Ángela Molina Movies

A woman losing her grip on her sanity discovers that the caring stranger who comes to her aid may ruin her life in this thriller. Fernanda Segovia (Cuca Escribano) and Enrique Gonzalvo (Fele Martinez) are a pair of editors and literary agents who have guided the career of writer Camila Ponte (Julieta Cardinali), transforming her into one of Europe's leading literary celebrities on the strength of her wildly successful first novel. Camila has been working on her second book, but stress, depression and writers' block have stalled the project, and Fernanda and Enrique fear Camila is on the verge of an emotional collapse. A benefactor arrives at Camila's doorstep in the form of Vera Galindo (Ana Torrent), a keen admirer of her work who offers to take her away from the pressure of life in the city. Vera escorts Camila to a beautiful hotel in a small country town, where innkeeper Palmira (Angela Molina) offers her customers peace, quiet and solitude. Camila thrives in her new surroundings, and Fernanda and Enrique are happy to hear that she's become newly productive since getting away from it all. But Fernanda and Enrique soon learn Vera is not as benevolent as she seemed -- she has evidence that proves Camila's first novel was actually the work of her father, and that the successful author is in fact a fraud. 14, Fabian Road was written and directed by Jaime de Arminan; it was his first feature film since El Palomo Cojo in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Circumstances surrounding the tragic death of famed Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) emerge in counterpoint with the current life of a homosexual stage-magician. Jose (Hector Alterio) was making love to the poet's brother in the Garcia Lorca family garden in 1936 when the poet was killed. Jose and Federico's brother witnessed the whole thing. In the present, he meets another man who had been the brother's lover, and more details emerge. Meanwhile, he has a lovely old apartment in Madrid, a new lover, and a cozy relationship with a widow and her teenaged son. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this inconclusive, confusing story about an aristocratic Majorcan family with connections to the Pope and much more darkly, to the secrets of a Masonic Order kept in a doll's room, the patriarch of the family (Fernando Rey) and his wife and cousin come to no good end for reasons that are never very clear. The entire story is told in flashbacks by the patriarch's son, who also has connections to the Catholic Church. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A follow-up to Spanish enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar's 2006 arthouse sensation Volver, Los Abrazos Rotos finds the filmmaker re-teaming with actress Penélope Cruz and working on a canvas much broader than those of his previous outings, in terms of genres covered, narrative scope, and duration. Lluís Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when the news arrives that the producer of one of Harry's old movies ("Girls and Suitcases"), a corrupt stockbroker named Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez), has died. For mysterious reasons, this makes Harry's ex-production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) nervous; then Ernesto's son, Ray X (Rubén Ochandiano), turns up and asks Harry to help him write a vindictive script to get back at his vile father. The film subsequently flashes back to the early '90s, when Martel became involved with his secretary, Lena (Cruz), but Mateo also began to develop feelings for her, and auditioned her for "Girls and Suitcases." In response to Mateo's interest in Lena (and her burgeoning interest in him), the jealous Martel commissioned Ray to make a documentary about the making of "Girls and Suitcases" as an excuse to spy on the director and star. This enabled him to watch Mateo spiriting off with Lena right under his nose, and set the stage for the wily producer's elaborate revenge against Mateo. As this synopsis suggests, Almodóvar uses a tricky structure laden with flashbacks to both comment on and explain the events of the present; he also interweaves a noirish sensibility throughout the picture that marks something of a first for this director. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This shocking film would have been impossible to make just two years before, in 1975. It tells the story of a group of right-wing terrorists, led by a strangely seductive older woman, whose destructive attacks on anyone it considers to have betrayed Spain to any form of leftism are cynically ignored by the police. The main story is about Tatin (Jose Luis Alonso), a 15-year-old young man, a hanger-on and newcomer to the group, who longs to participate in his first action against the hated "reds." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Ema (Angela Molina) shares a home with Jorge (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), a college instructor. She herself is a scholar, and may soon be moving to Boston to study, if her grant comes through. Meanwhile, she and Jorge are talking of getting married. One day, they come home to discover a young punkster, Ernesto, calmly sitting in their home, just as if he belonged there. Ema's all for throwing the bum out, but Jorge finds his presumption fascinating. It is almost the last straw when Ernesto brings his girlfriend over to stay as well, but then things get really dicey: Jorge appears to be losing his mind. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Demons in the Garden (Demonios En El Jardin) dwells upon three generations of an agrarian Spanish family. Most or all the family members have come of age since their country's Civil War. Fact becomes legend and legend becomes fact concerning that conflict, while the family is destroyed from within by corruption and long-smoldering rivalries. All of this is told from the point of view of the youngest (and, we are to assume, least emotionally damaged) family member. Demons in the Garden is very much in tune with the other multi-generational works of director Manuel Aragon, most of whose films can be regarded as creative cannonades aimed directly at the now-dead Franco regime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mayhem and tangled love knots in the Southwest U.S. desert are the scourge of a group of stranded German immigrants living in a few mobile homes at the crossroads of two desert highways. Joe loves Rosa, and kills someone she had slept with because he thought their union was consentual (a rape), and he gets five years for the murder. When he is released from jail, his first priority is to attend his mother's funeral -- a death that has upset his sister so much that she is on the verge of a breakdown. His sister is supposed to marry a Mennonite, but is stuck on Joe and so that plan is scotched. Meanwhile, Rosa has taken up with another trucker, who is jealous of Joe and tries to kill him. The next thing anyone knows, the trailers and nearby buildings are going up in flames -- will Joe and Rosa survive to continue their desert saga? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Told in a manner more common during the Franco era, this movie tells the story of a man who fought with the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and has been hiding in the hills for 10 years. Local people help him avoid constant searches by the police, who know he is there. A returning exile seeks him out to try and get him to surrender, with tragic consequences for both of them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Agusti Villaronga directs this intensely morbid love story about fascist executions, disease, bloody animal abuse, and violent homoeroticism. Set in a small village on the island of Mallorica during the Spanish civil war, four children witness the execution of leftists at the hands of pro-Franco villagers. In a desperate act of revenge, one of the children kills the son of the lead executioner. Ten years later, the three survivors of the incident find themselves recuperating in a sanitarium. Fragile Manuel (Bruno Bergonzini), who suffers from TB, has fervently embraced Christianity, while violent Andreu (Roger Casamajor), who also suffers from the disease, boasts about his womanizing exploits while secretly longing for Morell (Juli Mira), an elderly male black marketeer. The third survivor is Francisca (Antonia Torrens) who, after losing her virginity to Andreu, became a nun working as a nurse at the institute. As the two young men's sickness deepens, they grow increasingly tormented. Manuel violently reacts to his attraction to Andreu by growing even more fanatically religious, while Andreu's sexual frustration results in him brutally killing a cat. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Argentine director Alejando Agresti directed this surreal, allegorical Argentine-French-Dutch- Spanish comedy-drama. Winner of the "Golden Shell Grand Prize" at the 1998 San Sebastian Film Festival, the absurdist tale is set during the '70s. Young Buenos Aires cabdriver Soledad (Vera Fogwill), tired of fending off molesting passengers and dealing with her exploitative boss, keeps driving her cab straight out of the city and into the mountains, arriving at a remote and dusty Patagonian village, Rio Pico. The town's only contact with the outside world is a cinema which shows film reels out of sequence or upside-down -- as referenced in the title's reversal of Gone With the Wind. This has impacted on local inhabitants, causing them to speak in non sequiturs. Soledad checks into an inn run by Doña Maria (Angela Molina), and when locals find out she was a journalism student, they ask her to host their newsreels about life in Rio Pico. Her new job as news anchor leads to a romance with film critic Pedro (Fabian Vena). Doña Marie finds love blossoming when faded French film star Edgar Wexley (Jean Rochefort) arrives in town as a result of massive amounts of fan mail. Village scientist Antonio (Ulises Dumont) makes regular jaunts to Buenos Aires with his discoveries (such as the theory of relativity), only to be told these were previously discovered in earlier decades. Change comes to Rio Pico when electricity and television arrive, and the town's magical, idiosyncratic appeal begins to fade. Also shown at the 1998 Chicago Film Festival. Spanish and French dialogue. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

This routine story of love, murder, and witchcraft is set in 17th century northern Spain (in Basque country). A priest is trying to ferret out the truth in a 20-year-old tragedy involving a woman accused of witchcraft, her husband, and a jealous lover. Through a series of flashbacks, it is revealed that a young pregnant woman is jealous of Gabrielle (Angela Molina), who married the woman's lover. Deranged by anger at her betrayal, the mother-to-be murders her lover -- now Gabrielle's husband -- and then manages to convincingly charge Gabrielle with witchcraft. The result is that Gabrielle gets sent to prison, and the unbalanced young mother has her child and then inters herself in a nunnery (a common refuge for unwed mothers). The priest himself may be connected to this unhappy story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide