Spanish films
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Few would disagree that Viridiana is one of Luis Buñuel’s best films, combining the stunning cinematography and surreal black comedy for which the Spanish director is best known. The film was also one of his most controversial, being banned in Spain immediately after it won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival...
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Constance is a middle aged widow who gives piano lessons in her apartment. Opposite to her lives Pascale and her boyfriend Hugo. Pascale is a very mean person and she fights regularly with Hugo, knowing that Constance may be watching. One day, the solitary widow witnesses not only another fight but Pascale's murder. She then hears Hugo knocking on her door...
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In the 1930s, chaos and misery reign over Düsseldorf as the Nazis begin their campaign of terror. But the city is afflicted by another menace, a serial killer who writes a letter to the police every time he murders a young woman. Who would suspect Peter Kuerten, a man who is so mild and unassuming? His only passion is Anna...
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Although director Pedro Almodóvar has pretty well disowned this film, partly because he considers it a commission piece rather than something he would have chosen to make off his own bat, Entre tinieblas (a.k.a. Dark Habits) represents an important milestone in his career, marking his transition from an underground filmmaker with a small but loyal following in his own country to an...
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Although Pedro Almodóvar had, by the mid 1980s, built something of a cult following for himself in his native Spain with his subversive, highly stylised brand of cinema, it wasn’t until his seventh film, Law of Desire, that he began to win a wide international audience. Whilst restrained compared with the excesses of some of Almodóvar’s earlier work...
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Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Pedro Almodóvar’s very distinctive style of cinema is its surprising versatility. There’s an unpredictability and disregard for conventions which makes Almodóvar a very appealing director for mainstream audiences as well as more exigent film enthusiasts...
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The 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of the New World certainly merited a spectacular historical production to mark the event. Unfortunately, of the various films which were made to commemorate the event, all fell short of their objectives and most ended up being mauled, deservedly, by the critics. Ridley Scott’s lavish production is no exception...
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Anyone who hasn’t quite worked out yet why Pedro Almodóvar is referred to as the enfant terrible of Spanish cinema should watch this film. Kika is a film that shocks and entertains in roughly equal measure, and even scenes that are hilariously funny - notably the seemingly interminable rape sequence - leave an unpleasant aftertaste...
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With La Flor de mi secreto, acclaimed film director Pedro Almodóvar gives the distinct impression that he has arrived at a turning point, away from the heavily stylised cinematic kitsch that established him as contemporary Spain’s most attractive and creative filmmaker, to something with more emotional depth and truthfulness...
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After the success of their earlier film, Delicatessen, Caro and Jeunet return to their nightmarish post-apocalyptic dream world with a film that has an equal visual impact. From the very first scene, we are treated to some absolutely stunning special effects wizardry which gives the film its unique atmosphere and momentum...
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Carne trémula (a.k.a. Live Flesh) is the film that changed overnight many people’s perceptions of director Pedro Almodóvar and marks a turning point in the career of the man who is now regarded as the greatest Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel. Previously, Almodóvar had been associated with flamboyant melodramas that were characterised by the most gloriously...
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Todo Sobre Mi Madre has earned its director Pedro Almodóvar rave reviews and won him a brace of awards, including: the best director award at Cannes (1999), the best foreign language film Oscar (2000), the best foreign film César (2000) and two BAFTAs (2000). In the clear light of day, it’s somewhat baffling to see exactly why this film is so highly regarded...
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After such successes as La Reine Margot (1994) and Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train (1998), Patrice Chéreau achieved some notoriety (and indeed vilification) with Intimacy, his first English language film, which explores the darker side of human desire. The film has the raw provocative edge of Chéreau’s earlier L’Homme blessé (1983)...
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Pedro Almodóvar’s follow-up to his highly successful, Oscar winning All About My Mother is this off-beat but equally arresting portrayal of two men who develop a singular kind of friendship through their shared experiences. In some ways, it is an atypical Almodóvar - an introspective low-key drama in which the central characters are not hypoactive and over-talkative women but...
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Pedro Almodóvar’s dark tale of corruption, deceit and revenge clearly owes a great deal to Alfred Hitchcock, not only in its subject matter (a typical Hitchcockian melange of murder, mystery and deadly double dealings), but also in the stylishly expressionistic mise-en-scène and a score that could easily have been written by Bernard Herrmann...
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The complex interplay between life and death seems to be a defining theme in the cinema of Pedro Almodóvar, and never more so than in his latest film, Volver. This is a masterfully composed work in which the Spanish filmaker explores, with wit, insight and a highly developed sense of irony, the power that the dead exert over the living...
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