Eusebio Poncela Movies
An angry man erupts into lethal violence and must face the consequences of his actions in this horror story from Spain, which has won a cult following. Marcos (Vicente Parra) is a slaughterhouse worker whose tenuous emotional stability is pushed over the edge one day. With little provocation, he goes on a week-long bender of violence and murder, killing an annoying cab driver, his nosey fiancée, his inquisitive brother, his would-be father-in-law, and an unfortunate prostitute. The corpses begin to pile up in Marcos' apartment, and he has to find a way to dispose of them. Marcos happens to have a meat grinder, and he begins to wonder if eating his victims might be a good way to cover his tracks. Cannibal Man, also known as La Semana del Asesino and The Apartment on the 13th Floor, was one of a number of horror films banned in England in the 1980s as a "video nasty." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1972
In this Spanish film, Daniel (Tony Isbert) is a member of The Organization. It is never quite clear whether The Organization is part of the government, a secret society, or something else. Whatever it is, it is powerful, and does not take disobedience lightly. He is sent on an assignment to Bilbao to determine what has become of a lad his age, a former member. He takes over the boy's room in an odd rooming house. When he is given the photo of the boy's girlfriend (Geraldine Chaplin), he is so taken with it that he puts off his quest. The Organization requires him to continue, however, so he tracks her down to a remote fishing village. The two fall in love and attempt to escape. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In 1976, having completed two praiseworthy projects for Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, Geraldine Chaplin journeyed to Spain to appear in Enrique Braso's In Memoriam. Her contribution to the film is secondary to that of Jose Luis Gomez, who play Julio Montero, a man tormented by his past. In pre-war Madrid, Julio, a painfully shy writer, is competing for the love of Paulina (Chaplin), but cannot bring himself to speak. Instead, another witer, a flamboyant hothead, asks for and wins her love. Julio then leaves Madrid for Cambridge. It is not until he returns many year later that he learns to his horror that Paulina's lover murdered her in a fit of jealous rage, after she had come from seeing him off on his journey to Cambridge. The same year that he appeared in In Memoriam, Jose Luis Gomez won the Cannes Festival "best actor" award for his work in Pascal Duarte. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Chaplin, José Luis Gómez, (more)
- 1979
This thriller is based on the still politically sensitive story of the assassination of General Francisco Franco's heir apparent General Carrero Blanco. The General was to have been kidnapped by the Basque separatists, but when that proved too difficult, they arranged to bomb his car (with him in it) to smithereens. In order to do this, they had to dig a tunnel under a city street. The ensuing explosion blew the car over the roof of a nearby house. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Eusebio Poncela, (more)
- 1983
In this confusing crime story, a police inspector has two days to solve some ugly murders, and he travels all over Madrid to uncover the sinister deeds of a Latin American government prone to torture and political assassinations. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eusebio Poncela, Isabel Mestres, (more)
- 1986
- NC17
Once-great Spanish matador Nacho Martinez has been reduced to starring in gruesome "snuff" films. Martinez is idolized by Antonio Banderas, who has no notion of his idol's current illegal profession. Terrified at the thought of drawing blood in the bullring, Banderas nevertheless seeks out Martinez' assistance in preparing for a bullfighting career. To prove his "machismo", Banderas rapes Martinez' lady-friend Eva Cobo. No one will believe Banderas' confession of the rape, so he decides to attach more importance to his crime by confessing to a recent rash of serial killings (actually perpetrated by Martinez and his cohorts). Bandera's case is taken by feminist attorney Assumpta Serna, who unwittingly--but not unwillingly--sets herself up as Martinez' next "conquest." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, (more)
- 1986
Popular film director Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela) has found a new love in the form of handsome blue-collar Juan (Miguel Molina). Not altogether comfortable with his lifestyle, Juan decides to leave Pablo for a while to contemplate his future. Pablo insists that Juan keep in touch by sending him love letters. Ever the director, he plans to write the letters himself, and have Juan mail them back with his signature. If you think that settles things, you don't know filmmaker Pedro Almodovar. Among the many plot complications in Law of Desire is Pablo's subsequent romance with the possessive Antonio (Antonio Banderas, whose "gay kiss" in the film prompted front-page headlines in the Brazilian press), and Pablo's efforts to film the life story of his sister (Carmen Maura), who started out life as his brother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, (more)
- 1986
This adaptation of Geothe's The Sorrows of Young Werther offers a chilly and remote view of love and its passions. The setting is changed to Spain, and Werther (Eusebio Poncela) has taken a job tutoring the son of an estranged husband and wife. The boy's mother is a surgeon and therefore a rather uncommon woman for her society. She and Werther gradually become romantically involved, and his feelings for her begin to run much deeper than is apparent on the surface. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eusebio Poncela, Mercedes Sampietro, (more)
- 1988
Aguirre (Omero Antonutti) leads 300 Spanish soldiers and 300 natives in his search for the legendary land of El Dorado in Peru during the year 1560. The expedition is attacked by hostile jungle tribes before mutiny breaks out among the soldiers. The unit is forced to kill and eat their horses to survive, but the leaders of the expedition are also targeted for assassination. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Even a press conference with the director after the showing of Diaro De Invierno at the San Sebastian Film Festival failed to give any insight to this confusing avant garde feature. A snake charmer (Francisco Algora) is held in a jail cell. A mother leads a double life of saint and harlot. A man who practiced euthanasia dies in a fire. The end result is a pretentious, self-indulgent film that supposedly is seen from the perspective of someone in a police station. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eusebio Poncela, Fernando Rey, (more)
- 1990
In this crime drama, a jazz pianist working the summer at the exclusive Lady Bird Club in Portugal as an accompanist for legendary trumpet player (portrayed by Dizzy Gillespie!) has a passionate affair with an enigmatic, ultimately conniving woman, who turns out to be married to a brutal mobster who with his cohorts, smuggles guns in hopes of overthrowing Portugal's democratic government. A murder causes the woman's sudden departure. The pianist, by this time, is hopelessly in love with her and so journeys to Lisbon to find her. Once there, he ends up over his head and in mortal danger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christian Vadim, Helene De St. Pere, (more)
Omero Antonutti is divorced, and has a grown son who a young, upwardly-mobile professional person (yuppie) and an ex-wife who regularly sharpens her tongue on him. These developments have only served to sharpen the cynicism he naturally has as a private investigator, constantly exposed as he is to the shabbiest human behavior. However, when a beautiful and obviously wealthy woman asks him to track down her second boyfriend on behalf of herself and her first boyfriend, his interest is aroused. The absent boyfriend is a professional model from Greece who is also a painter. The woman believes he may have disappeared somewhere in Barcelona. His investigation exposes the P.I. to a world of sexual and other eccentricities which even he had never imagined existed anywhere, much less in his hometown. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Eusebio Poncela, (more)
- 1994
This film follows the exploits of middle aged man as he wanders through Argentina. It is set in the early 80's following the end of Argentina's long military dictatorship and is based on a 1990 novel by Osvaldo Soriano. Only recently returned from European exile, with no family and friends to welcome him home, "the engineer" travels the lonely southern Pampas of Argentina on the way to a job. He is periodically joined by other strange wanderers such as Nadia, the gun slinging psychic, Lem, a strange travelling millionaire, Barante, the hobo, and Coluccini, a bankrupt circus owner who involves "the engineer" in a rigged card game.. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miguel Ángel Solá, Pepe Soriano, (more)
Upon learning that his estranged son in Buenos Aires may have attempted suicide by mixing dog tranquilizers with booze, expatriate Argentine film director Martin immediately leaves Madrid. Upon his arrival in Argentina, he learns that his ex-wife has given up on the aimless, depressive 19-year-old and wants him to contend with the youth back in Spain. Martin agrees, and his son, who is also named Martin, returns with him. Martin, Sr. lives with his cocaine-addicted, much-younger girlfriend Alicia and their mutual friend Dante, a homosexual actor. Though at some level, he cares for both, he is just too emotionally removed to ever show it. It is the same with his son, whom he calls H (pronounced "hache"), meaning hijo or son. Still, each member in the strange family attempts to reach the zombie-like boy, whose only interests seem to be the pursuit of sex and drugs. Essentially an internal drama centered around numerous intense and challenging conversations, this entry from Argentine filmmaker Adolfo Aristarain will most likely appeal to those who love intellectual cinema. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Federico Luppi, Juan Diego Botto, (more)
- 1999
In this blend of a family drama and a noir-styled crime thriller, Esteban (Eusebio Poncela) is a politician who shares a home with his cousin Daniel (Jorge de Juna); also living with the two men are Dona Esther (Isabel de Castro), Esteban's mother, and Patricia (Laia Marull), Daniel's wife. Dona Esther is the owner of the family business, a steel mill that becomes the source of drama when a shipment of drugs is stashed in the of the mill's delivery trucks. A gang of low-level crooks captures the truck as the dope is being delivered to Abdul (Juan Erasmo Mochi), a large-scale dealer. Abdul's son is killed in the crossfire, and Abdul swears revenge. Meanwhile, the mill is having money problems, and Santana (Alberto San Juan) is brought in to help put the business back on its feet. But Daniel has developed a drinking problem, and in his alcoholic haze he becomes convinced that Santana is having an affair with Patricia, who has a past as a drug dealer that she's trying to keep secret. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eusebio Poncela, Laia Marull, (more)
Some people are born with good luck, but others try to attain it however they can -- and at any cost -- in this offbeat psychological thriller from Spain. Samuel Berg (Max Von Sydow) is an elderly man who lives beneath a gambling casino on an island off the Spanish coast. In Berg's world, good fortune is a commodity that can be acquired from others, and while would-be gambler Federico (Eusebio Poncela) has a genuine talent for taking good luck from those who have it, Berg's gift is even stronger, and after a long day of absorbing positive vibrations from winning gamblers, Berg steals the day's "take" from him, leaving Federico to plan his revenge. Federico becomes aware of Tomas (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a man who recently survived a plane crash, and is convinced he has even more luck than Berg can overcome; the two become partners, and Federico enters Tomas in an underground tournament designed to determine who Lady Luck smiles upon most sweetly. After Federico and Tomas win a handsome home from Alejandro (Antonio Dechent), a former bullfighter, the pair seems poised to go up against Berg and claim his luck as their own, but Sara (Monica Lopez), a police investigator, is convinced Federico and Tomas are up to no good and begins exploring their bizarre secret world. Intacto received its American premiere at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, (more)
- 2001
A woman finds herself going from having no man in her life to having more suitors than she can handle in this offbeat romantic drama. Rosa (Angela Molina) is an artist in her early forties who is recently divorced and looking for a new relationship. Unfortunately, few immediate prospects are on the horizon, and Rosa spends much of her free time commiserating with her close friend Jaime (Eusebio Poncela), a gay actor her own age. After consulting Andronica (Julieta Serrano), a fortune teller, Rosa is told that relationships with three different men are on the horizon for her, and soon she finds herself falling for Gustavo (Daniel Freire), an architect from Argentina. While in Spain, Gustavo is staying at a hotel run by Greta (Mirtha Ibarra), who is the unwitting center of a web of romantic entanglements; her daughter, Ana (Maria Isasi), is involved with Juan (Enrique Alcides), a delivery boy for a pizza parlor who also has his eye on Rosa, while Greta's ex-husband (Bob Wilson) is also hoping to win Rosa's heart, in his case through poetry. Sagitario was the first feature film from Vicente Molina Foix, a noted novelist and film critic in his native Spain. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ángela Molina, Eusebio Poncela, (more)
Someone in a black minstrel suit is killing all of the flunky students at a university in Salamanca, Spain, and it's up to a new student, Alex (Silke), to piece the puzzle together before the next post-exam death. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- 2001
A widower finds new love in an unexpected place in this drama. Tulan (Eusebio Poncela) is an aging circus strongman who travels with a threadbare carnival from one tiny Argentine town to another. While Tulan loves his wife, he has no gift for expressing his feelings, and when she commits suicide, only then does he become fully aware of how much she meant to him. As he struggles to get along without her, he finds himself falling for another member of the carnival's entourage, Jenifer (Micky Ruffa), a female impersonator who is saving up to get gender reassignment surgery. Cabecita Rubia was the first feature from writer and director Luis Sampieri. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eusebio Poncela
A hyperstylized tribute to spaghetti westerns courtesy of fearless Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, 800 Bullets finds young Carlos (Luis Castro) striking out on his own in search of his long-lost father. Swiping his shrewish businesswoman mother's (Carmen Maura) credit card and setting his sights on Almeria, Carlos begins his quest to learn the truth about his father after his curiosity is sparked while thumbing through old photographs. Carlos comes into contact with his alcoholic grandfather Julian (Sancho Gracia) shortly after arriving in Almeria, where the one-time Clint Eastwood stunt double is still chasing his dreams of stardom. Rumored to have caused Carlos' father's death years earlier when a dangerous stunt went horribly awry, Julian now spends his days staging elaborate Western shows for tourists on the abandoned film sets. As the young boy quickly wins the affections of the rough and tumble stunt crew, the arrival of his mother begins to threaten his newfound happiness when she reveals plans of turning the location into an amusement park. As the hapless crew faces the prospect of being displaced by the greed of modern society, they are forced to defend thier territory by replacing their blanks with 800 real bullets. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sancho Gracia, Ángel de Andrés Lopez, (more)
- 2005
Two sisters separated for the duration of the Argentine dictatorship spanning from 1976 to 1983 reconnect to confront the tragedy of their past in director Julia Solomonoff's reflective drama. It was 1975 when Natalia Levin's (Ingrid Rubio) militant boyfriend Martin (Nicolás Pauls) disappeared from Buenos Aires without a trace. Natalia was also separated from her sister Elena (Valeria Bertuccelli) that same year, but the two are once again drawn together when -- after the dictatorship crumbles -- Natalia travels to Austin, TX, to visit her sister and inquire about an unpublished novel written by her late father. Discovering that the novel is a fact-based account of their family's struggle during the dictatorship, Natalia and her sister are forced to confront the painful memories of the past before they can begin the healing process that will free them of the lingering guilt that accompanies their survival. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valeria Bertuccelli, Ingrid Rubio, (more)
The story of Spain's most infamous family is brought to the screen with surprising subtlety in this historical drama. Near the end of the 15th century, the Borgias are one of the most wealthy families in Europe, with their numbers divided between Spain and Italy, and when Rodrigo Borgia (Lluis Homar) is elected as Pope, his three sons -- Cesar (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), Juan (Sergio Muniz), and Jofre (Eloy Azorin) -- find themselves raised to positions of power as their father arranges politically advantageous marriages for them. Rodrigo's daughter Lucrecia (Maria Valverde) is also used as a bargaining chip when he persuades her to wed Giovanni Sforza, the favored son of a family often in opposition to the Borgias. While Rodrigo benefits from these alliances, his children do not -- Cesar's dreams of serving in the military are dashed when he is made to join his father in the church, Juan's time in the Army is full of unhappy consequences, Jofre's marriage to Sancha of Aragon (Linda Batista) is not fated to be a happy one, and murder stains the lives of most of the family. Originally shot as a mini-series for television, The Borgias (aka Los Borgia) was reedited for theatrical release in Spain, where it became a success at the box office. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lluís Homar, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, (more)
