Spanish Cinema

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
199 minutes; released 1972.
An upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined in a film that mixes biting social satire with bold surrealistic invention. In French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Carlos Carrera.
119 minutes; released 2002.
A young priest is assigned to a parish where he becomes involved in corrupt politics and an illicit relationship with a woman. In Spanish with optional dubbed English soundtrack or English, French or Spanish subtitles. Based on the novel by Ea de Queirs. Starring Gael García Bernal.

Directed by Juan Antonio Bardem.
88 minutes; released 1955.
A wealthy professor and his mistress hit a cyclist while driving, leaving him to die. A friend of the mistress's husband learns of the incident and blackmails the guilty couple.

Directed by Peter Yates.
139 minutes; released 2000.
A minor landowner descends into fantasy and becomes convinced that he is a knight on a mission to save a damsel in distress. Based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Starring John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins, Isabella Rossellini, and Vanessa Williams.

Directed by Orson Welles.
115 minutes; released 1995.
A unique vision of two men, Don Quixote and his companion Sancho Panza, who journey through provincial Spain and suddenly are pitted against enemies both real and imagined in the modern world. A rarely seen piece of film history. Based on the book by Miguel De Cervantes.

Directed by Victor Erice.
99 minutes; released 1973.
In a small Spanish village shortly after the civil war, a young girl becomes obsessed with the memory of watching the movie Frankenstein. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
104 minutes; released 1974.
This surrealist comedy explores many of the illogical themes that preoccupied the director throughout his career - from the hypocrisy of conventional morality to the arbitrariness of social arrangements. In French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
114 minutes; released 2002.
Two men who meet by chance at the theatre discover each is caring for a woman in a coma--one a bullfighter and the other a ballet student. In Spanish or French, with subtitles in English or French.

Directed by K. C. Lynch.
60 minutes; released 1997.
A dramatization of the life of the Spanish priest who worked with St. Teresa of Avila to reform the Carmelite Order.

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
98 minutes; released 1964.
A Parisian domestic goes to work on a provincial estate in the 1930s, where she encounters a womanizer, his frigid wife, a fascist and a shoe-fetishist. Then she decides one is guilty of murder. Based on the novel by Octave Mirbeau. Starring Jeanne Moreau. In French with optional English subtitles.

Directed by José Luis Cuerda.
94 minutes; released 1999.
Amid the growing tensions of the approaching Spanish Civil War, a small boy is brought out of his cocoon by a wise teacher who shows him the wonder of the natural world around him. In Spanish or French with English subtitles. Starring Fernando Fernán Gómez.

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
105 minutes; released 2004.
Two men make a movie based on their childhood experiences at Catholic school. They later receive a visit from the priest from their school days, who tells his own version of the events. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Directed by Ladislao Vajda.
90 minutes; released 1955.
A baby left on the doorstep of a monastery is raised by the monks who live there. Based on the story by José María Sánchez Silva. Dubbed from Spanish into English.

Directed by Luigi Comencini.
92 minutes; released 1991.
This colour re-make of the 1955 original (above), is generally considered inferior to the earlier film.

Directed by Lisandro Alonso.
82 minutes; released 2004.
An enigmatic film, in which an older man is released from prison and makes for the Argentinian jungle, divesting himself of his possessions along the way.

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
92 minutes; released 1959.
A simple priest tries to live a pure and honest life according to the Christian virtues, but is shown distrust and hatred by those around him. In Spanish with English subtitles. Included on the Vatican's list of "Some Important Films".

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
126 minutes; released 1977.
In this satire of sexual obsession, a man lusts after a much younger woman. Based on the novel by Pierre Louÿs. In French or English with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
94 minutes; released 1991.
A womanizer spends his nights juggling so many beautiful women that he can't keep their names straight. Then one of his victims, who happens to be a nurse, falsely diagnoses him with AIDS. In Spanish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Josefina Molina.
450 minutes; released 1984.
A mini-series dramatization of the life of the sixteenth century Spanish nun and mystic, Teresa de Jesús. In Spanish with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
102 minutes; released 1999.
A hard-working nurse who has build a happy life for herself and her teenage son finds her world falling apart when he is killed in a car accident. In Spanish with English and French subtitles.

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
91 minutes; released 1961.
A young nun visits her uncle's country estate where he attempts to rape her and then kills himself, leaving the estate to her and his illegitimate son. While the latter pursues plans to modernize the estate, she tries to convert it into a haven for the homeless. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Directed by Luis Buñuel.
101 minutes; released 1969.
Two tramps on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela encounter a series of characters including Jesus Christ, the Devil and the Marquis de Sade. In French with English subtitles.