Gabino Diego Movies
Santiago Segura and Jésus Bonila headline this madcap Spanish-language ensemble comedy, as Iñigo andPapeles, two klutzy ne'er-do-wells who hear rumors about a Russian gold shipment that failed to reach its destination. The men immediately decide to make good on the legend by finding and claiming the treasure, but in the process, several nutty misfits also learn of the gold, and join the treasure hunt uninvited, one-by-one - leading to one zany shenanigan and crazy detour after another. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Santiago Segura, Jesus Bonilla, (more)
Five strangers from various parts of the Iberian Peninsula experience an outbreak of seemingly unrelated supernatural phenomena that only later take on greater significance in veteran director George Sluizer's 2002 seriocomic fantasy The Stoneraft. Joana (Ana Padrao), Jose (Gabino Diego), Maria (Iciar Bollain), and Joaquim (Diogo Infante) are all experiencing events they cannot logically explain: A flock of starlings follows Jose everywhere he goes, while Joana creates small fault lines with her walking stick; Joaquim not only raises an impossibly large stone with only his hands but also throws it out to sea; while unraveling one sock, Maria discovers the thread has no end. Pedro's (Federico Luppi) -- the fifth stranger -- experience is the most significant, as he alone feels a bizarre tremor that eventually leads to the entirety of Iberia dislodging itself from the rest of the European continent. As the new island begins to drift toward North America and a catastrophic collision appears imminent, the majority of the Spanish and Portuguese populations begin to abandon the renegade land mass. The five prophets, however, seek an answer to all of these puzzling events and are thus drawn together on their mutual quest for truth while preparing for what seems to be an approaching apocalypse. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Federico Luppi, Icíar Bollaín, (more)
Torrente, the thick-headed cop from the successful Spanish comedy Torrente: El Brazo Tonto De La Ley, is back on the beat in this sequel, which actually outdoes the low comedy of the first film. In his second go-round, Torrente (once again played by Santiago Segura, who also wrote and directed the film) has managed to squander his savings while enjoying life (and chasing women) in the resort town of Marbella, so he goes back to work, finding employment as a private detective, with dope-addled ne'er-do-well Cuco (Gabino Diego) signing on as his assistant. Through a series of misunderstandings, Torrente ends up crossing paths with Spinelli (Jose Luis Moreno), a corrupt international arms dealer, and when Spinelli threatens to blow up Torrente unless he receives a ransom of two billion pesetas, the bumbling skirt-chaser becomes the only man who can prevent the destruction. Torrente 2: Mision En Marbella features cameo appearances from a number of popular Spanish comics and television personalities; the first film was one of the biggest grossing homegrown features ever in Spain, and the sequel's box-office success led many to predict Torrente could become the subject of a long-running series. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Santiago Segura, Gabino Diego, (more)
In November 1936, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, while the Fascists are advancing on Madrid, the evacuation of paintings from the Prado Museum begins. Manuel (Gabino Diego), a twenty-eight-year old security guard, finds a self-portrait of Goya abandoned in one corner. As the bombs are already falling on the city, Manuel escapes from the Museum with the painting hidden under his clothes. His intention is to protect the artwork from possible damage. The rest of the story is about Manuel's personal struggle to preserve the masterpiece from the destruction of war and how he is helped by a young woman and her grandfather along the way. La Hora de los Valientes (A Time for Defiance) was screened at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabino Diego, Leonor Watling, (more)
- 1996
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This sophisticated Spanish romantic comedy charts the course of a long-time on-again-off again love affair between Diana Balaguer and Santi Garcia. The story begins at a sumptuous dinner party for the King of Spain. There the beauteous Diana Balaguer makes eye contact with security guard Santi Garcia, and suddenly faints dead away. The story fades from 1996 to 1966, and the film switches from color to black-and-white. Diana is a teenager with a terrible crush on Beatle John Lennon. She sneaks into his room and hides under the bed when Lennon arrives with a groupie. Diana is shocked to find herself hiding beside the handsome Santi. As Lennon and the groupie begin making out, so do the youngsters beneath them. Thus begins their sporadic affair. Over its course, Diana reveals her ambitions to become a society hostess. Unfortunately, Santi simply wants to settle down, get married and raise children. Their differences cause the lovers to drift apart. By the time the film returns to the present tense, both lovers have undergone major changes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ana Belén, Juanjo Puigcorbe, (more)
This Spanish-American production stars Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith, whose romance on the set helped the film set box-office records in Spain. Director Fernando Treuba, who won an Oscar for Belle Epoque, made his English-language debut with Two Much, an updated screwball comedy. Banderas plays a con artist appropriately named Art Dodge. Joan Cusack plays his assistant, Gloria. They specialize in convincing recently widowed women that their husbands ordered an expensive painting before their death. One day, Art tries to work his scam at the funeral of mobster Gene Paletto's (Danny Aiello) father. Gene is outraged by Art, even more so after he steals away his ex-wife, Betty Kerner (Melanie Griffith). Betty quickly falls for the handsome Art and plans to marry him, but he is soon distracted by her beautiful sister, Liz (Daryl Hannah). In order to woo both women, Art disguises himself as fictional brother Bart by removing his ponytail and putting on glasses. Art/Bart switches identities and hops from bed to bed while being pursued by Gene and other mobsters. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith, (more)
- 1993
In this dialogue-free musical, events taking place at the Salon Panama are contrasted with those going on in an electronics warehouse nearby, where a group of Americans are stealing everything in sight. At the nigtclub, a series of music-hall type acts which frequently involve semi-nude chorus girls are put on to entertain a group of rowdy, low-class men.The nightclub barely slows down when the Americans arrive, rape one of the chorus girls, and camp out demanding that the acts continue. The story of this international production is based on an actual incident. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roberto Sosa
- 1992
It is 1620, and the young King of Spain (Gabino Diego) is technically a married man, because the great churchmen have conducted a grand public wedding ceremony joining him with a wife. However, as the real rulers of the state, they have perversely kept him completely innocent in matters of sex, so that his marriage remains unconsummated. One day, one of the king's few friends sees to it that he gets to spend a little time with a high-class prostitute (Laura del Sol). In fact, she's so high class that she's the favorite whore for the Grand Inquisitor himself. After the king's initiation into the joys of the female body, he publicly declares his desire to see his queen naked, which scandalizes his prudish and very hypocritical court. The Inquisitor (Fernando Fernan Gomez), when he learns of the boy's meeting with the prostitute, issues two conflicting instructions to two different aides. He sends one to have her arrested and another to warn her to go into hiding. That kind of convoluted behavior is the norm in this humorous historical drama. One of the controversies the court entertains itself with is whether or not the king committed adultery with the prostitute, since it could be alleged that he wasn't quite completely married at the time, according to the legal and theological conventions of the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabino Diego, Laura del Sol, (more)
After striking responsive chord at the Berlin Film Festival, Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque (aka Age of Beauty) went on to win 9 Spanish Goya awards and an Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film." Set in pre-Franco Spain, film stars Jorge Sanz as Fernando, a carefree, pacifistic army deserter. Wandering about the countryside, Fernando is welcomed into home of the wealthy Don Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez). Far from upset by the boy's AWOL status, Manolo is delighted because he shares Fernando's political philosophies. What follows is sheer heaven for the peaceloving lad, who sits smilingly on the sidelines as Manolo's four voluptuous daughters (Adrian Gil, Maribel Verdu, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, and Penelope Cruz) literally fight for his attentions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Penélope Cruz, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, (more)
- 1991
Javier Zaldivar was politically committed to the values of Franco's army when he fought in the Spanish Civil War, and he carried that commitment with him when he fought against the Russians with the German army in World War II. Thus, he was involved in wars and their aftermath for the better part of a decade. However, whenever he had a moment to spend back home, he would always seek out the company of Luisa, the widow of his old comrade Captain Estrada. Now it is 1947, and he is back in Spain for good. As usual, he seeks out his favorite lover, and as usual, she welcomes him to her bed. However, it turns out that she is also the lover of a leftist and is hiding another man who is wanted for political reasons -- perhaps he fought on the wrong side in the Civil War. Now that he is back for good, it is much more difficult to hide these things from Javier. After finding out about these deceptions, when he follows his political convictions rather than his heart, the consequences are disastrous. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Galiena, Sergi Mateu, (more)
- 1991
It is an interesting fact that Generalissimo Francisco Franco did not relinquish even a tiny bit of his hold on the reins of power in Spain until he had quelled all that country's many separatist and terrorist groups to his satisfaction. It is also quite remarkable that, having done so, he readily passed the reins of government over to parliament and the king. Even so, his heavy-handed tactics in getting there, beginning with the Civil War itself, aroused tremendous criticism and worldwide concern. The 1975 trial, which took place in Burgos, of five men accused of terrorism was a part of that process. It was a worldwide cause celèbre at the time, and this movie loosely uses that story as its basis. However, not only does it not go into the rationales and defense for the activities of the men who were convicted of terrorism (and executed), but it even scants the prosecution's case. Politically knowledgeable reviewers were disappointed in the film, which serves better as a courtroom melodrama than as a recapitulation of history. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juan Echanove, Carmen Conesa, (more)
- 1990
In Ay, Carmela, filmmaker Carlos Saura again harks back to his bitter childhood memories of the Spanish Civil War. Carmela (Carmen Maura), Paulino (Andres Pajares) and Gustavete (Gabino Diego) are travelling entertainers, trouping through Spain to perform their act before the Republican troops. Early one morning, the three artistes find themselves in Franco-controlled territory. In mute terror, the captive entertainers witness the deaths of several innocents at the hands of the fascists. Then they are forced to do a show for their captors. Swallowing their pride and hiding their disgust, the entertainers agree to do so. But Carmela is unable to go through with this humiliation: before an assembly a Francoites, she defiantly sings a paean to the Loyalist cause...and in so doing, achieves martyrdom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carmen Maura, Andres Pajares, (more)
- 1986
The spirit, hopes, and failures of a troupe of itinerant performers in the 1950s create a poignant, humorous leitmotif in this drama by Fernando Fernan-Gomez. The story of the wandering players is told in flashbacks, as Carlos Galvan (Jose M. Sacristan) reminisces about the good times while under therapy with a psychiatrist in a senior citizens' home. Carlos and his lover Juanita (Laura del Sol), his teenage son, his father, and a few other actors try to eke out a living by putting on shows in small towns and villages. No one has very much money, but life is lived to the hilt, and Carlos himself has some pretty tall tales. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José M. Sacristán, Laura del Sol, (more)
- 1984
In his second successful starring role in 1983, Agustín Gonzalez is a father who runs a wine shop in Madrid, a city under a three-year siege (1936-1939) because the Nationalists forces of Francisco Franco need to take Madrid before the fascist dictator can be installed in power. The siege has left the Madrileños with very little food, living under the threat of bombs, and worrying about the prospects of defeat. It is the sense of impending disaster, of hunger and deprivation that is oddly missing from this cinematic interpretation of the play by Fernando Fernán Gómez. The daughter in the family (Victoria Abril) enters into a love affair with a soldier and ends up having a baby, the son (Gabino Diego) is coming of age with the maid - and life seems to go on with all its proverbial ups and downs. But without the sharp dialogue of the play itself, this film is not as tautly strung, or as convincingly real as the stage production. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Soler Leal, Agustin Gonzalez, (more)
