Manuel Gómez Pereira Movies
Spanish director Manuel Gomez Pereira studied communications at the Universidad de Computense de Madrid. He began his film career as a screenwriter, then became an assistant director, and was a director for television until the end of the 1980s. He made his first feature film, Salsa Rosa, in 1991. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
Writer and director Manuel Gómez Pereira takes a look at the funny side of same-sex marriage in this farcical comedy. Magda (Carmen Maura) is the manager of a posh resort hotel that is to be the site of a marriage ceremony bringing three gay couples together at once. One of the husbands-to-be is Magda's son Miguel (Unax Ugalde), who will exchange vows with Óscar (Daniel Hendler). However, while things are harmonious between Miguel and Óscar, Óscar's meddling mother, Ofelia (Betiana Blum), is making life miserable for everyone. Narciso (Paco Léon) will be tying the knot with his lover, Hugo (Gustavo Salmerón), but both are having family problems -- Hugo's uptight parents, Helena (Mercedes Sampietro) and Hector (Tito Valverde), aren't sure if they're willing to attend, while Narciso's man-hungry mom, Nuria (Verónica Forqué), threatens to make a spectacle of the ceremony. And actress Reyes (Marisa Paredes) will be on hand to see her son Rafa (Raul Jimenez) marry Jonas (Hugo Silva), who happens to be the son of her gardener Jacinto (Lluís Homar). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1999
In this farce, noted Spanish director Joaquin Oristrell sets his sights on a raving sexist and the aftermath of his misdeeds. Ex-athlete and restaurateur Arturo splits his time between training his slow-witted son Arturito in the finer points of speed walking and having an affair with his attractive young cook, Cristal, whom he promises to marry. Of course, the latter activity is hardly popular with his beleaguered wife Paz, who seeks comfort with Cristal's father. When Cristal discovers Arturo and Paz having sex in the kitchen, she plots her revenge by attempting to seduce Arturo's son, until she finds herself falling for the naïve boy. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juanjo Puigcorbe, Candela Peña, (more)
- 1998
Often referred to as a cousin to Pedro Almodovar or Bigas Luna, Manuel Gomez Pereira has been covering up his sharp social satire behind nice exteriors in his previous five films. No more nice guy, says Pereira, in an erotic tale of sex-o-mania. And with who else but ravishing Victoria Abril in the role of radio show assistant Miranda who just can't get enough! Miranda meets budding screenwriter Javier (Javier Bardem) during a group therapy session for sex addicts. Javier cannot live without regular telephone sex, while Miranda goes out every night in search of quick sexual encounters. They make love in the back of an abandoned car which has a corpse hidden inside its trunk. Miranda's jealous husband is the cop investigating the case.and it soon looks like Javier has been framed. There is quite a bit of Hitchcock here, which is acknowledged by Pereira. But on the whole, the film does not have a strong structure to carry the weight; the sex addiction theme of the first part goes out of focus when several subplots (unidentified corpse, etc.) distract the audience, resulting in a soft porno picture with little plausibility. The redeeming factor is the convincing acting by the sensual Victoria Abril. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Javier Bardem, (more)
Following the death of her philandering husband Carlos in an automobile accident, Luci and her sisters Graci and Mari decide to go to a seaside resort to have some badly needed fun. Their riotous, romantic summer is recounted by Luci's 15-year-old son Domingo. Before the accident, his mother and her siblings were popular comediennes known as the Three Graces. While at Benidorm, the resort, Luci is periodically haunted by the specter of Carlos who by and by lets her know that he was with 34 women during their marriage. Knowing that, she doesn't feel so guilty about becoming involved with the shy and handsome Italian Salvatore, whom Domingo suspects is responsible for the accident that killed his father. While the youth wrestles with those issues, his aunts are busily involved with their new lovers. The ever-insecure aspiring actress Graci gets involved with Victor, a delivery man moonlighting as a thief. The brassy, blonde Mari gets involved with the oily Claudio, an adulterous married man who nearly has a breakdown when he discovers that his wife has been unfaithful too. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
- Add Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health to QueueAdd Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health to top of Queue
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)
Victor wants to be a famous actor and so has come to Madrid in search of work. There he meets representatives of a Hollywood film company. They want him to appear in their next film as a real macho man. Meanwhile Victor works for a phone sex company and is called by lonely, closeted plastic surgeon, Ricardo and his "wife" Amanda. This riotous Spanish comedy chronicles what happens when Victor and Amanda fall in love. To help her get a divorce, he offers to take incriminating photos of himself and Ricardo making love so that she can sue for divorce. When he learns that Amanda is not Ricardo's wife, Victor is very surprised. Meanwhile, the real wife, Angela and her lover, her husband's business partner, want to kill Ricardo. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Javier Bardem, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, (more)
This Spanish sex-comedy comes from director Manuel Gomez Pereira and focuses on a trio of divorced men who agree to swear off relationships with women. Burned to many times by the fairer sex, roommates Juan, Joaquin, and Manolo make a pact that they will stay single forever. However, when they meet their new maid, they all fall head-over-heels and the agreement goes right out the window. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Two wild-living sex workers have to disguise themselves as pillars of the community for the sake of their families in this outrageous comedy from Spain. Gloria (Veronica Forque) is an exotic dancer, who, to her initial dismay, is given a new performing partner at the club where she works -- Manu (Jorge Sanz), a handsome young man, who, unfortunately, has precious little dancing experience. Manu comes from a prominent and respectable family, but thinks dancing would be fun, and a simple way to make some money. Despite a rocky start, Gloria and Manu get to be good friends, and he responds well when she shows him the ropes of their new routines. Eventually, Gloria and Manu end up sharing a flat, but when Manu's parents announce they're going to pay a visit, he and Gloria have to transform themselves from a pair of libertines into a normal middle-class couple practically overnight. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Verónica Forqué, Jorge Sanz, (more)
- 1989
This wacky comedy depicts a single day in and around the set of a movie on the Spanish Civil War being filmed in a working class Madrid neighborhood. Paloma, (Ana Belen), a bored housewife with a husband who is too concerned about being exploited by "the ruling classes" to work, must evade the romantic advances of an unattractive fishmonger, and cope with the attentions the male lover of a homosexual fascist is showering on her daughter. Meanwhile, she engages in a tryst with the equally bored fading film star Luis Doncel (Juan Luis Gallardo). Everyone on the set is waiting for the director to show up, but he's too heavily involved in a domestic dispute to work. Meanwhile, a series of strikes has brought Madrid to a virtual standstill. Director/co-writer Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez manages to satirize virtually every aspect of contemporary Spanish society, as well as relationships between the sexes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ana Belén, José M. Sacristán, (more)
- 1988
Chusa is a fashionable and party-loving denizen of modern-day Madrid. Some of her flashy lifestyle is paid for by her amateur hashish-smuggling operation. Like many others, she often flies down to Morocco to score some of this marijuana-derived drug and then smuggles it back in various places on her body. She would like to smuggle more but needs a reliable courier. One candidate for the operation is Elena, an old friend of hers. However, there is just one problem: Elena is a virgin, and at least one of her body orifices won't accommodate much of the drug. Chusa asks her policeman boyfriend to help Elena past this handicap, and he reluctantly agrees. Unfortunately for her, the two friends become much friendlier than she had intended, and soon she is on her own, her smuggling plans in a shambles. When she gets to Morocco, she experiences even more setbacks. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Verónica Forqué, Antonio Banderas, (more)
- 1987
In this romantic farce, Macarena is a pretty French girl who has come to Cordoba in southern Spain in search of a man she believes may be her father. She finally tracks him and his clan down in a minor city museum: they have become squatters there during one of the museum curator's brief absences. Two policemen have been given the job of persuading the wacky family to vacate the premises. Their response to these blandishments is to threaten to destroy the museum's treasures. At the same time her maybe-father's two sons are putting the make on her, one of the policemen has taken up residence with the family and is dancing with them, as a police SWAT team prepares to storm the building. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Rey, Juan Diego, (more)
