Pepe Munne Movies

Eliseo Subiela's comedy Heartlift stars Pep Munne as an aging plastic surgeon who falls for a young female assistant (Moro Anghileri) while attending a medical conference. Soon he begins inventing new reasons to spend more time with her. His wife Cristina (Maria Barranco) begins meeting with a psychiatrist (Jean Pierre Noher) in order to figure out what is going on in her marriage. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

French writer/director Bernard Rapp (Une Affaire de Goût) creates a neo-fable, of sorts, with his 2003 film, Pas Si Grave (No Big Deal). About a quarter of a century ago, Spanish artist Pablo (director Alejandro Jodorowsky) and his musician wife, Pilar (Pascale Roberts), escaped their native country and its civil war for sanctuary in Belgium. Shortly after arriving in their new home, the couple adopted three five-year-old boys from different ethnic backgrounds and raised them to become artists in their own right. Now grown, Charlie (Sami Bouajila), Max (Jean-Michel Portal), and Leo (Romain Duris) are brought together by their father, who has begun to feel his age and now spends a fair amount of time pondering how much longer he has to live. In an attempt to bring his sons closer together, Pablo gives them a mission: travel to Spain and steal a famous and well-guarded bust of the Virgin Mary and return it to Belgium. Immediately complying, the men set about to accomplish their assignment, while managing to truly get to know each other in the process. No Big Deal was a participating film at the 2003 New York Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

The second film from writer/director Whit Stillman, Barcelona is a smart, urbane comedy of manners set in Spain at the tail end of the Cold War. Taylor Nichols stars as Ted, an American salesman living in Barcelona. Out of the blue, he is visited by his acidic cousin Fred (Chris Eigeman), a U.S. Navy officer sent abroad to work damage control on rising anti-American sentiment. The textbook "Ugly American," Fred travels through the city in full military regalia, impervious to the constant taunts of "Fascist!" Like the similarly self-absorbed Ted, who has become involved with political activist Monsterrat (Tushka Bergen), Fred also finds romance, with a party girl played by Mira Sorvino. A brittle fish-out-of-water comedy, Barcelona is literate and sophisticated, a knowing essay on cultural identity and perception. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Amadeu (Sergi Mateu) is a popular nighttime disc jockey in this offbeat sex comedy. After a phone-sex call from the daughter of a German ambassador, she comes to the radio station for the real thing. Amadaeu's neighbor is an eccentric Hell's Angels biker who cracks up his beloved bike while making love to his girlfriend. Other listeners are two bakers and another neighbor who becomes sexually aroused with his nightly program. The feature is plagued by uneven English subtitles that contain many mistakes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The title of this movie raises an issue that is never really met head-on in the story, instead, the focus seems to be on a meandering sub-plot. The Pope (Terence Stamp) was once Father Andreani, a teacher of Father Bruno Martello (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) when Father Bruno was studying at the Catholic University. As Father Andreani rises up the hierarchy until the cardinals choose him from among their ranks to be the Supreme Pontiff, Father Bruno errs by breaking his celibacy vows with a gorgeous terrorist and heads in the opposite direction -- actually, to India where he is given a magical mixture that induces a transcendental state, and apparently changes his politics as well. Once back in Italy, he is convinced by opposition bishops to murder the Pope -- but the ex-Father Bruno has his own devious plot in mind. Little does the Pope know what is in store for him, as the altered-consciousness of his old student fixates on a little bit of the mind-bending mixture that he has reserved for very special occasions. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Spanish woman becomes obsessed with finding her ex-lover who lives in New York and leaves her home in Barcelona. She has not seen him in several years, but eventually she finds him. Unfortunately, he totally rejects her. She then begins hanging in the bar across the street from his apartment where she spies upon him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

aka: Their Golden Years In this failed attempt at auteur cinema, director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro puts together a disagreeble cast of characters whose only interest is self-indulgence. Luis (Jose Pedro Carrion), Maria (Patricia Adriani) and their friends have either fallen through the cracks of mainstream society or are trying to. Life swings from drugs to sex and back again, with little chance of ever changing or ever becoming meaningful. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Slow in parts but still engaging and well-acted, this drama by Vicente Aranda explores the changing nature of a former fascist, Luis Forest (Lautaro Murua), and his relationship to his niece Mariana (Victoria Abril). Luis has retired to the seacoast to devote himself to writing his memoirs and ruminating over his failed marriage. His sister is worried about him and so she sends her daughter Mariana to check up on how he is doing. The wildly carefree Mariana and her silent photographer friend shake up Luis' staid world. Slowly, Mariana's taunting and teasing break down Luis' intellectual barriers and as that happens she becomes more interested in him. As flashbacks indicate, Luis was not the militant fascist everyone imagined. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide