Luis Sanz Movies
- 1990
The extremely well-loved Flamenco singer Isabel Pantoja makes her screen debut in this feature. Since most of the film consists of her singing, fans of her voice and music will be pleased at this opportunity to see her. In the story, an attractively heavy woman is arriving at a movie theater to the accompaniment of much fanfare. She is a movie star whose film is being premiered. She is accompanied by an extremely thin man -- one of her co-stars. In the film which is then shown, the star plays a singer who is being courted by two men who wish to bask in her abundance. Meanwhile, back at the theater, the leading man has sneaked away to play poker. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jose Coronado, Juan Echanove, (more)
- 1989
Dora (Angela Molina) is a music-hall type singer who is more than a bit of a floozy. She goes out with lots of men, has sex with them, and quite appreciates it when they pay for it. She met the piano player Juan (Angel de Andres Lopez) during an air raid at the time of the Spanish Civil War. Later, the two of them meet quite by chance as they are both auditioning for a job with Mario (Manuel Bandera), a gay nightclub owner. Juan is in love with Dora despite her unchanged habit of going out with as many men as possible, and the two of them are also friends with Mario (who also goes out with as many men as possible). There is a nobleman whose attentions Mario at first entertains and then spurns. This prompts the gay nobleman's mother to swear revenge on him for breaking her darling son's heart. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ángela Molina, Ángel de Andrés Lopez, (more)
- 1986
After their wealthy fascist father dies, Ana and her sister Laura have the job of settling his estate. The two sisters have not seen one another for some time and imagine they have nothing in common. Ana stayed at home and married a pretty ordinary middle-class man, Laura moved to Paris and lives a far more glamorous life. Complicating their difficult task is the fact that it is taking place during Holy Week, and all sorts of processions and ceremonies are taking place in the streets around them, and ordinary commercial life is at a standstill. The tension between the two women eases somewhat as they come to grips with their common past and, along with their father, bury some of the myths that have overshadowed both of them. The director of this film, Rafael Azcona, is known for his penchant for mocking conservative Spain's many sacred cows, and he continues that tradition in this occasionally comic drama. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Rivelles, Amparo Soler Leal, (more)
- 1985
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
- Starring:
- Ana Belén, Fernando Fernán Gómez, (more)
- 1977
Aurora is a dedicated feminist in the early part of this century, who doesn't need men in her life. She successfully arranges to be impregnated by a man so that she can have a child. The child turns out to be the girl Hildegart, an intellectual prodigy, gifted at languages, music, and literature. She is the center of Aurora's life. However, when Hildegart begins to show what her mother considers to be an unbecoming interest in boys and men, a betrayal of her mother's principles, she executes her one night while she is asleep. This movie slowly unravels the story of Hildegart's birth, development and murder as it emerges during a 1933 murder trial. The story is based on the novel Aurora de Sangre by Eduardo de Guzman. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Amparo Soler Leal
