Jaime Chávarri Movies

This coming-of-age drama is set in Cadiz, a town in Southern Spain, in 1965, as the nation was entering its final decade of Fascist rule. Ramon (Eloy Azorin), Nicolas (Inaki Font), and Alfonso (Roberto Hoyas) are three friends whose parents have sent them to Cadiz so that they can study without distraction for their medical school entrance exams. But distraction finds them in the form of four young women from a ragtag local dance troupe, Marian (Chusa Barbero), Vicky (Emma Suarez), Perla (Beatriz Bergamin), and Chon (Ana Malaver). The girls supplement their meager wages as dancers by turning tricks on the side, but they soon become quite friendly with the fresh-faced boys from the North, and tart-tongued Vicki becomes involved with Ramon, the most innocent and sheltered of the three, much to the amazement of Nicolas and Alfonso. Soon Vicky gives Ramon a crash course in the mysteries of women, but Ramon finds out the hard way that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing; Vicky announces she's pregnant, and Ramon isn't sure about what to do, especially since he has a girlfriend at home -- the tense and high-strung Rocio (Pilar Lopez de Ayala). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this comedy from Spain, Manolo (Juanjo Puigcorbe) is a police lieutenant who has asked to speak to a group of law enforcement officials who will be having a meeting at a popular ski resort. Manolo's car breaks down en route, and while trying to hitch a ride, he gets a lift from a free spirited young woman (Laura del Sol) who is planning to spend a few days on the slopes. Manolo soons finds himself head over heels in love, but juggling his unexpected courtship with his duties to his fellow officers proves to be more taxing than he imagined. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Dora (Angela Molina) is a music-hall type singer who is more than a bit of a floozy. She goes out with lots of men, has sex with them, and quite appreciates it when they pay for it. She met the piano player Juan (Angel de Andres Lopez) during an air raid at the time of the Spanish Civil War. Later, the two of them meet quite by chance as they are both auditioning for a job with Mario (Manuel Bandera), a gay nightclub owner. Juan is in love with Dora despite her unchanged habit of going out with as many men as possible, and the two of them are also friends with Mario (who also goes out with as many men as possible). There is a nobleman whose attentions Mario at first entertains and then spurns. This prompts the gay nobleman's mother to swear revenge on him for breaking her darling son's heart. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is an enigmatic tale of a man's attempt to regain a lost period of youthful happiness. Peter (Bruno Ganz) and his somewhat broken-down wife arrive at a friend's house for an extended visit. Peter has been attracted to the woman of the house; he also once spent an idyllic summer here. He takes up with the couples' three children and engages them in games and child's play, partly as an attempt to regain the joy of that one summer. As the relationships between Peter and the other three adults shift around, his own objective for this visit remains well-hidden from view. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In his second successful starring role in 1983, Agustín Gonzalez is a father who runs a wine shop in Madrid, a city under a three-year siege (1936-1939) because the Nationalists forces of Francisco Franco need to take Madrid before the fascist dictator can be installed in power. The siege has left the Madrileños with very little food, living under the threat of bombs, and worrying about the prospects of defeat. It is the sense of impending disaster, of hunger and deprivation that is oddly missing from this cinematic interpretation of the play by Fernando Fernán Gómez. The daughter in the family (Victoria Abril) enters into a love affair with a soldier and ends up having a baby, the son (Gabino Diego) is coming of age with the maid - and life seems to go on with all its proverbial ups and downs. But without the sharp dialogue of the play itself, this film is not as tautly strung, or as convincingly real as the stage production. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A mix of characters and actions create only a semblance of a plot in this confusing tale of intrigue, undefined crimes, and incest. A newspaper reporter is working on a story about a criminal serving time in jail. He interviews the prisoner, has an affair with the criminal's daughter, and also spends some time in bed with his editor's wife. His amorous life is an adjunct to his searching out the details of the prisoner's case -- though tragedy strikes before the journalist can wrap everything up. In the meantime, it becomes clear that the daughter and imprisoned father had an incestuous relationship, raising more questions than answers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This thought-provoking Spanish film meticulously examines the life of a poet named Panero, who died in Astorga in 1962. In detailed interviews, the writer's wife and three children clinically dissect the man's life and their own lives with him, exposing (sometimes with bitterness) the alienation and dysfunction of the family. At the time of its release, this was considered to be an "anti-family" film, as it raises questions about long-held notions of the wholesomeness and absolute sanctity of familial relations. "Desencanto" translated into English means "disenchantment." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide