Fernando Fernán Gómez Movies

Fernando Trueba's El Embrujo de Shanghai (The Shanghai Spell) is a drama set just after the Spanish Civil War. Dani (Fernando Tielve) is a 14-year-old would-be artist who is hired to care for the elderly Captain Blay (Fernando Fernán Gómez). Blay convinces the young boy to paint Susanna (Aida Folch), a young woman from the local village. Susanna's father, Kim (Antonio Resines), is a rarely seen but beloved resistance figure, while her mother, Anita (Ariadna Gil), is considered the sexiest woman in town. One of Kim's associates shows up and begins an affair with Kim, while the two teenagers begin a tentative first romance with each other. The film is adapted from a novel by Juan Marse. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Veteran Spanish film star Fernando Fernan-Gomez plays, appropriately enough, a veteran actor looking back on his career and wondering what his relatively short future will hold. Don Agustin is a 65-year-old actor travelling to Madrid to perform his one-man show Pepe Guindo, in which he chronicles the life of a jazz musician. Don arrives at the theater, gets into costume with the help of his dresser (Veronica Forque), confers with the director and writer (Jose Maria Pau and Pepon Nieto), and greets the musicians who play his band before going into the evening's performance, which comprises the bulk of the film. As "Pepe Guindo" discusses the life of a performer, and the rewards it has brought him at the expense of his relationships with his family, the actor and his character begin to merge, and Don and Pepe both conclude the evening wondering how much longer they can face an audience while holding on to some shred of their dignity. Fernando Fernan-Gomez was 78 when he made this film, and while the film itself received mixed reviews, his performance was widely praised. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Pedro Almodóvar directed this story of a woman and her circle of friends who find themselves suffering a variety of emotional crises. Manuela (Cecilia Roth) is a single mother who has raised her son, Esteban (Eloy Azorín), to adulthood on her own and has come to emotionally depend on him. One night, Manuela and Esteban take in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire; after the show, Esteban is struck and killed by a passing motorist as he dashes into the street to get an autograph from Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), who played Blanche. Emotionally devastated, Manuela relocates to Barcelona in hopes of finding her ex-husband (and Esteban's father), who is now working as a female impersonator. Manuela becomes reacquainted with old friend La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a transsexual, and is introduced to Sister Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a good-hearted nun who has to contend with her considerably more cynical mother (Rosa María Sardà). While looking for work, Manuela becomes acquainted with Huma Rojo. Huma, on the other hand, has troubles of her own, most involving her drug-addicted significant other, Nina (Candela Peña). Displaying Almodóvar's trademark visual style and a unusually strong sense of character-driven drama, Todo Sobre Mi Madre/All About My Mother received a highly anticipated theatrical run in Spain before winning the Best Director award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival; in 2000, Almodóvar would receive the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Spanish author Manuel Vincent, this drama chronicles the coming-of-age of a young man who grew up in Spain during the late '50s, the time when Franco's regime was dominating the country. The film opens in 1957 as Manuel returns from boarding school to his home village in Valencia. While trying to readjust to village life and his old friends and family, Manuel joins the ranks among those who follows El Bola, a cigar-chomping, portly, boisterous fellow with an official demeanor that has everyone around him fooled into thinking him a man with high-ranking connections. El Bola decides it is time for Manuel to lose his virginity and so tries to convince the youth to visit the town brothel, but Manuel is not interested. His heart has been captured by a pretty young girl to whom he has never spoken. Back at home, his father disdains Manuel's dream of becoming a writer and makes him choose between the priesthood and becoming a lawyer. Manuel chooses the latter and so goes off to school in Valencia. No sooner does he arrive than he sees the pretty girl and follows her to Malvarrosa Beach where he encounters a wedding party as they are being thrown out of a cafe by one of Franco's generals who wants the place for his own debauched revelry. In school, Manuel meets a professor with subversive ideas who provides him with a number of banned books. So it goes for Manuel with each subsequent anecdote commenting slyly upon the effects of fascism on the Spanish people ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

After striking responsive chord at the Berlin Film Festival, Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque (aka Age of Beauty) went on to win 9 Spanish Goya awards and an Academy Award for "Best Foreign Film." Set in pre-Franco Spain, film stars Jorge Sanz as Fernando, a carefree, pacifistic army deserter. Wandering about the countryside, Fernando is welcomed into home of the wealthy Don Manolo (Fernando Fernan Gomez). Far from upset by the boy's AWOL status, Manolo is delighted because he shares Fernando's political philosophies. What follows is sheer heaven for the peaceloving lad, who sits smilingly on the sidelines as Manolo's four voluptuous daughters (Adrian Gil, Maribel Verdu, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, and Penelope Cruz) literally fight for his attentions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A young boy abandoned at a monastery attempts to come to reconcile his faith with the violence and unpredictability of the outside world in this drama from director Luigi Comencini. In the 16th century, war is raging and a young mother abandons her baby at the door of a crumbling monastery. Named Marcellino by the caring months and raised until he is six years old, the young boy is adopted by a wealthy count and offered a life of luxury beyond his wildest dreams. Though his new home offers all of the amenities one could want in life, it lacks the heart of his former home, and Marcellino longs to return to his humble but loving monastery. When Marcellino's new father takes the young boy on his first hunt, the trauma suffered upon experiencing such violence forces Marcellino to flee to his former home in the midst of a raging storm. Discovered by the friars the following morning and placed in a loft with an enormous crucifix, the young boy finds comfort in the man on the cross during his convalescence. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

After the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Spain was governed by the moralistic and occasionally heavy-handed Falangist regime of General Francisco Franco. However, as time passed, the government's strict restrictions on public behavior, divorce and so on were eased. Compared to the 1940s in Spain, 1968 was a period of almost licentious ease. Even though very little of the generational turmoil that seethed throughout the developed world at the time reached Spain, enough did to be noticeable. This story tells what happens when a relatively "liberal" man who chose voluntary exile after the war returns to visit his family and friends during this period. Jesus (Jose Soriano) is distressed to find the values he cherished seemingly part of the past, as he reunites with his family. He visits his brother's divorced wife and watches her become senseless with drink, and hears curse words freely used at a bar during a card game. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Brazilian teenager Vera (Ana Beatriz Nogueria) is released from the orphanage where she has spent most of her life. Her brutal experiences while a ward of the State have caused her to adopt masculine dress and mannerisms--a successful effort to wield power over her fellow orphans. On the outside, Vera finds shelter and a job through the auspices of a benevolent professor (Raul Cortez). While still in male garb, Vera develops a chaste relationship with a female coworker (Aida Leiner). Unable to consummate the relationship, Vera undergoes a great deal of inner torment, at one point considering a sex change. The end of this provocative but non-sensational film finds Vera coming to grips with her femininity, even though her future happiness is still up in the air. 18-year-old Ana Beatriz Nogueria won a Berlin Film Festival best actress award for her astonishingly mature performance in Vera. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Antonio (Jose M. Sacristan) is a vagabond traveler who hitches a ride into a small town. He takes a job in a restaurant before landing a better job in the local movie theater. Antonio remembers the owner as the woman who employed his acting troupe years before when he was a young child. He later gets mixed up in a plot to steal a valuable painting from a convent. The English title of Cara de Acelga is Spinach Face. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In a story with a good premise, a man who has been hiding in a cave for 40 years decides he is finally ready to come out and re-integrate himself into village life. He went into hiding to escape the harsh rule of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco. After Franco dies in 1975, the cave-dweller feels it's safe to emerge, though he is not at all prepared for modern Spain. Meanwhile, friends inform his wife that she may no longer be eligible for a pension because her husband is alive while others wonder if he really is her husband. These considerations are almost enough to drive the man back into the cave again. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi