Mario Pardo Movies
One dysfunctional family's problems hold up a mirror to larger issues of racism and misplaced patriotism in this Spanish drama. Berta (Marisa Paredes) is a nurse who is edging into middle age and looking for a husband; she also looks after the three teenage children of her recently deceased sister. Eduardo (Imanol Arias) is a hard-drinking police investigator who encounters Berta during a trip to the hospital; they hit it off and begin dating. But Berta's new romance could pose a problem for her niece, Lucia (Maria Isasi), whose boyfriend, Fausto (Jose Luis Alcobendas), has a lucrative illegal business smuggling illegal aliens from North Africa into Spain. Adding to tensions around the house, Lucia's brothers, Raul (Alberto Ferreiro) and Guillermo (Roger Casamajor), are members of an extreme right-wing group who have been implicated in the murder of an illegal immigrant from Senegal (Emilio Buale). Berta tries to ignore the ugly truth about the youngsters in her care, but when Eduardo is assigned to investigate the case of the murdered immigrant, she is forced to face the reality of her family's actions. Salvajes was the first feature film from director Carlos Molinero. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marisa Paredes, Imanol Arias, (more)
- 2000
Producer Inaki is reeling from a break up with temperamental aspiring actress Ione when he is hired by a religious order to make a film that will encourage young people to take up the pious life. His friend Karlos, a director who has also slept with Ione, grudgingly joins the project, and finds every creative instinct he might harbor overturned by a priest. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kike Diaz de Rada, Martxelo Rubio, (more)
- 1992
In this modern version of a traditional holiday pageant, a young Mexican girl has a dream about the shepherd's who went to Bethlehem to see the young king. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
This drama concerns a seven-year-old boy, Pepe Luis (Lucas Martin, as the younger Pepe and Paco Rabal Cerezales as Pepe at ten) who lives through the rise of Franco and the ensuing years under the fascist dictator. Presented from the perspective of the young Pepe, the Civil War and Franco are irrelevant to his own concerns: daydreaming about a pretty girl he likes, fighting with other boys, helping the priest at a funeral service, and similar activities. Pepe lives with his uncle and grandparents, and whether he is aware of it or not, the war impinges on their lives in several ways. The title of the film derives from little Pepe's contention that God is not responsible for the war, just some "bastard brother" of the Creator. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucas Martin, Paco Rabal Cerezales, (more)
- 1986
Captain Luis Dantas (Patrick Bauchau) is the escaped military officer found murdered in this often surrealistic crime drama. Inspector Elias (Raul Solnado) is called on to investigate the man's death, and the story is told by the sleuth in narrative form with the help of flashbacks. The inquiry leads to Mena (Assumpta Serna), the sexually vibrant daughter of a wealthy countess who was romantically involved with Dantas. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raul Solnado, Assumpta Serna, (more)
- 1985
The Basque country lies around the Gulf of Biscay, and one of its cities, Bilboa, is the setting for this turgid story of political intrigue. The Basque separatist movement has always been a point of contention in Spanish politics and provides the shady backdrop for this story about Lucas (Omero Antonutti), a Basque newspaper reporter who comes home after a long period in Argentina only to land in the middle of a conflict. He is badly beaten up but continues on to get a job with a newspaper unafraid of reporting on the factions that are a part of the Basque political scene. His lack of temerity, if not discretion, is certain to get him into even more trouble. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Silvia Munt, (more)
- 1985
The poetic and iconoclastic lights of Bohemia have been dimmed in this interpretation of the original play by Ramon Valle-Inclan. Set at the turn of the 20th century in Madrid, the focus is on a perpetual drunk, the blind Max Estrella (Francisco Rabal) and his verses, sayings, and total disregard for his wife and daughter as he pursues both the bottle and the muse. His friend, Don Latino (Agustin Gonzalez) accompanies Max on his travels through the city. Max is rarely sober and can be found in unlikely situations, such as dressing down a government minister for his bourgeois success or commiserating with an anarchist in prison. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Francisco Rabal, Agustin Gonzalez, (more)
- 1982
Based on a 1943 book of the same title by Camilo José Cela, Colmena features the comings and goings of a wide variety of characters, all trying to survive in a poverty-stricken Madrid during World War II. Rather than feature any single story line, these people from all walks of life cross paths almost randomly as they come to a café to sip their one cup of coffee and work on a book, or pick up a prostitute, or get their shoes shined, or play billiards, or just warm themselves on a cold winter's day. This primary setting is complemented by a brothel where a dirt-poor journalist sleeps if there is a room available that night, while during the day he tries to make ends meet one way or another. The demeanor of the people in the café or in the brothel effectively conveys the atmosphere of a long-lost era that may have had hardships but also brought a subtle sense of camaraderie to very disparate human beings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Ana Belén, (more)
- 1981
A young married couple living in Madrid decide to go their separate ways, a decision brought on by the person who moves into the apartment next to them. The jealous husband leaves his wife and takes up an apartment in another section of the building, taking some of the furniture with him when he goes. But the prospects for divorce alter as the film heads toward its conclusion, in a series of unexpected events. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antonio Resines, Assumpta Serna, (more)
- 1981
In this fictionalized docudrama, 30 Basque terrorists escape from prison in Segovia not long after Franco dies (1975) and make their way to the French border. They dig a tunnel out of the prison and flee into the mountains without too much difficulty, but then after some help from a truck driver, the French border patrols spot them as they continue on foot. Some are picked up and brought back to prison, others escape to France, and among those escapees, one is telling this story in 1977, just before King Juan Carlos extended an amnesty to all 30 and they were released. It would seem that the Basque separatist movement was behind the 30 men, yet the reasons for their original incarceration are never made quite clear. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Xavier Elorriaga, Mario Pardo, (more)
- 1978
At the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), there was still some resistance from small groups hiding in Spain's numerous small rural mountain regions. In this story, Juana is a schoolteacher who misses her lover, one of those hold-out guerillas who is hiding in the hills to continue fighting the Guardia Civil. She takes a school-teaching job in a remote area of the Santander Province in order to have a chance to see him once more. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marisol, Antonio Gades, (more)
- 1976
The townspeople living near a state-run prison in Chile would probably rather forget that it is there, but even from outside the walls they can hear the shrieks of men being tortured, and they cannot pretend not to see the treatment given to men who almost succeed in escaping. Finally, they agree, all of them, that enough is enough. They cannot face themselves in the mirror or hold their heads up if they do not protest this depravity, no matter what the consequences. Soon, every man in town is imprisoned for protesting prison abuses, except one old grandfather who was too old to join in. He cannot bear to be left outside, and calls the guards rude names until he is taken as well. This bleak but inspiring film won the West German State Film Prize in 1976. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Vanel, Mario Pardo, (more)
- 1971
This shoot-em-up is set in Valencia, Spain at the end of the 19th century, and stars Terence Hill as a close-mouthed gunslinger. The bad guy in this case is the local landlord and aristocrat (Fernando Rey), who horribly abuses the laborers in his community. Romantic interest is provided by Maria Grazia Bucella, as the local inn-keeper. Efforts to depict an actual historical situation keep the pace from being too rapid, but otherwise this is a more-or-less standard western with an unusual locale. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
