Anybody interested in Spanish and Latin American movies? I’m watching lots as part of my language practice - and for their own sake as films, of course. I thought it might be good to swap some recommendations, so I’ll start with a peli I saw last night. Siete Virgenes is a bitter-sweet film about a bad kid from Seville who gets a pass from youth detention to attend his brother’s wedding and uses the 48 hours outside to catch up on some sex, drugs and violence. Sounds like a Spanish Trainspotting but it’s surprisingly gentle with all the sleeze. It was made in 2005 by Alberto Rodriguez who got some brilliant performances from the young cast, especially Juan Jose Ballesta in the lead, and the photography is lovely. The language is quite difficult, as it’s full-on Sevillian dialect throughout. Some other good movies I’ve seen recently include Labarinto del Fauno, 9 Reinas and El Espinazo del Diablo.
Jurydyr, you live in the UK, yeah? If you can part with ?5.99 a month or thereabouts you can subscribe to DVDs by post from Amazon or Sofacinema (http://www.sofacinema.co.uk/learn/). There are lots of others around now but these two are good and both have an excellent choice of non-mainstream and foreign language movies - certainly much better than a rental store. You get one or more films at a time depending on what you pay, and when you send one back they forward the next title from your list. I’ve had dozens of Spanish and Latin movies this way. It’s a long time since I saw Jamon, Jamon, but I remember it being very daft, despite the lovely Penelope Cruz and usually excellent Javier Bardem. Sofacinema do a free trial, by the way.
I taught a Latin American/Spanish film class in New York a few years ago and just started an ex-pat film club in Barcelona with a few friends that has been going pretty strong!
So, here are my MUST SEE suggestions:
Pedro Almodovar- (in order of greatness!) Mujeres Al Borde de un Attaque de Nervios
Todo Sobre Mi Madre
Hable Con Ella
Volver
Alejandro Amenabar- Tesis
Mar Adentro
A couple of others that deserve honorable mention:
El Bola
El Lobo
I saw “Tesis” in college years ago while studying abroad in Spain and it riveted me. It is scary and suspensful in a way that was new for me. American films tend to manipulate your senses, triggering you to be scared at just the right moment… but this film does it naturally and its spectacular. A bit “fuerte”, but worth seeing. The performances are amazing.
Hi Laura, I saw Tesis a few years ago and thought it was brilliant - absolutely gripping and I didn’t guess the killer’s identity until the end! A great performance from Ana Torent, who was the little girl in Victor Erice’s El Espiritu de la Colmena way back in 1973 (and one of the best kid actors I’ve ever seen in any language). Amenabar is a bit hit and miss for me; I liked The Others but couldn’t really be bothered with Abre los Ojos, although it was (of course) better than the Tom Cruise re-make. I haven’t seen Mar Adentro but the reviews were mixed. Saw an amusing little movie last night called Seres Queridos - it was set in Madrid but was strangely un-Spanish. A Jewish girl brings home her Palestinian boyfriend, and then it turns into a bit of a farce. Worth watching, though. As for Almodovar, he’s almost like a category on his own now, don’t you think? Kind of like the status of Allen or Bergman. And you love him or hate him. I’d agree with putting Mujeres at the top of his list, but Volver is very good too. Thanks for contributing and I hope the thread thrives!
not in the uk until mid dec now travel all time back in spain full time mid jan The Expatriator tryed the link and comapny OS wont let me down load it
any got some where eles i can get it , Amazon dont have a good copy
just need to a site to down and get my hand on the spanish aswell
big problem with me is i am dyslexia ( are to lazye to do it right )
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that manifests primarily as a difficulty with written language, particularly with reading and spelling.
so you have to put up with me here ja ja ja
not in the uk until mid dec now travel all time back in spain full time mid jan The Expatriator tryed the link and comapny OS wont let me down load it
any got some where eles i can get it , Amazon dont have a good copy
Sorry about the bittorrent problems. If you can get it going (got a smart friend?) then it’s the best/easiest/cheapest way to get movies and TV… not that I use it of course. 😉
I rented Mar Adentro a few months ago but the girlfriend never had the ganas to watch a sad, emotional movie, so we ended up returning it without seeing it. Maybe over the holidays here…
So speaking of Mar Adentro, the leading lady role was played by Belen Rueda who won a Goya for the film. She also stars in the new spooky thriller “El Orfanato” that just came out. Did anyone else see it? What did you think?
I really enjoyed it. There are a couple of scenes where everyone in the theater jumped out of our seats in unison. That rarely happens. It is definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
Switching genres, I must say I love Spanish comedy. One of my favorites is “Dias de Futbol”. So Spanish, so funny, and it has a wonderful cast. I also recently saw “Club de los suicidios” a very dark comedy that I thought was done rather tastefully considering the subject matter. But it also made me laugh out loud several times.
I would recommend, among the movies suggested, Tesis, Los Otros and Nueve Reinas. They are IMO excellent movies. But I don?t know if there is a subtitled version in English.
I would like to know if someone saw “El Orfanato”. It seems to be a thriller!
Yep, Nueve Reinas is available with subtitles in the UK, and brilliant it is too. If you like sting or heist movies with a twist, it’s one of the best. I really need the subtitles, I’m afraid, as I find Argentine Spanish about the most difficult and impenetrable variety of the language, even though I’ve been (briefly) to that beautiful country. Saw another interesting Argentine movie at the weekend called La Familia Rodante. Directed by Pablo Trapero who made El Bonarense, it’s a road movie about an extended family and their friends who travel 1000km from Buenos Aires to Misiones in an old motor home. Not much happens in the way of plot - it’s really just about the development of characters and relationships, a bit like Little Miss Sunshine without the comedy ending. However, the photography is fantastic, with superb composition and framing so there’s always something to look at, and you get to see some little-known parts of South America. On this subject I think Argentine cinema deserves more exposure in Europe - seems Mexican and Brazilian movies have made an impact but the other Latin American countries produce good stuff too, but we don’t alway hear about it in the UK. Maybe in Spain they get distribution - I’m afraid when I’m in Spain I’m a long way from the cinema!
