In a sense, Carlos Saura’s first foray into filming classical dance, Blood Wedding, may be seen, not as a stark departure from the immediacy of his narrative films, but rather, as an oblique return to form towards the social interrogations implicit in his earlier work on the fundamental question of Spanish identity – a particularly timely and relevant re-assessment in the aftermath of a contemporary history marked by institutional repression, creative censorship, and historical revisionism. It is within this framework that the selected adaptation of the seminal “rural trilogy” play by Spanish playwright, Federico García Lorca – a writer who was executed by Falangists in the early days of the Civil War and whose work was generally banned throughout Franco’s regime – seems particularly suited to this post Franco-era cultural introspection in its dark and tragic tale of passion, betrayal, and revenge.
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Tag Archives: spanish
Camino solitario (1984) Jesús Franco, Antonio Mayans, Lina Romay, Ricardo Palacios, Thriller
Private detective Alfredo Pereira is hired by eccentric couple Raden and Eve to find their missing sister, Adriana. Despite his limitations, Pereira soon finds the woman, but foreplay between characters complicates things.
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Embrace of the Serpent / El abrazo de la serpiente (2016) Ciro Guerra, Nilbio Torres, Jan Bijvoet, Antonio Bolivar, Adventure, Biography, Drama
The epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them. Inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.
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Above and Beyond (1952) Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, Robert Taylor, Eleanor Parker, James Whitmore, Action, Biography, Drama
The story of Colonel Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Although unaware of the full potential of this new weapon, he knows that it is capable of doing tremendously more damage than any other weapon used before, and that the death toll resulting from it will be enormous. He is reluctant to be the person who will end so many lives, but if using it may bring an end to the war, then not doing so may result in even more lives being lost in continued ground assaults as the fighting goes on. At the same time, the intense secrecy surrounding this mission leaves him with no one he can express his thoughts and doubts to, not even his wife. As time goes on, the pressure upon him only increase.
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Wild Rovers (1971) Blake Edwards, William Holden, Ryan O’Neal, Karl Malden, Western
Ross Bodine and Frank Post are cowhands on Walt Buckman’s R-Bar-R ranch. Bodine is older and broods a bit about how he will get along when he’s too old to cowboy. Post is young and rambunctious and ambitious for a better life than wrangling cows. When one of their fellow cowboys is killed in a corral accident, Post suggests a way into a better life for himself and his friend: robbing a bank. Bodine reluctantly joins in the plan and the two contrive to rob the local bank. They make good their escape initially, but Walt Buckman and his two sons, John and Paul, are incensed at this betrayal by their own trusted employees. John and Paul set out to bring Bodine and Post to justice.
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Highly Dangerous (1950) Roy Ward Baker, Margaret Lockwood, Dane Clark, Marius Goring, Action, Thriller
When British Intelligence discovers that an Iron Curtian country is developing insects as weapons they persuade eminent entomologist Frances Gray to get into the country to collect some specimens. On arrival her cover is almost immediately blown and her contact murdered. The future looks grim for her and also perhaps for the world.
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Blind terror / See No Evil (1971) Richard Fleischer, Mia Farrow, Dorothy Alison, Robin Bailey, Mystery, Thriller
Sarah is a blind girl who has returned to her home, a country manor in which all of the occupants are dead. She unknowingly sleeps overnight, among a houseful of corpses, arising the next morning to quietly creep out of bed, in order not to awaken the other members of the household.
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The World of Suzie Wong (1960) Richard Quine, William Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, Drama, Romance
Robert Lomax, tired of working in an office, wants to be an artist. So he moves to Hong Kong to try his hand at painting. Finding a cheap hotel, he checks in, only to find it’s used by prostitutes and their “dates” they meet in the bar downstairs. Since he never picks up any of the ladies, they all want to know more about him. Eventually, he does hire one to model for him… and soon falls in love. However, since he’s on a limited budget, he can’t afford her exclusively, but doesn’t want to “share” her with anyone else.
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La diosa arrodillada / The Kneeling Goddess (1947) Roberto Gavaldón, María Félix, Arturo de Córdova, Rosario Granados, Crime, Drama, Mystery
A artist model who leads the ever hapless Arturo de Córdova away from the arms of his innocent, blue-eyed wife and down, down, down into the ecstatic depths of degradation which include a stop at seedy Panamanian nightclub.
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Mad About Men (1954) Ralph Thomas, Glynis Johns, Donald Sinden, Anne Crawford, Comedy, Fantasy
Gymnastics school teacher Caroline Trewella inherits a house on the Cornwall coast. In the basement/smuggler’s cave, she discovers mermaid Miranda. The young women share a common ancestor and are remarkably alike in looks. While Caroline is away on a bicycling tour, Miranda has fun taking her place on land. With the help of her friend Nurse Carey, Miranda feigns an injury that keeps her wheelchair-bound… or more often needing to be carried by a man. And the ever flirtatious Miranda certainly knows how to attract all the men of the village!
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Los suicidas (2005) Juan Villegas, Laura Agorreca, Eugenia Alonso, Leonora Balcarce, Drama
Daniel es un periodista al que le encargan un artículo a partir de la fotografía de un presunto suicida. Al iniciar la investigación, conoce a Marcela, la enigmática fotógrafa que le asignan como compañera, con la que no ha mantenido antes ninguna relación, y de la que comienza lentamente a enamorarse.
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Adam Had Four Sons (1941) Gregory Ratoff, Ingrid Bergman, Warner Baxter, Susan Hayward, Drama, Romance
Emilie has been hired to care for the four sons of wealthy Adam Stoddard and his wife, Molly. After Molly dies, Adam and the boys grow to depend on Emilie even more. At the same time, Emilie falls in love with Adam. The boys grow up, but Adam insists that Emilie stay on as part of the family. Her relationships with both the boys and Adam become strained after one son marries a gold-digging viper named Hester.
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Odongo (1956) John Gilling, Rhonda Fleming, Macdonald Carey, Juma, Adventure, Drama
Pamela Muir is a lovely veterinarian, who thinks the animals should run free. Steve Stratton is a hunter, who hires natives to assist with the capture and care of the animals. One day Stratton fires one of the locals. To get revenge, the former employee frees the animals just before a wealthy buyer is to arrive. Unfortunately, Stratton blames Odongo, an innocent young boy, for the crime. Heretofore, Odongo believed Stratton cared for him. The distraught Odongo runs off into the dangerous wilds. Muir and Stratton are forced to put aside their differences and search for him.
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Houdini (1953) George Marshall, Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin Thatcher, Biography, Drama
The amazing career of master magician Harry Houdini is presented from his beginnings with a carnival “wild man” act to his emergence as an internationally-acclaimed illusionist, From his dramatic escape from a locked safe under the frozen Detroit River to an even more improbable one from a locked cell in Scotland Yard, he never failed to please and astound his audiences. Although Houdini’s tricks are achieved through his marvelous physical dexterity and innate sleight-of-hand, he courted death with the hazardous illusions he performed and his compulsive quest to make contact with the spirit world.
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973) David Winters, Kirk Douglas, Susan George, Susan Hampshire, Horror, Musical, Sci-Fi
Musical version of the story in which Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
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