Ana Gracia Movies
- 2006
A rare ailment literally takes a young man on a journey of the unexpected in this off-kilter comedy from Spanish filmmaker Santo Amodeo. Samuel (Juan Jose Ballesta) is a seemingly ordinary nineteen-year-old with an unusual problem. Samuel suffers from an uncommon brain disorder that causes him to have periodic spells where he goes into a trance, making it impossible for him to interact with people or things around him. While Samuel tries to live a normal life, his difficulties become apparent when he attends a funeral and bumps into his cousin Eduardo (Julian Villagran) for the first time in years. Eduardo invites Samuel to spend a few days with him and he agrees; that night, they go out to a club, but after a few hours of partying, Samuel feels an attack coming on and needs to take a nap. Samuel heads outside and crawls into the back of a van; the next morning, he wakes up to find the driver of the van took an overnight trip, and he’s now in Madrid, hundreds of miles away from Eduardo’s place. Samuel now had to find the owner of the van and persuade them to take him back home; as he scours Madrid, he encounters a handful of local eccentrics, including seductive Rosa (Ana Wagener), scatterbrained Consuelo (Adriana Ugarte) and Angelito (Manuel Alexandre), an elderly gentleman living with Alzheimer’s. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juan José Ballesta, Adriana Ugarte, (more)
- 2000
Somewhere in 19th-century Cantabria, Adelaida (Elena Anaya) meets and falls in love with Eusebio (Eduardo Noriega). Unfortunately, Eusebio is drafted for the Spanish-Cuban war. When news comes that he has died, Adelaida refuses to believe it, and her repressive family throws her into the local nuthouse, where, after a time, she realizes that she can do some good and rebels against her family. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elena Anaya, Eduardo Noriega, (more)
- 1996
This thriller is a remake of the popular Spanish 1963 version and marks the directorial debut of Jesus Mora. Ex-con Roman is on the road to reform until he gets close to thirty and has a crisis about his heretofore wasted life. He finds himself torn between the criminal temptations offered by Martin, and the sweet rewards of honesty offered by his girlfriend Marisa. Roman chooses the former and with former druggie Picas and his pregnant wife Julia, begins conspiring to help Martin rob an armored car slated to carry the spoils from a big rock concert to the bank. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Carmen (Mercedes Sampietro) is a puzzle to all the people who surround her: her parents, her grown son, and a charming literature professor. They cannot understand how she can prefer solitude to being in their company. Her work certainly thrives in solitude, as she is a restorer of old paintings. She is content to care for one of her infant grandchildren and a new puppy in splendid isolation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mercedes Sampietro, José M. Sacristán, (more)
- 1985
Hypocrisy and betrayal are the two dramatic pivots in this effective, emotionally gripping tragedy about the life and death of Paco (Antonio Banderas), a Spanish peasant who had been fighting against the feudal landowning system that kept farmers impoverished. Paco's life is told in flashbacks by a priest (Antonio Ferrandis) who is seen officiating at an anniversary mass attended by three wealthy landowners and no one else. The priest recalls Paco's baptism, his communion, his marriage ceremony and then his work for the peasants as he advocated and led them in a land-reform movement. The rest of the story will rest heavy on the priest's conscience, as he looks out at his empty church. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fernando Fernán Gómez
- 1985
This entertaining comedy is set in 1938 during the Spanish Civil War when a group of Republican soldiers sneak into a village in enemy territory to steal a bull with plans of butchering it to feed themselves. Fate and the bull itself, however, have other plans. One of the surreptitious bull-snatchers knows the village well -- he grew up there, but that advantage alone cannot guarantee their success, as it turns out. The group of five would-be thieves dress themselves in uniforms of the Nationalist troops in an attempt to dissimulate their true identity. But instead of a neat getaway with a bull in tow, they are caught up in the "correo" or running of the bull, they get involved in a religious procession, and in the end, watch as the bull breaks out of a flimsy ring in a bullfight and heads for the hills. Still hungry, the group of men now have to worry about getting back to their own battalion before they are found out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guillermo Montesinos, Alfredo Landa, (more)
- 1985
In this standard tale of crime and deception, an innocent postman (Antonio Resines) is duped into carrying drugs into the country (Spain) by a woman who takes advantage of him in more ways than one. She is, in a sense, a "Mate Hari," a woman who drinks so much of the popular Argentine beverage mate, that she is nicknamed the "queen" of that drink. Her cohorts also take advantage of the poor postman -- he is variously cajoled and threatened and robbed of some of his own profits. Long-standing cliches of Latinos as seen from the viewpoint of Spaniards make these low-life South Americans thickly accented and prone to break out in a tango at the slightest provocation -- though they are supposed to be from Argentina after all. The inevitable accounting eventually comes, as might be expected.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Muñoz, Antonio Resines, (more)
