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All About My Mother
Esteban, an aspiring young writer, runs to get the autograph of an actress, with tragic results. His mother, Manuela, goes to Barcelona to find Esteban’s transvestite father and her dislocated life begins to take a very different shape. Self -parody is part of Almodovar’s approach and the effectiveness of his story-telling comes partly from the…
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Volver
Revolving around an eccentric family of women from a wind-swept region south of Madrid, Cruz stars as Raimunda, a working-class woman forced to go to great lengths to protect her 14-year-old daughter Paula. To top off the family crisis, her mother Irene returns from the dead to tie up loose ends. The plot originates in…
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Pan’s Labyrinth
Del Toro, no stranger to science fiction or tales of the Spanish struggle between Fascism and left wing politics (Blade 2, Hellboy, The Devils Backbone) offers us something different here, skilfully blending history with fantasy. In Second World War fascist Spain Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) is faced with a stark choice. On the one hand she…
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The Orphanage
Hitchcock explained the difference between surprise and suspense like this: if people are seated at a table and a bomb explodes, that is surprise. If they are seated at a table, and you know there’s a bomb under the table attached to a ticking clock, but they continue to play cards – that’s suspense. Well,…
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The Secret in Their Eyes
It’s the year 2000, Buenos Aires, Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin – Nine Queens), disillusioned, retired investigator is obsessed with a 1974 unsolved murder and decides to write a book about it. This gives him the pretext to contact his former boss Irene Menendez Hastings (Soledad Villamil) a woman he has secretly loved since they worked…
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Chico and Rita
This is an utterly seductive animated tale of historical accuracy, set in 1940s Cuba, Las Vegas and New York. The story unfolds through flashbacks as Chico remembers a distant past when, as a young aspiring jazz pianist, he met the beautiful and exceptional singer Rita. Music and romance pull them together but, in true star-crossed…
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The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Newly restored for its fortieth anniversary, this influential Oscar-winning classic constitutes one of the finest achievements of one of cinema’s greatest directors, working in his intensely creative late period. This comedy of manners centres on a group of vividly drawn and outwardly respectable upper middle-class friends, who are continually thwarted in their attempt to have…
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Spirit of the Beehive
In 1940s Spain a family of four live in an isolated farmhouse with window panes resembling the pattern of honeycomb. Father (a beekeeper and poet), and mother barely speak to each other and are disconnected from their two young daughters, little Ana (Ana Torrent) and her elder sister Isabel (Isabel Telleria). One day a rickety…
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Even the Rain
A film within a film. Cast & crew descend upon a Bolivian town to make a low-budget movie about Columbus in America and the original exploitation of local people, and succeed in replicating that exploitation. Things fall apart as cheaply hired extras abandon filmmaking to protect their water rights from privatisation by a multinational company…
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Blancanieves
Based on the 1812 fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, the story is set in a romantic vision of 1920s Andalusia. However, the film approaches storytelling through the integration of Spanish culture from characters’ names to traditions they follow. Additionally, it alludes to other fairy tales including Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood.…
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Country: Spain
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