young girl to whom he has never spoken. Back at home, his father disdains Manuel's dream of becoming a writer and makes him choose between the priesthood and becoming a lawyer. Manuel chooses the latter and so goes off to school in Valencia. No sooner does he arrive than he sees the pretty girl and follows her to Malvarrosa Beach where he encounters a wedding party as they are being thrown out of a cafe by one of Franco's generals who wants the place for his own debauched revelry. In school, Manuel meets a professor with subversive ideas who provides him with a number of banned books. So it goes for Manuel with each subsequent anecdote commenting slyly upon the effects of fascism on the Spanish people ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In post-Franco Spain, a woman is hard-pressed to figure out what the new rules for women are. In this melodrama based on the novel by Almudena Grandes, Malena (newcomer Adriana Gil) explores life and relationships in the ever-changing world she finds herself in. Complicating matters for Malena is the example of her older sister, Reina, who is impeccably well-behaved. What's a girl to do except seek solace in the arms of as many men as possible? As she stumbles from catastrophe to catastrophe, Malena becomes her family's poster-child for what not to do with one's life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide