Isabel Coixet Movies
Spanish writer/director Isabel Coixet started making films when she received an 8 mm camera for her first communion. After studying 18th and 19th century history at the University of Barcelona, she made a living in advertising and copy writing. This led to making commercials, and eventually to founding her production company, Miss Wasabi Films. In 1983, her first screenplay, Morbus, was made into a movie by Spanish director Ignasi P. Ferré. In 1988, Coixet made her debut as a writer/director with Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven, earning her a Goya nomination for Best New Director. Her first English-language film came about in 1996, with Cosas Que Nunca Te Dije (Things I Never Told You). Starring an American cast led by Lili Taylor and Andrew McCarthy, the emotional drama earned Coixet her second Goya nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Joining up with a French production company, she returned to a Spanish-language script for her 1998 historical adventure A Los Que Aman (Those Who Love).Her international breakthrough came in 2003 with the intimate drama My Life Without Me, based on a short story by Nanci Kincaid. Sarah Polley stars in the film as Ann, a young mother who chooses not to tell her family that she has terminal cancer. A Spanish/Canadian co-production with help from Pedro Almodóvar's El Deseo production company, My Life Without Me won acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
A hired killer makes the mistake of falling for her quarry in this stylish thriller from Spanish writer and director Isabel Coixet. Ryu (Rinko Kikuchi) is a beautiful woman who works in a fish market in Tokyo, but she also leads a secret life as a professional assassin who performs hits for high-paying clients. Ryu is approached by Ishida, an assistant to powerful businessman Mr. Nagara (Takeo Nakahara). Nagara's daughter Midori took her own life after a bad breakup with David (Sergi Lopez), a wine dealer from Spain, and Nagara believes David is responsible; Ishida, who loved Midori from afar, wants David to pay with his life. Ryu approaches David at his shop prepared to kill him, but she's immediately taken with his good looks and charm, and the two spend the night together. Ryu doesn't think she can murder David and tries to call off her assignment, but this turns out to be more difficult than she imagined. Map Of The Sounds Of Tokyo was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Rinko Kikuchi, Sergi López, (more)
Adapted from author Philip Roth's novel The Dying Animal, director Isabel Coixet's elegant tale of obsession explores the relationship between a highly respected professor (Ben Kingsley) and an impossibly gorgeous grad student (Penélope Cruz). As their relationship deepens, the professor finds his ego challenged by the girl's enchanting beauty. Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Penélope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, (more)
- 2007
Filmmakers Isabel Coixet, Wim Wenders, Fernando Leon de Adanoa, Mariano Barroso, and Javier Corcuera team with Javier Bardim's Pinguin Films and the charitable organization Doctors Without Borders to explore a variety of social problems in Africa and Latin America. Acclaimed director Wenders' Invicible Crimes details the plight of raped women in war-torn Congo, while de Adanoa's Good Night Ouma studies former child soldiers in Uganda, and Barroso turns his lens on a conversation between a pharmaceutical company representative and two selfless aid workers in Bianca's Dream. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Javier Bardem
- 2006
A teenage boy is forced to dive into the murky waters of adolescence in this comedy-drama from Argentine filmmaker Alexis Dos Santos. Lucas (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) is a bored and restless fifteen-year-old living in a sleepy town in Patagonia's version of the Middle of Nowhere. Things have hardly been happy at home since Lucas's parent's split up over his father's constant infidelity, and matters are hardly any more comfortable elsewhere. Lucas is obsessed with the changes in his body, he's trying to get the garage band he's formed with his buddies off the ground, and he can think of little besides sex. Lucas's best friend is a similarly confused adolescent, Nacho (Nahuel Viale); together they pass the time by hanging out and playing pranks on others, though Lucas tries not to think about his growing attraction to Nacho. Lucas's sexual confusion rises to a new level when he and Nacho strike up a friendship with Andrea (Ines Efron), the slightly geeky new girl at school; when Lucas's dad leaves him alone to watch over his apartment one weekend, he invites Nacho and Andrea over for the evening, which leads to a long night of sniffing glue and rudimentary making out. Glue (aka Glue: Historia Adolescente En Medio De La Nada) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Nahuel Viale, (more)
- 2006
This short film is filmmaker Isabel Coixet's contribution to the anthology film Paris, Je T'Aime. In it, Sergio Castellitto stars as a philandering husband scheming to break up a long marriage with his wife (Miranda Richardson) and run off with his lover (Leonor Watling) -- only to be greeted by some shocking news when his wife arrives to meet him for dinner. Paris, Je T'Aime premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sergio Castellitto, Miranda Richardson, (more)
Twenty acclaimed filmmakers from around the world look at love in the City of Lights in this omnibus feature. Paris, Je T'Aime features 18 short stories, each set in a different part of Paris and each featuring a different cast and director (two segments were produced by two filmmakers in collaboration). In "Faubourg Saint-Denis," Tom Tykwer directs Natalie Portman as an American actress who is the object of affection for a blind student (Melchior Belson). Christopher Doyle's "Porte de Choisy" follows a salesman (Barbet Schroeder) as he tries to pitch beauty aids in Chinatown. Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier are father and daughter in "Parc Monceau" from Alfonso Cuarón. Animator Sylvain Chomet turns his eye to a pair of living, breathing mimes in "Tour Eiffel." An interracial romance in France is offered by Gurinder Chadha in "Quais de Seine." In "Le Marais" from Gus Van Sant, a man (Gaspard Ulliel) finds himself falling for a handsome gent (Elias McConnell) who works in a print shop. Isabel Coixet tells the tale of a man (Sergio Castellitto) who is making his final choice between his wife (Miranda Richardson) and his lover (Leonor Watling) in "Bastille." Juliette Binoche plays a grieving mother in Nobuhiro Suwa's "Place des Victoires," in which she's greeted by a spectral cowboy (Willem Dafoe). Richard LaGravanese's "Pigalle" finds a long-married man (Bob Hoskins) turning to a prostitute for advice on pleasing his wife (Fanny Ardant). Gérard Depardieu and Frédéric Auburtin direct Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara as longtime marrieds meeting for one final pre-divorce encounter in "Quartier Latin." Steve Buscemi learns a lesson about local etiquette in the Paris Metro in "Tuileries" from Joel and Ethan Coen. In "Loin du 16ème" by Walter Salles, a housekeeper (Catalina Sandino Moreno) longs for her own child as she tends to the infant of her wealthy employer. Elijah Wood stars in "Quartier de la Madeleine," a vampire tale from Vincenzo Natali. Wes Craven presents another fantasy in "Père-Lachaise," in which an engaged young man (Rufus Sewell) receives romantic advice from the spirit of Oscar Wilde (Alex Payne). A postal worker from Colorado (Margo Martindale) shares her thoughts on her visit to Paris in mangled French in Alexander Payne's witty "14th Arrondissement." Other segments include "Place des Fêtes" from Oliver Schmitz, Bruno Podalydès' "Montmartre," and "Quartier des Enfants Rouges" by Olivier Assayas, which stars Maggie Gyllenhaal. Paris, Je T'Aime received its world premiere at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Writer-director Isabel Coixet's (My Life Without Me) beautifully wrought chamber drama The Secret Life of Words opens on Hanna (Sarah Polley), a laconic, backward and introverted girl in her early '30s, quietly drowning in her own isolation. Partially deaf from working an untold number of hours in a loud factory, Hanna must wear a hearing aid. When her supervisors -- deeply concerned about the four years that have lapsed in Hanna's life without a break -- force her to go on holiday for a month, she hesitantly takes off for a coastal village in the north of Ireland. Once there, she decides to dine in a local restaurant, and overhears, by chance, a telephone conversation conducted by Victor (Eddie Marsan), regarding an accident on a nearby oil rig that he precipitated, which left a victim, Josef (Tim Robbins) in its wake. Hanna tells Victor that she is a nurse, and is instantly flown to the rig to treat the bedbound Josef -- temporarily blind from extensive cornea damage, and his body blanketed with severe burns. She also encounters the structure's motley and eccentric band of workers -- from ecologist Martin (Daniel Mays), who spends his time studying mutated mussels that collect on the ship's base and the waves that strike the side of the rig, to Josef, to chef Simon (Javier Camára), who prepares "gourmet" food no one else can stand, to Dimitri (Sverre Anker Ousdal), an elderly gentleman who is as much of a loner as Hanna. As Hanna begins to foresee a new place for herself among these individuals, a relationship gradually develops between Hanna and Josef, who holds his new friend rapt with lyrical, evocative, magisterial tales from his past -- unknowingly drawing Hanna, one step at a time, toward inner joy, self-expression, and revelation of her own sad and complex story. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Tim Robbins, (more)
Isabel Coixet's Mi vida sin mi (My Life Without Me) is a tale of a woman dying before her time. Sarah Polley plays Ann, a 24-year-old mother of two. Ann is married to Don (Scott Speedman), and they live near Ann's mother (Deborah Harry), who is bitter about the fact that Ann's father is serving a ten-year prison sentence. Ann learns that she has only a few months to live. She makes a series of goals to complete before her time on Earth comes to an end. Among her accomplishments are taking a lover (Mark Ruffalo), finding someone to care for Don, and recording birthday greetings for her two daughters. My Life Without Me was screened in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, (more)
- 1998
Set in an unknown time and place during the 18th century, Isabel Coixet's follow-up to her 1996 drama Cosas Que Nunca Te Dije/Things I Never Told You centers on the reminiscences of The Teacher (Julio Nuñez), a 68-year-old man who shows up at the home of young Martin (Gary Piquer) and his ailing wife, with whose sister The Teacher was once romantically involved. The Teacher fell in love with Matilde (Olalla Moreno) sixty years ago when his father, a doctor, took him along on a housecall when she was ill. He meets Matilde again twenty years in the future and finds that though she has married Leon (Christopher Thompson) a French messenger, she still possesses a bewitching childlike innocence. Matilde does not realize that her spouse has fallen into a passionate relationship with the local fencing instructor's seductive daughter Valeria. After another long absence, The Teacher returns to the village. This time Matilde has heard about the ongoing affair. Miserable and eager to learn the truth, she begs The Teacher to take her to the fencing school where Leon and Valeria tryst so she can see for herself. The gallant Teacher refuses, but this doesn't stop the determined Matilde, and tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julio Nunez, Patxi Freitez, (more)
Filmed in St. Helens, Oregon, this comedy-drama centers on highly educated Anne, a young woman forced by circumstance to work in a photographic equipment store. Poor Anne goes into a terrible funk after her lover, a foreign correspondent assigned to Eastern Europe, dumps her via telephone. This, on top her general disillusionment with her current life, drives Anne to attempt suicide. She wasn't terribly serious about it an survives. Realizing she needs help, Anne calls a suicide hot-line and begins talking to Don, a slightly older fellow with few goals and aspirations who works in real estate for his father. Don has worked the Hope Line for many years and nothing really surprises or even interests him anymore, but when Anne calls, something about her touches him. He inadvertently learns her identity and launches a tentative romance with her, even though she doesn't know exactly who he is. Meanwhile Anne makes a maudlin series of video-tapes to send to her lover in hopes of explaining herself to him. Unbeknownst to her, the videos are grabbed and kept by Paul, the delivery boy who has a secret crush upon her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lili Taylor, Andrew McCarthy, (more)
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