Alvaro del Amo Movies
- 1999
Noted Spanish director Vicente Aranda explores female sensuality and male vanity in this slick erotic thriller. Stunningly beautiful Carmen (Aitana Sanchez Gijon) works at an orange packing factory and is engaged to be married to Antonio (Daniel Gimenez Cacho), a long-distance trucker who works for the same company. One day during a freak rainstorm, Antonio happens upon an accident involving one of his plant's fellow truck drivers. When he helps sift through the debris, he discovers a photograph of some guy cozying up to his bikini-clad fiancée. Confronted with the incriminating picture, she admits to having dated the man a long time ago, but this does little to assuage Antonio's mounting jealousy. When he interrogates Carmen's best friend, he learns little more than that the man's name is Jose. Antonio's quiet stewing over his girlfriend's romantic history suddenly explodes into violence, threatening their impeding marriage. Carmen maintains that she only wants to get pregnant and be a good wife for him. Antonio eventually calms down, apologizes profusely, and the two get married. Yet in spite of numerous lovingly photographed rounds of post-marital sex, Antonio's jealousy over Jose continues to torment him. He ultimately finds Jose and forces his wife to meet her ex-flame. The emotional fallout from the encounter shocks all involved. Celos was screened at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Daniel Jiménez Cacho, (more)
- 1998
Scripter Alvaro del Amo and director Vicente Aranda adapted this Spanish film from Fernando G. Delgado's prize-winning novel. The story follows the psychosexual experiments of upper-middle-class consultant Begona (Laura Morante). Japanese businessmen arrive in Madrid to test a palm-size video gadget called "The Owl," and Begona uses it as both a confessional and a method of capturing her curves on tape. She accepts the challenge of biker Elio (Jose Corando) to go into a rough section of Madrid and let herself get gang-raped, but a more respectable life also beckons on other fronts. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Morante, Jose Coronado, (more)
In this drama, a dying man makes a final, desperate bid to steal his ex-wife away from her new spouse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Imanol Arias, (more)
- 1991
- R
Vicente Aranda's Lovers is set in Spain, mostly in Madrid, during the 1950s. The story line is reminiscent of Theodore Dreiser's classic An American Tragedy (which was filmed as A Place in the Sun), wherein a passive, amoral, and shallow protagonist inadvertently destroys the lives of two women who love him. The handsome Paco (Jorge Sanz, who also starred in Belle Epoque and has been called "the Spanish Tom Cruise") is a young soldier involved with a virginal maid, Trini (Maribel Verdu of Y Tu Mama Tambien). Trini is saving her money and planning for their wedding, but Paco tells her not to worry, that he will find a job and save money for them. Paco leaves the army, but has trouble finding and keeping a steady job. He ends up renting a cheap room from Luisa (Spanish superstar Victoria Abril, best known for her work in Pedro Almodovar's films), a beautiful and mysterious widow. Before long, Luisa has seduced the sexually frustrated Paco, and involved him in her moneymaking scams. Trini quickly figures out what is going on, and makes a desperate effort to win back Paco's affection. Paco is obsessed with the sexually experienced and voracious older woman, but is unable to break off his long-term relationship with Trini. He attempts to string them both along, with disastrous results. The film was the first of veteran filmmaker Aranda to get a theatrical release in the United States, thanks largely to Abril's star power, and caused a minor sensation with its sexual explicitness, in particular the infamous "handkerchief scene." ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Abril, Jorge Sanz, (more)
