Teresa Gimpera Movies

The third installment of director Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez's state-of-Spain trilogy, which began in 1995 with Whispers of Spain (and Portugal). Roguish Juan (Juan Luis Galiardo) lives by himself, eking out a dubious living from gambling money and blackmailing various women who were once his lovers, one of whom is Alicia (Teresa Gimpera). When Caty (Laura Ramos), a would-be athlete, materializes on Juan's doorstep one day claiming to be his daughter by a tryst in Havana 20 years earlier, Juan finds the order of his daily existence thrown into peril. Caty is in search of Spanish residence, and is helped in her quest by Pepe (Juan Echanove), a cop who has recently been left by Juan's other daughter Carmela (Neus Asensi) -- for Tony (Pedro Miguel Martinez), a bisexual hairdresser. The plot twists again when Juan is contacted by Alicia's husband, a sleazy crook by the name of Pozueta (Jesus Bonilla), who wants Juan to go to jail in his place. Pozueta is smitten with Caty and offers to marry her but must get a divorce in order to do so, thus arranges a deal with Juan to record Alicia in bed with her new lover. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

In 1939, Ramon (Jacques Penot) was a young man, caught up in his Barcelona family's involvement on the Republic side in the brutal Spanish Civil War. He and his family fled into exile ahead of Franco's troops. Now it is many years later, and he has come back to see how his old homestead fared in the intervening years. The only person he can find who is able to remember those years clearly is his family's old butler Claudio (Vittorio Gassman). This film is a sequel to the 1975 film by director Jaime Camino, Largas Vacaciones del 36. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This crime drama features the double murder by a woman of her husband and his twin brother. ~ All Movie Guide

Political circumstances draw the people in this film into the ill-fated Spanish rebellion of 1909, which sought the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII. Set mainly in Cataluña and its capital Barcelona, the story begins in 1899 with soldiers returning from the Cuban front of the disastrous Spanish-American War, and it revolves around the romantic aspirations of two sisters who are swept up into the dangerous intrigues of the time. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

An Italian-French-Spanish version of the much-filmed Agatha Christie story, this film is strangely set in Iran, not Great Britain. Ten guests are invited to a remote desert inn and informed that the mysterious host has described in a nursery rhyme how they will all die during the gathering. One by one, the characters, played by such Continental stars such as Elke Sommer and singer Charles Aznavour as well as Britons Oliver Reed and Richard Attenborough, dwindle in number, each in accordance with a verse of the nursery rhyme, until only a few remain. The final characters then plot to ensnare the criminal mastermind behind the weekend of mayhem. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Video art by Willoughby Sharp. ~ All Movie Guide

Stephen Boyd spent the latter stages of his career in foreign actioners, of which Those Dirty Dogs is a prime example. Boyd plays a soldier of fortune, hired to stem the activities of Mexican revolutionaries. He is aided and abetted by bounty hunter Gianni Garko, who like Boyd is no more trustworthy than he has to be. A blood-splattered gunfight climaxes this outing. Those Dirty Dogs wasn't exactly art, but it paid its way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Widely regarded as a masterpiece of Spanish cinema, this allegorical tale is set in a remote village in the 1940s. The life in the village is calm and uneventful -- an allegory of Spanish life after General Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War. While their father (Fernando Fernán Gómez) studies bees in his beehive and their mother (Teresa Gimpera) writes letters to a non-existent correspondent, two young girls, Ana (Ana Torrent) and Isabel (Isabel Telleria), go to see James Whale's Frankenstein at a local cinema. Though they can hardly understand the concept, both girls are deeply impressed with the moment when a little girl gives a flower to the monster. Isabel, the older sister, tells Ana that the monster actually exists as a spirit that you can't see unless you know how to approach him. Ana starts wandering around the countryside in search of the kind creature. The film received critical accolades for its subtle and masterful use of cinematic language and the expressive performance of the young Ana Torrent. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

In this Italian and Spanish horror thriller, the doctor (Espartaco Santoni) seems to have everything. He has a yacht and a castle and the money and time to travel to as many vacation resorts as he desires. Not only that, but he has hypnotic psychic powers and can lure any woman he likes back to his home. Perhaps this all bores him because he has taken to killing lovely young women and putting them in the hidden niches in his castle. On the side, he dabbles in Satanism. One young woman, who is the sister of one of his previous victims, appeals to him so much that he makes some mistakes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The story of this Spanish film revolves around the corpse of a woman, Esther (Judy Matheson), whose body parts are sent in numerous packages to a horrified and puzzled print editor (Carlos Estrada). He is also sent a dead turtle, which must mean something. The packages are sent as a form of psychological torture, part of an elaborate revenge scheme by the dead woman's lesbian lover (Capucine). The editor, at one time, had a relationship with Esther which he ended rather harshly. Given that she was suicidal, the break-up apparently sent her over the edge. Though this film has some of the gruesome and bizarre imagery appropriate to a horror-fest, it is a thriller/melodrama. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on actual World War II events, La Battaglia d'Inghilterra chronicles the success of a German intelligence group's efforts to infiltrate the British army on the eve of the historic Battle of Britain. Directed by Enzo G. Castellari, the film features Ida Galli, Christian Hay, Van Johnson, Renzo Palmer, and Luigi Pistilli. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide