Hector Colome Movies

Inspired by actual documents from the archives of the Catholic Church, writer/director Elio Quiroga's The Haunting tells the tale of a respected pediatrician who falls prey to a supernatural force while grieving the death of her infant child. Shortly after losing her child to SIDS, Francesca (Ana Torrent) moves with her family to a sprawling mansion in the Spanish countryside and attempts to take the first slow steps toward emotional recovery. But despite the best efforts of her husband Pedro and their psychiatrist friend Jean, Francesco cannot break free from the suffocating grip of grief. Later, a series of shocking and horrific visions drive the mourning mother to the edge of madness: is Francesco's new house really haunted, or is it all just in her head. As the visitations become more intense, Francesco realizes that they seem to be emanating from the attic and the basement, two rooms that have been declared off-limits to the family, and have been locked up tight for reassurance. Her crumbling psyche on the verge of total collapse, Francesco grows compelled to solve the mystery before she's consumed by it. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A violent man discovers his mentally challenged brother is his rival for the affections of a beautiful but troubled woman in this drama from filmmaker Vicente Aranda. Raul (Eduardo Noriega) is an angry, loose cannon of a cop who has lost his job after roughing up one too many suspects and receiving death threats from a number of violent and dangerous criminals. With few prospects, Raul heads back to the north of Spain where he grew up and moves in with his father Jose (Hector Colome). One of Raul's few soft spots is for his twin brother Valentin (also played by Eduardo Noriega), who is mentally handicapped, so he becomes deeply concerned when Jose tells him Valentin has been working as a gofer at a local bordello and has fallen in love with one the prostitutes, Milena (Flora Martinez). Raul doesn't want his brother's heart broken by a call girl, so he goes to the brothel to persuade Milena to put an end to their relationship. But Raul finds himself falling for the drug-addicted Milena himself, and he attempts to drive a wedge between her and Valentin in a direct and ugly manner. Canciones de Amor en Lolita's Club (aka Love Songs In Lolita's Club) was adapted from a novel by Juan Marse. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A handful of young people try to sort out the complications of their relationships -- both romantic and familial -- in this comedy drama from Spain. Jorge (Quim Gutierrez) is a guy in his mid-twenties trying to get his life in order as he looks after his father Andres (Hector Colome), who has recently suffered a stroke. Relations are tense between Jorge and Andres, and Jorge thinks one of their arguments may have led to his father's illness. While Andres recovers, Jorge covers his shifts as a janitor, and spends his spare time hanging out with his friend Israel (Raul Arevalo), who is coming to terms with his sexuality, and corresponding with his one-time girlfriend Natalia (Eva Pallaares), who is now attending college in Germany. Meanwhile, Jorge's brother Antonio (Antonio de la Torre) has stumbled into an unusual new relationship -- Antonio is in prison, and while assisting with a theater production being staged behind bars, he becomes infatuated with Paula (Marta Etura), who is both a cast member and a prisoner. Paula wants a baby despite the fact she's in jail, but Antonio isn't so sure he wants to be the father. AzulOscuroCasiNegro (aka DarkBlueAlmostBlack) was the first feature film from writer and director Daniel Sanchez Arevalo. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

One of the finest filmmakers of Spain, Mario Camus turns his lens to a joyful and sad period of Spanish history in this historical drama about one man's struggle for a better life towards the end of the 18th century. Onofre Bouvila (Olivier Martinez) is a young man who has not had much luck in his short life. His father abandoned the family to make his fortune in Cuba and the boy grew up in misery with his suffering mother. Now grown up, he decides to make it in the big city and arrives in Barcelona on the eve of the Universal Exposition of 1888. He is immediately attracted to his landlord's beautiful daughter, Delfina (Emma Suarez), who has other plans for him. While the city is drowning in poverty and disease, the criminal gangs are having a field day. Onofre's attempts at finding a job fail. He is thrown out of his lodgings for lack of money to pay the rent. Just at that moment, Delfina appears with an answer to the problem. She puts him to work distributing revolutionary pamphlets for her anarchist organization to the workers at the Exposition. The relationship between the two young people soon turns into a passionate one, but a violent encounter with the police brings back unpleasant memories of the domestic misery Onofre left behind. He realizes that politics will not help him in his quest for fortune, which was the reason he came to Barcelona in the first place. The only thing standing in the way of social climber Onofre is his deep love for Delfina, and he is caught between ambition and love. La Ciudad de los Prodigios (The City of Marvels), which is based on Eduardo Mendoza's best-selling novel, was in competition at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

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, Rovi