Antonella Costa Movies
Argentinean filmmaker Eliseo Subiela directed this idiosyncratic drama that uses sex and love as a springboard for an exploration of bold philosophical ideas. Twenty-something Eloy (Leandro Stivelman) has a gift for walking on stilts that her inherited from his father, but while Dad tried to use this talent for creative purposes, Eloy has made a career out of his skill, wandering the city dressed as a high-rise sandwich to promote a diner. One day, a stumble causes Eloy to crash through a ceiling window into the bedroom of Elvira (Antonella Costa), an attractive older woman. Both Elvira and her mother (Maria Elena Ruaz) are convinced that a greater destiny has brought Eloy into her life, and she takes the young man under her wing. Eloy loves women and is delighted when Elvira expresses a powerfully sexual interest in him, but she's a student of tantric sex techniques, and as she opens his eyes to the possibilities of lovemaking, he's introduced to new worlds of eroticism that allow him to leave his body and travel through time and space. No Mires Para Abajo (aka Don't Look Down) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Guadalajara Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leandro Stivelman, Antonella Costa, (more)
- 2006
In Mexican director Paul Leduc's crime drama El Cobrador: In God We Trust, Peter Fonda plays an unnamed sociopathic millionaire who lives in Miami and gets a charge out of running down female pedestrians in his oversized SUV. Meanwhile, El Cobrador, a Brazilian mineworker, travels to the Big Apple and kills everyone he can find. The Fonda character then heads down to Mexico, where he partners up with Argentinean photographer Ana (Antonella Costa), and the two embark on a bloody crime spree à la Bonnie and Clyde. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
Brazilian director Walter Salles Jr. follows up the Golden Globe-nominated Behind the Sun with this filmed adaptation of Argentinian-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara's journals of the same name. The Motorcycle Diaries stars Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mamá También, Amores Perros) as a young, pre-revolution Guevara, a 23-year-old medical student in 1952 traveling across South America on a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna), who co-wrote the source material. As they embark on their journey, both young men come of age and find their individual world views broadened farther than they ever expected. The Motorcycle Diaries premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, (more)
The perils of Argentinean prostitution are brought to light in this grim cautionary tale. Paula is a young woman in a bind: She can't pay her rent and she's just lost her waitressing job. Desperate, she turns to an old school friend for help and is soon introduced to the exceedingly seedy life of selling her body on the street. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonella Costa, Manuel Navarro, (more)
- 2001
Six men escape from an Argentinean prison and meet wildly different fates in this episodic drama. One of the escapees never makes it into the outside world; Belisario Zacarias (Oscar Alegre) gets caught in the tunnel they've dug to make their way out of lockup, and his friend Omar Zajur (Vando Villamil) initially refuses to leave him behind, though he soon joins the group, and pays a call to La Varela (Norma Alendro), Zacarias' girlfriend. Tomas Opitti (Alejandro Awada), the ringleader of the group, was a leftist political activist arrested on false charges, and he sets out to get even with Duval (Patricio Contreras), the official who framed him. Domingo Santalo (Ricardo Darin) is a gambler who soon finds himself in a high-stakes card game with master poker player Victor Gans (Facundo Arana), arranged by mob boss Pedro Escofet (Arturo Maly); Santalo also renews a very dangerous romance with Tabita (Ines Estevez), Escofet's wife. Julio Bordiola (Gerardo Romano) is a luckless loser whose lovely wife Rita (Antonella Costa) is sleeping with Ledeyra (Juan Ponce de Leon); he often wonders just why Rita ever married him, and when he learns the answer, it proves to be more than he can stand. And Laureano Irala (Miguel Angel Sola) has nowhere in particular to go, and when the escapees emerge in the coal shed of an old man named Villalba (Manuel Andres), his wife is so frightened that she drops dead. Villalba was sworn vengeance against the jailbirds, but a sympathetic Irala ends up moving in with him, posing as a long lost relative. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miguel Ángel Solá, Ricardo Darín, (more)
- 2001
A young man finds his family history thrown into question in this politically charged drama. Javier Ramos (Carlos Echevarria) is the teenaged son of an Argentinean exile living in Italy (Enrique Pineyro) -- or so he's been led to believe. Recently, Javier has been receiving strange e-mail messages from Rosa (Giulia Sarano), a woman from Buenos Aires who claims to be his twin sister, even though he's never met her. Javier isn't sure what to make of Rosa's messages, but when she arrives unannounced at his family's doorstep, his father's reaction leads him to suspect there's a certain amount of truth in her story. Rosa tells Javier that her mother was a political prisoner in Argentina during the 1970s, when thousands of opponents of the nation's military government simply "disappeared." After Javier was born in a prison hospital, he was given to a pilot who flew with the Argentinean Air Force and disposed of murdered dissidents by throwing their bodies into the ocean. The doctors at the prison were not aware that Javier's mother was carrying twins; after Javier was born, Rosa soon followed, and her mother was able to smuggle her out of the hospital before the authorities were the wiser. As Javier awaits the results of a DNA test that will determine if he and Rosa truly are related, he wonders how much of her story is true and how much is imagined -- and if she is telling the truth, does that make his father a criminal, or a soldier who simply followed orders? Figli/Hijos was directed by Marco Bechis, who previously examined the tragedy of Argentina's "desaparecidos" in his film Garage Olimpo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlos Echeverria, Giulia Sarano, (more)
As a child Manuel never knew his father, and as an adult the allure of exploring his origins simply becomes too powerful to resist. Setting out across the roads of Patagonia to attend the funeral of a distant relative, Manuel soon finds romance with a beautiful young photographer named Carolina. Though their initial romance is quickly shattered when Manuel is thrown in jail, he soon escapes back to Carolina while the corrupt police officers beat another inmate to death. As Manuel and Carolina take flight to escape the wrath of a murderous cop, the young lovers maneuver through the countryside in hopes of not only forging a future, but discovering the past as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ezequiel Rodríguez, Antonella Costa, (more)
From director Daniel Barone, this sexy Argentinian romantic comedy centers on three people who suddenly and unwittingly find themselves thrust into a madcap love-rectangle. Alma and Mario are a couple, but lately their relationship has been on the rocky side. Enter Leo a soon-to-be-married architect. Through a case of mistaken identity, Leo and Alma find themselves in bed together, leading Alma to question her feelings for Mario and Leo to wonder whether he really wants to go through with his wedding. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1998
- NR
Chili-born Italian director Marco Bechis's second feature is a political drama based on his experiences with the military regime of Argentina (1976-1980) when he lived there. Maria (Antonella Costa) is a militant activist in an organization that is fighting the oppressive dictatorship. She teaches reading and writing in the suburbs of Buenos Aires in an area of shantytowns. She lives in a decrepit rooming house with her mother Diane (Dominique Sanda), who rents out some rooms. One of the lodgers, a shy young man named Felix (Carlos Echeverria), is in love with Maria. He seems to have come from nowhere and is supposed to be working in a garage. One morning, Maria is kidnapped by a military squad in civilian clothes in front of her mother and is taken to the garage 'Olimpo,' one of the many well-known torture places in the city, which operate to the general indifference of the inhabitants. Tigre, the head of the center (Enrique Pineyro) appoints their best man -- Felix -- to the job of making Maria talk. Felix is overcome by his feelings for Maria, but Maria is determined to exploit the situation for her survival. Tender love scenes between Maria and Felix enhance the story, but the intensity never reaches the heights of some of the classics of the world cinema with a similar theme, such as The Night Porter. Bechis exerts too much control over his characters and narrative to allow an emotional rupture. 52nd Cannes Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonella Costa, Carlos Echeverria, (more)
