José M. Sacristán Movies

Mañuel Azana was the last man elected as president of the Spanish Republic before the Spanish Civil War. In this 1970s film, Spanish schoolchildren are taught about him in their history classes but get the name confused, referring to him as "Hazana." Because for them he represents a kind of freedom not seen under the Franco regime, he stands for every kind of freedom. Since these youngsters in this film are suffering from an extremely rigid and dictatorial educational system, the name "Hazana" becomes a byword for them as they attempt in their own modest way to foment a revolution. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Roberto Orbea (Jose M. Sacristan) is a Spanish socialist politician who used to be a lawyer. In the film, which is almost completely told in "flashbacks," he reminisces about his recent life. Despite many years of hiding his political beliefs, he is imprisoned and realizes while in prison that he is genuinely homosexual. All along, he has tried to put his sexuality aside, and he married a woman who shares his political beliefs. Even after his release at the end of the Franco era, he tries to avoid expressing his homosexuality, but eventually he and his wife set up a menage a trois with Juanito (Jose Luis Alonzo), a rough young adolescent who is probably a hustler. Featuring an appearance of the renowned director Juan Antonio Bardem, this film raised an outcry at the time of its first release for its explicit depiction of homosexual acts and for its outspokenly pro-Marxist political statements. The film also gained notoriety because it appears to tell the story of several well-known figures in Spanish society. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This wacky comedy depicts a single day in and around the set of a movie on the Spanish Civil War being filmed in a working class Madrid neighborhood. Paloma, (Ana Belen), a bored housewife with a husband who is too concerned about being exploited by "the ruling classes" to work, must evade the romantic advances of an unattractive fishmonger, and cope with the attentions the male lover of a homosexual fascist is showering on her daughter. Meanwhile, she engages in a tryst with the equally bored fading film star Luis Doncel (Juan Luis Gallardo). Everyone on the set is waiting for the director to show up, but he's too heavily involved in a domestic dispute to work. Meanwhile, a series of strikes has brought Madrid to a virtual standstill. Director/co-writer Jose Luis Garcia Sanchez manages to satirize virtually every aspect of contemporary Spanish society, as well as relationships between the sexes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bernabe (José Sacristán) works as an artistic director for a publicity firm but his avocation is fawning after his bosses, sleeping with whomever might advance his career, and ignoring his wife. Life continues on in this vein until he meets a young model whom he invites up to his boss's temporarily vacant country house, pretending the house belongs to him. Not very far away, bulldozers and other machinery are clearing the beautifully wooded area so construction can start on an amusement park. Little does Bernabe realize that his potential new conquest is a seriously fanatical environmental advocate, and she arrives at the house with friends, gets Bernabe high and "out of it," and then she and her friends proceed to trash the construction machinery. Once Bernabe comes around again, he finds out what has happened, loses heart for his planned sexual escapade, and begins to appreciate his wife for the first time. Life hardly gets any better -- it turns out his long-suffering wife has fallen in love with someone from his office and she has left him. Bernabe should be sufficiently chastened to mend his ways, but will these setbacks, or any setbacks, be enough to alter his behavior? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Fortunately, the engineer in this movie never gets around to marrying his pregnant American girlfriend in the church or her their subsequent divorce would have left him in no position to remarry. Ironically, when he proposes to his new girlfriend, a nurse, she confesses to being separated from her spouse, and he must -- as both a loving man and a good Catholic -- live in sin with her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

When he sees a motorcycle go over the side of the boardwalk at San Sebastian, crashing onto the beach, Jota goes to see what happened. He discovers that the vehicle was being driven by an attractive young woman. He calls an ambulance and gets onto it with her. When the emergency medical staff discover that she has amnesia, Jota takes advantage of the situation to claim that she's been living with him for the past few years. After she gets out of the hospital, the young woman accompanies him to a camping resort called "The Red Squirrel," and they have a number of adventures involving her obnoxious husband, who has been looking for her, and an equally obnoxious campsite neighbor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

As cryptic as the title itself, Cripta is about an inmate in a mental hospital who is released to help solve the mystery of a girl who has been missing for six years. After many forays into the darker side of Barcelona, he accomplishes his task and then goes back to the mental hospital. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Ismael ( Karra Elejalde) is a thief who, as this thriller opens, is robbing the home of a woman painter. When she unexpectedly returns while he is riffling through her possessions, he kills her without a second thought. At some point as he is escaping the scene, however, he discovers that the painter's daughter has witnessed the whole thing. Ten years later, he spies a young woman (Ana Alvarez) on the streets and feels certain that this is the one woman who could put him into prison. He kidnaps her, only to discover that she is permanently crazed, and has no capacity for doing much. Nonetheless, he keeps her tied up in a bed upstairs, much to the irritation of his girlfriend (Lio), who soon takes matters into her own hands. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Four men are tortured in a South American prison. Two of them survive, are released, and are sent into exile in France. However, their new freedom does not mean that their former captors aren't keeping an eye on them. When one of them publishes a book, all sorts of problems ensue. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide