Cinema V

(see July 2006)

Chile

Taxi para Tres
Director: Orlando Lúbbert
Struggling taxi driver has his car hijacked and is forced to take part in armed raids which he begins to enjoy.

El Chacotero Sentimental
Director: Cristian Galaz
Three distinct and true stories related by callers to a radio chat show host in Chile. Excellent.

Argentina

Ana y Los Otros
Director: Celina Murga
For fans of French director Eric Rohmer. Excellent.

Hermanas
Director: Julia Solomonoff
Two distant sisters now living outside Argentina finally face up to their individual roles and experiences during Argentine military dictatorship.

Tiempos de Valiente
Director: Damián Szifrón.
First Spanish language comedy to make me laugh. Surprise box office hit here.

Todo el bien del Mundo
Director: Alejandro Agresti
Argentine cinema at its very best.

El Lado Oscuro del Corazon
Director: Eliseo Subiela
Very strange film. A bohemian Buenos Aires poet falls in love with a Prostitute.

Spain

En la Ciudad
Director: Cesc
A group of thirty-something’s in modern day Barcelona. Excellent cast. Excellent story. One of the few good Spanish productions in recent years.

Sur Express
Director: Chema de la Peña & Gabriel Velázquez
The lives of various individuals housed along the train line from Lisbon to Paris. Excellent.

Smoking Room
Director: JD Wallovits & Roger Gual
Multinational firm imposes smoking ban in Madrid headquarters. Follows reaction of indignant tobacco loving employees, each with a different cowardly reason for not signing the petition.

El Metódo
Director: Marcelo Piñeyro
Originally a massive hit in theatres. Film about people thrown together in an unorthodox group interview.

Para que no me Olvídes
Director: Patricia Ferreira
Pleasant surprise after a slow start.

Los Lunes en el Sol
Director: Fernando León de Aranoa
Story follows the everyday lives of five middle-aged men laid off from the local Galician shipyard with little hope of finding new employment.

El Verdugo
Director: Luis Berlanga
Black and White. 1963. A must see. Dark humour. Spain's most famous film. A young man is appointed as his father in law's successor as State Executioner.

Bienvenido Mr. Marshall
Director: Luis Berlanga
Black and White. 1960. Humorous satire of the Spanish hopes and expectations to be included in the Post WWII Marshall Plan. Set in a rural Spanish village. A Spanish classic.

Habla con Ella
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Weird but of course brilliant.

El Lobo
Director: Miguel Courtois
True story of a man who infiltrated the highest echelons of ETA. Excellent Action and suspense, a rare thing in Spanish cinema. Brilliant movie. Worth seeing if only for the story.