Butterfly

aka La Lengua de las Mariposas (Butterfly's Tongue)
Jose Luis Cuerda, 1999, Spain (8.5*)
A very warm coming-of-age film, in which a young Spanish boy, naturally played by Manuel Lozano, in a small rural village in Northern Spain is tutored in more than school by his teacher, veteran actor Fernando Fernán Gómez. A naturalist, and a leftist, he teaches the boy about the beauty of nature (and freedom), and together they spend spare time in the wild, looking at plants and catching butterflies.

Meanwhile, the Spanish society is being torn apart by politicians (so remote that only the radio brings the trouble home), as fascists are determined to make the new republic fail. This film deftly shows how the innocence of childhood, the beginning of romance, and the wonder and awe about life can be twisted by the times one lives in and the bigotry of adults, even before the advent of the next world war.

The acting is so natural that you soon forget that you are watching a movie; it seems as if the director used all local amateurs and simply put their lives on film. Gómez will win your respect and admiration, and young Lozano your heart. One of the best Spanish films I've seen, and one of the best about the positive influence of education.

Read more...

Warriors

aka Guerreros
Daniel Calparsoro, 2002, Spain (8.4*)
A well-done and at times gripping war film that follows a small Spanish detachment in Serbia, which gets ambushed and separated from the main units in what begins a harrowing journey in hostile territory. The war action here is very well filmed and edited and makes the viewer feel that war is truly hell for all involved. The film also exposes the complexity of modern war in a region like this, when you have various armies, a "UN peacekeeping force", and other neutrals all thrown into a situation of conflict.

Calparsoro does a good job balancing the fact that war is hardest on civilians, yet soldiers under attack from all sides are also faced with human emotions and instant responses which may or may not have been the best in retrospect. Fans of war films with action, and fans of anti-war films alike will enjoy this Spanish classic.

Read more...

Viridiana

Luis Bunuel, 1961, Spain, bw (7.9*)
For those who would like a more normal, non-surrealist intro to the surrealist friend of Dali, Spanish director Luis Bunuel (Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), this is a good early film with a nearly straightforward story. A nun named Virigiana, played by Silvia Pinal, gets word that her uncle, played by Bunuel favorite Fernando Rey, is ill and aging, which isn't entirely true. She doesn’t really want to leave the convent just before her consecration but the Mother Superior orders her to go.

There at her uncle’s estate, she realizes the wealth he has and that she can do some good with it after all. She visits the town and invites several of the local homeless beggars to come live at the estate as long as they respect everyone and don’t fight and follow simple rules. The ensuing events test her faith as well as faith in mankind. Rather than an apparently wandering film like Discreet Charm, this story has a cohesive progression to an end, which should delight those who haven’t found Bunuel understandable to this point. He admits in interviews that he rarely has a story in mind, and just largely improvises when the cameras roll. In this film, he apparently had more of a script and perhaps it shows as this is his most critically acclaimed film.

Read more...

All About My Mother

Pedro Almodovar, 1999, Spain (7.8*)

Best Foreign Film (AA, BAA)

Almodovar's cinematic homage to women reaches new heights in this Oscar® winner, he even dedicates it to: "All women who play actresses, all women, and all those who want to be women", so aside from real women, the cast also includes some gender-benders. The film begins with people watching Bette Davis in All About Eve, so the connection to 50's dramas about women is made immediately by Almodovar.

It's a fictionalized account of the mother of a teenager who wants to be a screenwriter, a mother who once was an actress apparently, but nothing big. Her life connects with some real stage actresses (doing Tennessee Williams' "Streecar Named Desire"), and the stories of each individual is really what Almodovar's films are all about: the unique, creative people all around who inspire his films, especially women. The Argentinian actress, Cecelia Roth, who plays the mother, was riveting - soapy, yet sincere and believable. The music, I believe by Antonio Inglesias, is very good in all Almodovar's films, and it never intrudes on the scene.

One Oscar® and one of just five films (The Lives of Others, Babette's Feast, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Cinema Paradiso) to win both the U.S. and British academy awards for foreign language film.

Read more...

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Dir: Pedro Almodovar, 1988, Spain (7.8*)

This is a screwball comedy from Spain, one of the hottest European directors of the last decade, in fact he's usually known now by just his last name, Almodovar. Primarily a romance about a woman recently broken up, Carmen Maura, Almodovar throws in terrorists, weapons, airplane hijackings, completely over-the-top. Apparently getting past Franco loosened up the artists a good bit, as Almodovar seems to be inspired by the new "punk tabloid" philosophy, perhaps Telemundo soaps as well. Antonio Banderas goes out of character as a nerd.

Read more...

Carmen

Dir: Carlos Suara, 1983, Spain (9.2*)

Best Foreign Film (BAA)

One of the most exciting dance films ever made. Suara and choreographer and star Antonio Gades filmed a trilogy of flamenco films (Blood Wedding, Carmen, El Amor Brujo), and this is the second part. The story involves a flamenco troupe rehearsing for a flamenco version of the famous Bizet opera, one that tells the story in dance. As the production progresses, the two lead dancers, with Laura del Sol as "Carmen", begin a relationship that mirrors the one in the story.

Read more...