Joaquín Jordà Movies

In this documentary inspired by an article about an 18-year-old girl suffering from alexia and agnosia as the result of wrongly diagnosed meningitis, filmmaker Joaquín Jordà -- himself a victim of this debilitating disease -- sets out to explore his illness, connect with the teenage girl whose tragic story formed the basis of the article, and spread the word about an increasingly common and misconceived malady. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Directed by veteran Spanish helmer Vicente Aranda, Carmen revolves around a complex cast of characters, including Merimee (Jay Benedict), a writer and archeologist whose research in southern Spain circa 1830 brings him into contact with Jose (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a bandit. When Merimee meets the beautiful Carmen (Paz Vega) in a cathedral, Jose bursts in and orders Merimee to leave unless he wanted to be killed. Eventually, Jose reveals how he had met Carmen -- breaking up a fight between her and a co-worker who believed her to be a witch, and subsequently letting her off the hook rather than taking her to prison. When they next met, Carmen was working as a prostitute, which made Jose jealous enough to murder one of her clients. Afterwards, he dedicated his entire life to being with her, not caring who he killed along the way. The film also features Antonio Dechent, Joan Crosas, and Joe Mackay. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Dr. Egas Moniz was a highly respected Portugese neurologist who, while visiting England in the 1930s, was shown the results of an experiment in which a monkey with violent tendencies was made passive through the removal of part of her brain's frontal lobe. Moniz was impressed enough to attempt the same sort of experiment on human beings, and by 1949, the doctor had received a Nobel prize for his work in psychosurgery (among other things) and was performing lobotomies on up to 20 patients every year. However, Moniz's dream of psychosurgery as a quick and easy way to eliminate anti-social behavior came to a halt when he was shot by a former patient (Moniz is said to have told his assailant, "It wasn't you who shot me, but your illness"), and lobotomies became discredited within the medical and psychiatric communities. Monos Como Becky is a documentary that tells the story of Moniz's career and its legacy; included are interviews with patients who received lobotomies, and newsreel footage of Moniz performing the operations. As a framing device, directors Joaquin Jorda and Nuria Villazan observe a group of mental patients (being treated through medication for the same sort of symptoms Moniz dealt with through lobotomy) as they stage a play on the doctor's life and work. Incidentally, Joaquin Jorda himself was a mental patient who became a victim of psychosurgery. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

El Lute (Imanol Arias) is a rebel prisoner who escapes on New Years Eve to rejoin his family in this historical adventure. He and his brothers evade the Civil Guards as they rob banks and engage in shootouts with the enemy. El Lute is once again captured but is pardoned after the death of Franco. He remains a hero, with exploits and escapes that constantly befuddled his adversaries. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Policemen everywhere are sometimes lampooned for their self-importance and pomposity, and it is not unusual for a particularly impudent thief to become a national hero. However, Spain's Guardia Civil in the 1960s were an unusually self-righteous lot, and the otherwise not particularly edifying real-life exploits of the young thief Eleuterio Sanchez, nicknamed "El Lute," thrilled the nation. This crime adventure drama retells his story. After being arrested for a robbery gone bad, the young thief refuses to finger his partners in crime even under torture. Despite this, they are rounded up and executed for the murder they committed while robbing a jewelry store. El Lute received a commutation from General Franco, and was on his way to prison when he escaped, eluding a nationwide manhunt for several weeks despite having a broken arm. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this downbeat and drawn-out story of personal woe in exile, Martin (Federico Luppi) takes his daughter and leaves Uruguay to live in a specific city in northwestern Spain. Passing himself off as a basketball coach (a total scam -- he knows zip about the game), he manages to support the two of them and at the same time, he goes out looking for the woman he once loved. Meanwhile, his wife's divorce lawyer is requesting the daughter to come home and live with her mother, and when Martin finally hunts down his former lover, she has about as much interest in him as his estranged wife. The exiled Uruguayan is definitely between a rock and a hard place, as his circumstances deteriorate from there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Themes long forbidden in Spain under the Franco dictatorship began to be explored in the years just following his demise. In this 1976 film, an unhappy and very effeminate man (played by a woman, Victoria Abril), experiences one difficulty after another. As a boy in Cataluña, his father attempts to teach him to "be a man." These lessons include taking him to a big-city whorehouse to have sex. At the bordello, he successfully avoids having sex with a woman, but when he sees a transvestite revue which culminates in the actors revealing their actual genitalia, he is fascinated. He runs away from home, learns to be a hairdresser, and develops a transvestite act of his own. After numerous love affairs with men, he eventually realizes his transsexual nature and goes to another country to have a sex-change operation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A conservative professor of economics and his restless wife discuss the rapidly changing world that affects them. Sex education, politics, women's liberation issues and the new Catholic church collide with their traditional upbringing. The wife contemplates divorce as she wonders if there is more to life than just living until you die in this slow-moving drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide