Antonio Larreta Movies

Based on a historical novel by Antonio Larreta, Volaverunt imagines a number of romantic misadventures that enlivened the court of King Carlos IV, a Spanish ruler of the early 19th century. As the story opens, the beautiful Duchess of Alba (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) is sharing a coach passing through Andalusia with artist Francisco de Goya (Jorge Perugorria), Prime Minister Manuel de Godey (Jordi Molla), and Pepita Tudo (Penelope Cruz), a peasant girl. Goya and de Godey are obviously charmed by the Duchess's exotic beauty and free-spirited attitude, but the Prime Minister is equally smitten with Pepita. The Prime Minister invites her to the royal court in Madrid, where she becomes his mistress and the subject of several of Goya's paintings. However, Queen Maria Luisa (Stefania Sandrelli) disapproves of de Godey's new love, and instead arranges for him to marry the Countess de Chinchon (Maria Alonso), a plain-Jane member of low-level royalty. The Duchess is upset with de Godey's marriage, as it keeps her away from a collection of royal jewelry she covets. When the Duchess suddenly and mysteriously dies, Goya, de Godey, and Pepita are all murder suspects and must confess where they were and what they were doing at the moments leading up to her death. While the film itself received mixed notices, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon received the Silver Shell as Best Actress at the 1999 San Sebastian Film Festival. The version screened at San Sebastian and several other festivals in the fall of 1999 was director Bigas Luna's original cut; the film's producers announced that the film would be re-edited for international release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

For Astarlos, living in Madrid at the time of the troubled rule of Isabel the Second in 1868, fencing is not an outmoded method of personal combat, but it is a way of life. It teaches lessons about comportment, attention, responsiveness to others, and taking responsibility for one's own life. Further, it is an aristocratic art, and the heart of aristocratic sentiment (no matter what one's station of life at birth) is to take responsibility for those who are less fortunate than oneself. Noblesse oblige. In this drama, the fencing master seeks to remain true to his values during a turbulent time which imperils his student's lives. One student is a beautiful and mysterious young woman, another is a handsome lad of aristocratic birth. Among the outsiders impinging on their lives are a police inspector and a passionate revolutionary. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In 1912, the Rio Negro in the northern part of the Amazon was one of the places where ambitious men went to try and get rich quick in the rubber trade and other jungle-related businesses. In this story, the local population endures the excesses of strong men who vie with one another for power. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Though they live together at their grandmother's country estate, each of the women in Nunca Estuve en Viena has a very different life. The youngest granddaughter, Adela, is not yet married. The oldest has been married off to a wealthy man, and the middle daughter has been adopted by the grandmother as her full-time servant, nurse, secretary, etc. They have a piano-playing brother whose tuberculosis keeps him in and out of sanatoriums. Adela has gotten involved with the estate's handsome gardner, an aspiring theatrical set designer. Their relationship really heats up for a while, but is eventually ended when the gardener's male lover, Adele's uncle Marcello, offers to help him get settled in Buenos Aires. Meanwhile, Adela has gotten pregnant. The autocratic old grandmother receives the shock of her life when, on the same day, she discovers that her beloved youngest granddaughter is about to have a child out of wedlock, and that her son Marcello is gay. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Captain Luis Dantas (Patrick Bauchau) is the escaped military officer found murdered in this often surrealistic crime drama. Inspector Elias (Raul Solnado) is called on to investigate the man's death, and the story is told by the sleuth in narrative form with the help of flashbacks. The inquiry leads to Mena (Assumpta Serna), the sexually vibrant daughter of a wealthy countess who was romantically involved with Dantas. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this movie with a title that refers to putting off an important discussion ("we'll talk tonight, dear"), a major fault line running right under a newly-constructed nuclear power plant is the "important discussion" that needs attending. The head engineer at the plant warns its director of the danger, but the director has other things to do with his time. He does not want to ruin his company's future and his own chances for promotion with a scary scenario of a disaster that may never happen, so instead, he focuses on his love life. He is a classic macho with priorities that run to the bedroom rather than the boardroom. He has a homosexual son who clearly needs some more attention, and his woman of the moment loves him even as his integrity is lying inert on a dung heap. Meanwhile, his friend the company engineer is tormented by the potential for disaster at the soon-to-be inaugurated power plant, but there seems to be very little that he can do about it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide