Juan Diego Movies

A young boy teetering on the edge of adulthood enters into an ill-advised friendship that will ultimately lead to tragedy in this melancholy tale of innocence lost. Thirteen year old Pablo (Gonzalo Sanchez Salas) is a withdrawn adolescent with a troubled past. As summer draws near, Pablo begins receiving tutorials in sex, love, and life from shameless fifteen year old Julia (Ana Tutor), his one true friend. Then, one day, on a lonely road just outside of his village, Pablo crosses paths with well-dressed stranger Paco (Francisco Alfonsin), whose car has just broken down. In the process of helping Paco, Pablo begins to see in the stranger the father he never had. At first, Pablo heeds his fellow villagers' advice and maintains a safe distance from the mysterious Paco. Over time, however, the boy's resolve begins to weaken, and he finds his affection for Paco growing. But Paco's intentions are less than pure, and before he realizes what's happening, Pablo has walked willingly into a situation that will scar him for life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Four years after cresting the pinnacle of cinematic acclaim with his comic festival hit Smoking Room (2002), Spanish writer-director Roger Gual returns with a sophomore outing, Remake (2006). Though this film will inevitably earn critical comparisons to such prior efforts as The Big Chill and Peter's Friends for its ensemble-in-a-house setup, Gual - unlike the directors of those prior efforts- aims straight for dark, multilayered, probing drama on themes of intergenerational disillusionment. The story concerns a tightly-knit group of four 1960s leftist radicals (two men and two women) who formed a hippie commune circa 1968-9, in a Catalunya farmhouse, and proudly upheld a "nontraditional" parental approach that shunned discipline. Over the forty years that followed, these onetime "revolutionaries" paired off, got married, raised their kids and settled into affluent, upper-crust bourgeois lifestyles. They now gather for a reunion in the same farmhouse, accompanied by their grown children, and by the fifth member of their old clique, Max (Mario Paolucci). As the sole remaining resident of the farmhouse, the wholly countercultural Max now plans to sell the property. As the weekend unfurls, the parents begin to project old super-8 movies of themselves from forty years prior, and must simultaneously confront the loss of their 1960s idealism and the ill-adjusted natures of their children, who blame their parents' non-conformist ways for their innate unhappiness and inability to succeed in the everyday world. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A professional actor shocked at the unexpected appearance of his grown, but long estranged son finds his life suddenly thrown into chaos with the arrival of the handsome seducer in director Victor Garcia León's bitterly funny comedy drama. Santiago (Juan Diego) makes a modest living as an actor -- his latest role being that of supporting player in a conventional farce which finds him cast opposite his decidedly younger live-in girlfriend, Ana (Cristina Plazas). When Santiago's thirtysomething son, Guillermo (Juan Diego Botto), suddenly appears on his doorstep without so much as a word of warning, the aging actor is eager to give the boy the boot despite the objections of his charmed girlfriend. Though it soon becomes obvious that Guillermo is a compulsive liar who makes no bones about using his good looks to get in good with the ladies, the roles of father and son gradually begin to shift as Santiago falls into a self-destructive pattern of impotence and self-pity and Guillermo is forced to take care of his troubled dad. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

La Vida Que te Espera stars Juan Diego as Gildo, a farmer who becomes the prime suspect of the authorities when an associate of his is murdered. His rural life does not appeal to his two daughters, and their lack of enthusiasm is compounded when the son of the dead man arrives with motives of his own. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Legendary Mexican director Arturo Ripstein explores the mundane and sexual obsession in 1940s Mexico in his 2002 film The Virgin of Lust. Introverted Ignacio "Nacho" Jurado (Luis Felipe Tovar) spends his days waiting tables at the Cafe Ofelia and his nights amongst his voluminous porno collection. His world is turned upside-down when a prostitute named Lola (Ariadne Gil) begins hanging out at the cafe. Nacho is immediately smitten with the whore, but Lola's mind is focused on a very brutish wrestler who'll have nothing to do with her. Lola, a natural sadist, recognizes Nacho's penchant for being dominated and she begins to fully exploit this chance to unleash her cruelty on a willing recipient. As the relationship settles into its regular perverseness, Nacho is presented with what he sees as an opportunity to capture Lola's heart completely -- to become a macho revolutionary hero by assassinating Francisco Franco. The Virgin of Lust was chosen for inclusion into the Upstream program at the 2002 Montreal World Film Festival, winning a Special Mention prize from that program's jury. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Set in post-Spanish Civil War 1947, this tale of spiritual renewal centers on Julia (Lydia Bosch), a writer and bank owner's daughter who becomes deeply depressed following the political incarceration of her boyfriend, painter Jose Miguel. Leaving her family's bourgeois home, Julia travels to the Asturian village of her childhood vacations, where she meets a host of people who invest her with a renewed sense of spirituality. Included among them are the sage Aunt Gala (Julia G. Caba), whose son, a Republican sympathizer, has been forced into hiding; Gala's daughter-in-law Pilara (Ana Fernandez), whose lack of social standing makes her feel awkward around Julia; Juanito (Manuel Lozano), Pilara's young son; schoolteacher Orfeo (Inaki Miramon); and priest Don Matias (Juan Diego). During the course of her time in the village, both Orfeo and Juanito fall for Julia, and their attractions take on an added weight when Julia receives news that Jose Miguel has died in prison. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Sally Field makes the first of several appearances in the Emmy-winning role of Maggie Wyczenski, the bipolar mother of ER nurse Abby Lockhart (Maura Tierney). Off her medication, a hyper Maggie tries to pay a visit to Abby -- who refuses to see her. Meanwhile, Kovac (Goran Visnjic) looks into a suspected case of child abuse. In a rush to begin her vacation, Elizabeth Corday (Alex Kingston) makes a serious mistake during an operation. And Benton (Eriq La Salle), grieving over his murdered nephew, takes out his rage on Malucci (Erik Palladino) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

Director Antonio Simon and writer Lino Braxe based this period mystery on a '40s screenplay by Luis Buñuel and Jose Rubia Braxe. In northern Spain, Wenceslao Corredoira (Francisco Rabal) negotiates property at Galicia with engineer Oscar Marsal (Nancho Novo). Wenceslao's sister is a bitter widow (Esperanza Roy) who lives in the estate's Gothic mansion, with the usual household of reclusive residents lurking about amid high strangeness, rainstorms, lightning, mysterious harp music, and sex in the stables. Flashbacks reveal the sister's history, and Oscar sets out to find the answer to the house's enigmatic events. Shown at the 1997 Valladolid film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide