Fernando Fernán Gómez Movies

The poetic and iconoclastic lights of Bohemia have been dimmed in this interpretation of the original play by Ramon Valle-Inclan. Set at the turn of the 20th century in Madrid, the focus is on a perpetual drunk, the blind Max Estrella (Francisco Rabal) and his verses, sayings, and total disregard for his wife and daughter as he pursues both the bottle and the muse. His friend, Don Latino (Agustin Gonzalez) accompanies Max on his travels through the city. Max is rarely sober and can be found in unlikely situations, such as dressing down a government minister for his bourgeois success or commiserating with an anarchist in prison. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

La Corte de Faraon is a romp of a zarzuela ("operetta" is a loose translation) that first appeared in 1910 (original libretto by Guillermo Perrin and Miguel de Palacios, original music by Vicente Lleó). The Pharaoh rewards his victorious general Putifar (Josema Yuste) with a new bride, Lota (Ana Belen), but the general is more intrigued with his own ego on his wedding night, and in the morning he dashes off. Along comes Friar José (Antonio Banderas) with his soulful eyes and innocent sexuality, and Lota aggressively goes after him. He escapes, but when brought before the Queen, she follows Lota's precedent and the poor Friar barely escapes a second time with his virtue intact. (In the original the Friar is none other than Joseph of the colored coat.) In this updated version, the troupe of zarzuela players gets in trouble with the police, and the whole lot of them are hauled in for scandalous behavior. Between the on-stage and off-stage insanity, the singing, the dance numbers, the music, the slapstick, and the slams at censors, police, and political repression -- this zarzuela upholds the tradition of pleasing all types of viewers. Except Franco, that is -- he banned the operetta. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Carlos Saura's The Stilts (Los Zancos) features Fernando Gomez as a middle-aged professor/playwright. Falling head over heels in love with actress Laura DelSol, Gomez begins obsessing on the girl, despite her unwillingness to make a commitment. When another, younger man (Francisco Rabal) enters the scene, the drama darkens into melodrama. While the story material in The Stilts may seem old-hat at first glance, Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura invests his characters with enough conviction and humanity to keep the viewers riveted to their chairs. Eschewing his previous "nonlinear" narratives (which ignored such trivialities as chronology and reality), Saura directs The Stilts in an austere, near-documentary fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This ostensible comedy about the affairs or non-existent affairs of television executive Federico José Sacristán and his actress wife Elena Victoria Abril) is almost as hard to believe as director Manuel Gutiérrez-Aragón's previous effort Feroz. Federico convinces a friend to attempt to seduce his wife in order to test her fidelity. She passes the test, but her husband is not satisfied, and so he asks his boss to seduce her. Events conspire to lead the boss in another direction -- it turns out he is more interested in a transvestite who is actually the secret lover of Federico, and the boss seduces him instead. Meanwhile, Elena is acting in a production of Don Juan in which two of her supposed lovers are playing her lovers -- and the story continues downhill from there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This fantasy about a young man who becomes a bear, who becomes a young man again is equally ambivalent in its identity -- it is a drama that becomes a comedy that becomes a satire, and is not quite a straightforward fable. After the young man runs away from being shackled to a cabin, he spends the winter in a cave and emerges as a bear (obviously a man wearing a bear suit). He is taken in by a writer who teaches him how to use a computer, which somehow poses no problem. The bear speaks like the young man and for awhile tries working as a computer operator, undoubtedly raising questions about the standards in that field. While invited to tea one afternoon, the bear kills a dog in self-defense and is forced to head back to his cave for the winter -- where he emerges after a long hibernation as the young man. In retrospect, contact with the computing world had quite a transforming effect. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A young Catholic girl takes viewers through a changing Spanish political and social landscape as she develops from her confirmation day to adulthood. Her first experience with the real Spain comes when her Jewish godfathers cannot come to her confirmation. One of the godfathers, using a ring, poses an early challenge to her innocence that puts her in danger. He later returns, indirectly introducing her to a new boyfriend. If he is one of the symbols for Jewish life under Franco, or for a Judeo-Christian interaction, that interaction is complex. The young woman encounters different lovers as she grows into adulthood, but at the same time she is burdened with financially supporting her father and his own rather decadent lifestyle. Again, this difference in generations could be understood as a difference between the "new" and "old" Spain; it is up to the viewers to interpret the story elements as they decide. Darker sides of life and new layers of meaning are explored as the young woman and her boyfriend steal from a priest, and the story of rapist Caryl Chessman's execution in San Quentin, California is woven into the plot line. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Whatever his reasons or intent, when the young man carrying a cello begins working at the old-folks home, he strikes up an acquaintance with the man known as "the Maestro" (Fernando Fernan Gomez), who is full of plans to produce a play based on a Caribbean love affair and adventure in his youth. As he listens to the old man's reminiscences of love, he thinks of his own girlfriend (both are played by Angela Molina). Eventually, the beloved eccentric's play is produced, accompanied by the boy's cello music. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A group of businessmen have discovered a man whose face resembles that of the two former husbands of a woman known as "the carrot queen," for her huge carrot-growing empire. In this comedy, they intend to use him as bait to induce the hard-headed businesswoman to sign a lucrative carrot import-export deal. To that end, with many misadventures, they train him how to comport himself on the tennis court, and in bed. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Three booze-soaked near-derelicts have a series of macabre adventures on the day when one of them was supposed to report to his new job at the mine, located near their northern Spanish town. Set at the end of the 19th century, and based on A Esmorga by Eduardo Balnacoamer, this story follows the trio on the bender to end all benders. The fellow with a new job is waylaid by his buddies who haul him off to a local bar. There, they get into a fight and wind up knifing a miner. They escape over the wall of a nobleman's villa, and have several strange adventures before settling down peaceably for a late-night drink. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide