Fernando Rey Movies

This Spanish film, shot in the lovely Huesca region, pokes gentle fun at the showbiz aspirations of five monks in a lonely monastery. When the grouchy old screenwriter cannot meet his deadline for the script for a new and already dull movie, he and his partner end up sequestered in a Spanish monastery. The five monks cannot help but add their two pesos worth every chance they get. The screenwriter also finds unwanted advice from the town baker who believes the script, which was set in 19th-century Scotland and written for Sean Connery, would be more interesting if it were a modern Spanish story with local settings. The baker, a pretty young woman, has many great ideas for the film. She, the screenwriter and his partner end up in a triangle that parallels the triangle in the story. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this mystery, a Picasso painting has been stolen. Various people are involved in the resolution of the story, including a lawyer with an eye for the women, and that lawyer's diffident shy client who winds up with the lawyer's gorgeous girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Over the course of his lifetime, the legendary director Orson Welles (1915-1985) was forced to leave many of his grander movie-making projects unfinished, generally for want of sustained financial backing. Each successive unfinished effort generated buzz throughout the worshipful film community that only served to brighten the luster of his legend. Thus it was only a matter of time before one of his many admirers bought the rights to the fairly extensive footage he shot for his film Don Quixote (begun in 1955) and attempted to edit it into some semblance of a finished film, based on research into Welles' stated intentions and notes. A fuzzy, out-of-focus print of the resulting film was shown at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, and it was immediately deemed as a hashed-up job, a travesty bordering on the sacrilegious, by the assembled deeply interested and knowledgeable viewers. Their criticism focused mainly on issues that ordinary viewers would deem excessively technical, but the gist of it was that this was a very un-Wellesian use of Welles' footage. However, the film does offer viewers a unique opportunity to see some of the master's mature story ideas onscreen. In addition to footage from the film, the movie is also a kind of semi-documentary homage to Welles, showing footage of the famed director at work. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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

The generals in this comedy probably got their positions the old-fashioned way: through having good connections (and/or lots of family money) and sufficient seniority. What is certain is that they have no affinity for the study of modern warfare, which is what they have been sent to do here. They have grown so used to maintaining themselves as superior beings that it comes as quite a shock to them when a mere lieutenant is allowed to show them just how ignorant they are. Some of them even start to understand that in an era of missile-delivered nuclear warheads, it's not very safe to be quite so out of touch. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Part of the Nazi-hunter subgenre that emerged in the wake of 1978's The Boys from Brazil, this lurid thriller comes from Italian director Andrea Bianchi and was co-written by exploitation legend Jesús Franco. The film follows a group of Jewish agents bent on exacting revenge on Nazi officers who escaped capture after WWII. Trekking to South America in search of the infamous Dr. Mengele, the team discovers the sadistic doctor is performing gruesome medical experiments on innocent local women. Commando Mengele is also known as Angel of Death. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat crime film, Willie Parker (Terence Stamp) an English mobster turned informant, has been given a new identity and has been living in a small, isolated village in Spain for 10 years. Unfortunately for Parker, the men he has betrayed have ascertained his whereabouts and send Braddock (John Hurt), a professional hitman, and his apprentice Myron (Tim Roth) to bring Parker to Paris where his ex-associates await. After kidnapping Parker, nothing goes as planned. Now they are followed by a Spanish policeman (Fernando Rey) who seems to anticipate each of their moves, and they are burdened by Maggie (Laura del Sol), the mistress of a fellow mobster they were forced to kill. What should have been a routine hit becomes a psychological battle between all the participants as Parker, in a fight for time and for his life, plays one against the other. Set against the bleak Spanish landscape and featuring evocative and memorable theme music, the film builds to a surprising conclusion where the true nature of all the characters is revealed. Terence Stamp develops the character of Parker in a subtle but surprisingly comic performance and Laura del Sol shines as a woman who will do what is necessary to survive. Tim Roth, in his film debut, plays a brutal, but oddly endearing thug. But it is John Hurt, in a sensitive and nuanced performance, who brings a perceptive intelligence and depth to his role which adds a philosophical and psychological dimension to the film. Hurt plays his difficult role without a misstep and with a rare economy of action. Thoughtful and frequently amusing, The Hit, superbly written by Peter Prince, is both a compelling and suspenseful crime drama and also a deep and profound meditation on life, death and courage. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Based on Heinrich Von Kleist's novel, "The Foundling," Strana Passione twists and turns through the death of one son, adoption of another, and the latter's ultimately tragic relationship with his adoptive parents. While out in his carriage with his young son, Piachi (Fernando Rey) picks up Nicolò, an orphaned street urchin, and takes him to a clinic where Piachi's son catches a virulent sickness plaguing the town, eventually succumbing to the illness. Piachi is grief-stricken and reaches out to Nicolò, deciding to adopt him into the family and raise him as though he were his own son. The once-impoverished orphan is multi-talented but not necessarily virtuous, and after reaching manhood, he marries an appropriate woman for his station in life but chases after the gorgeous mistress of a local bishop. The next woman he pursues is Elvira (Brigitte Fossey), his own adopted mother, using a ruse because he looks just like a man she loved long ago. His scheme unbalances what is left of the woman's delicate emotional health, and she loses touch with reality as she retreats into her own world. Before Piachi can retaliate, Nicolò uses his legal rights to evict Piachi and his ailing wife from their own home -- a violent and extreme action that pushes Piachi over the edge -- and seals the fate of Nicolò and of Piachi himself. Throughout this complicated tale of moral turpitude, Nicolò has no visible motivation for his actions, which leaves a hollow core and no depth at the heart of the story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Produced for cable TV by The Disney Channel, The Black Arrow is based on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson adventure tale. Stephen Chase plays the title character, a dogooding swashbuckler who tries to avenge his father's murder during the War of the Roses. Though Chase carries the bulk of the action, top billing is bestowed upon the film's villains, Oliver Reed (as Sir Daniel Brackley) and Fernando Rey (as the Earl of Warwick). The Stevenson original was previously adapted for the screen in 1948, with Louis Hayward in the lead. Black Arrow made its TV debut on January 6, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Andre (Fernando Rey) has a charming house by the sea in Portugal, a home which contains all his childhood memories and attachments. Above all else this imminent divorce is bringing back memories of his mother and her untimely death, but also the death of his father in the Spanish Civil War. He begins to realize that the little town was once all he knew. As these images take him back to his childhood, he knows he has to loosen the hold the childhood relationships still have over him and finally face his divorce and the loss of this house and everything that goes with it -- a very difficult demand in this time of personal crisis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide