Ricardo Franco Movies

Lagrimas Negras is a psychological drama about love, but also the story of a young man who leaves his normal existence behind to embark on a journey which ends in violence. The opening sequences show apprentice filmmaker Andres (Fele Martinez) editing a documentary whose images set the bleak tone of the film. He spends a night with Alicia (Elena Anaya), a girl he has known since childhood, and later gets attacked on the street by two young women. His obsessive search for the assailants leads him to one of the women, Isabel (Ariadne Gil), who comes from a wealthy family and suffers from a split personality. Andreas gets involved with her, which totally changes his life until he finds it impossible to live in two different worlds. He is convinced he can help Isabel set her life straight and gives up everything he has to see things through the bitter end. Ariadne Gil's performance is remarkable as the disturbed Isabel and her alter-ego, Ana, but Martinez is weak as Andres. Long dialogue sequences distract the audience from director Franco's main theme -- the damage lurking behind the façade of respectability. The film will be remembered, not so much for its artistic merits, as for the fact that director Ricardo Franco died during the shooting; Fernando Bauluz, his assistant, had to complete the film. Lagrimas Negras was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

Love leads to vengeance in this thriller that is based on a novel by Joaquin Leguina. Inspector Paco attends a funeral where he encounters his former police partner Angel. This inspires a flashback. The year was 1942, the Spanish Civil War raged, and Paco and Angel were investigating a triple homicide that occurred in the home of the deceased. Back at the funeral, the two meet Julia, the daughter of the dead man whom they knew back during the war. She tells Angel all the details of her life since then and in so doing gives him the clues he needs to finally solve the case. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Lola (Julia Migenes) is an American singer in a Berlin nightclub who falls for the East German pianist David (Jose Coronado) in this romantic drama. Their love affair is interrupted by Professor Huessler (Keith Baxter), the dedicated orchestra conductor who sends David back East. Huessler and Lola become romantically involved after David's departure. He helps Lola find a job in an opera company when the club is shut down following the stabbing death of an American GI. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

An outrageous comedy that throws viewers into a culture shock. A suggestive satire about women who ignore society's rules. ~ Rovi

Deeply layered with much symbolic and allegorical material, the generally non-narrative events in this film revolve around Ana (Ana Belen) a girl who has been diagnosed with a terminal case of cancer. In one scene, she is injured in a Madrid Public library when a police horse crashes through a plate glass window. The police have just been violently dealing with protestors who are objecting to the state's handling of the trials of six men accused of involvement in the death of a policeman. In another scene, a man claims he can cure her of cancer, but she must turn her mind over to him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Cultural differences serve as a point of humor in this comedy about an American (Sam Bottoms) who is called down to Mexico for an inexplicable reason -- he is invited to attend the funeral of his father who actually died some 30 years earlier. He takes off from his home in California and after crossing the border he goes through one difficulty after another, all of which get him sent back home. Unwilling to give up easily, he heads back for a final sojourn because life just isn't as interesting stateside. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi