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All About My Mother
DVD.
1999. 102 mn. SF 017
Pedro Almodovar / Cecilia Roth, Antonia San Juan,
Marisa Paredes, Penelope Cruz
Moving and funny tribute to women, the men who want
to be women and the glories of melodrama was an
audience and critics' favorite around the world. Unique
tale of a mother and the friendships she makes as she
looks for her former lover after their son is killed.
Amantes
VHS.
1990. 100mn. Spanish. SF 001
Vicente
Aranda / Jorge Sanz, Maribel Verdu,
Victoria Abril
A sexually provocative film based on actual events in
the mid 50s. Set in Franco's post-World War II Spain,
the film centers on an intricate, perverse love triangle
between a handsome, naive soldier, his virginal fiance
and a beautiful, widowed landlady.
El Amor Brujo
VHS.
1986. 100mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF
006
Carlos Saura / Antonio Gades, Cristina Hoyos and
Laura del Sol
In El Amor Brujo, Saura was inspired by the work of
Manuel de Falla, with dancers delivering stunning
flamenco performances in the story of two ill-fated
lovers.
Ay,
Carmela!
VHS.105min.SF35
By Carlos Saura, with Carmen Maura
Azucar Amarga (Bitter Sugar)
VHS.1996.
102 mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF 002
Leon Ichaso /
This visceral, energizing look at contemporary Cuba is
an impassioned love story set against the
political and economic tensions of Havana. Gustavo,
an ideal young Communist with a glorified vision of
Castro's regime, falls in love with Yolanda, a
disenchanted dancer who longs to escape to Miami.
Despite their radically opposed beliefs, the young
couple is inseparable. The city begins to erupt around
Gustavo when his rebellious musician brother injects
himself with the AIDS virus in suicidal protest, and his
father realizes that he will earn more money as a hotel
bar pianist than as a doctor.
Before
Night Falls
VHS.2000. 133min. SF034
By Julian Schnabel, with Javier Bardem
Belle
Epoque
VHS.1994. 109 mins. Spanish/English subtitles. SF032
Blood Wedding
VHS.
1981. 71mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF003
Carlos Saura / Antonio Gades
A flamenco ballet version of Federico Garcia Lorca's
classic. The climax of this dramatic story is a duel to
the death between the bridegroom and the bride's
former lover.
Butterfly (La Lengua de las Mariposas)
DVD. 1999. 94 min.
Spanish / English subtitles. SF026
Jose Luis Cuerda /
A shy young boy finds friendship with his aging teacher
and begins to find out about himself and his country as
the Spanish Civil War intensifies.
Cabeza de Vaca
VHS.1993.
108mn. English. SF005
Nicolas
Echevarria / Juan Diego, Roberto Sosa
In 1528, the New World collides with the Old World as
Spanish conquistadors seek to enslave the Indians,
and Cabeza de Vaca must confront his own people and
his past.
Camila
VHS.
1985. 105 mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF023
Maria-Luisa Bemberg
A young Catholic socialite from Buenos Aires falls in
love and runs away with a young Jesuit priest. The two
find temporary happiness in a small provincial village,
but eventually they are recognized and ultimately
condemned to death without a trial.
Carla's
Song
VHS.1996.127min.Span/English subtitles.SF042
Details
of a Duel
VHS.1991.97min.Span./English subtitles.SF039
The
Devil's Backbone
VHS.2002.110min.Spanish/English subtitles.SF038
Elisa Vida Mia
VHS.
1976.125 mn.Spain.
Spanish/ English subtitles. SF 021
Carlos Saura / Fernando Rey, Geraldine Chaplin
Story about a man estranged from his daughter. She
has returned to help her ailing father and writes his
biography. Eventually her own recollections lead to a
deeper understanding that enable the two to reunite.
Esmeralda Comes by Night
VHS.
1998. 103 min. Mexico. Spanish with English
subtitles. SF 008
Jaime H. Hermosillo /
A woman with five husbands is about to marry number
six when she is finally charged with bigamy. But the
authorities will soon discover what the men in her life
already know: Esmeralda's charms are hard to resist.
As her husbands conspire to break her out of jail and
feminists demonstrate in her defense, it becomes clear
that this is one woman who has a handle on things. A
spirited satire of middle class values.
The Flower of My Secret
VHS.1996.
101mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF 009
Pedro Almodovar / Marisa Paredes, Juan Echanove,
Carmen Elias, Rossy de Palma
Almodovar's fun story of a romance writer, fresh
out of inspiration, who goes looking for a real-life love
of her own.
The Flower of my Secret
VHS,
1996. 101 min.
Spanish/English subtitles. SF 025
See description above...
Frida
VHS.1984. SF 022
Paul Leduc / Ofelia Medina, Juan Jose Gurrola,
Max Kerlow
Widely acclaimed, brilliantly visual tribute to the spirit
and determination of Frida Kahlo, who risked her life for
her art and love, and became one of the dominant
painters of the 20th century.
Told in surreal
flashbacks reminiscent of her own canvasses,
the film remarkably captures the spirit and
determination of the woman who made herself into
a great artist, a cultural leader, a political activist.
High Heels
VHS.1991.Spain.Spanish/English
subtitles. SF 019
Pedro
Almodovar / Victoria Abril, Miguel Bose,
Marisa Paredes
Part revenge comedy, thriller and sexual farce, High
Heels is a Sirkian melodrama about the bizarre
relationship between an aging Spanish movie star and
singer and her daughter, a prominent local television
anchor woman. Almodovar throws in an acrobatic sex
scene, a prison dance number, an on-camera
confession, a buried family secret and a final
reconciliation.
I,
the Worst of All
VHS.107min.Span/English subtitles.SF040
In
the Time of Butterflies
VHS. 92 mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF029
With Salma Hayek, E.J. Olmos
An idealistic young woman wages a daring struggle for
freedom against a murderous dictator.
In
the Time of Butterflies
DVD. 92 mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF030
Johnny 100 Pesos
VHS.
Chile. 1993. 95 min.
Spanish/English subtitles. SF 025
Gustavo Graef-Marino
Based on a true story, this is an offbeat, darkly comic
thriller of a bungled heist. Johnny Garcia stars as a
teenager whose first armed robbery escalates into a
hostage situation when the police surround the
building, leaving no escape for Johnny and his
accomplices. The event turns into a media circus
focusing on Johnny as a symbol of what's wrong with
the country.
Letters from Alou
VHS.
1990. 100mn. Span, French and Seneg.
with English subtitles. SF 024
Montxo Armendariz /
Alou is an African immigrant in Spain whose
unflagging optimism is unaffected by all the instances
of exploitation and discrimination that characterize
his new home.
Like Water for Chocolate
VHS.
105mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF 010
Alfonso Arau /
Immensely popular, magical story of a young girl
whose cooking is infused with her emotions as she
prepares her meals. Unrequited passions, changing
political situations and madness emerge in this highly entertaining, sensual and
funny story. Written by
Laura Esquivel.
El
Mar
VHS.2000.111 mn. Spanish, no subtitles. SF028
Manuel and Andreu are 10 years old when the
Civil War reaches the island of Majorca. Their first
encounter with the cruelty of war happens when they
see the father of one of their friends get shot in front
of the wall of a cemetary.
Midaq Alley (El Callegon de los Milagros)
DVD.
1995. 140 mn. SF 018
Jorge Fons / Ernesto Gomez Cruz, Delia Casanova,
Juan Manuel Bernal, Selma Hayek
The most awarded film in Mexican history, based on
the Nobel Prize-winning novel by Egyptian writer
Naguib Mahfouz. A complex portrait of lives in a
Mexico City neighborhood, and the connections
between them. Local pub owner Don Ru is tired of
marriage to his wife and has feelings for a young clerk.
Don Ru's son Chava runs away to the U.S. after he
almost kills Don Ru's lover. Chava's friend Abel is in
love with Alma, the daughter of a tarot reader.
Mi Vida Loca.
VHS.
1994. 94 min. USA. SF 014
Allison Anders' vibrant feature is set in Echo Park,
Los Angeles, where best friends Sad Girl and Mousie
are now enemies as they have both become pregnant
by the same man, Ernesto, a local drug dealer. A
gritty slice of life.
El
Norte
SF 043. VHS.
1984.141min.Spanish/English subtitles
Nueba
Yol
SF036. VHS.
1996. 120min.Span.w/English subtitles.
The Official Story
VHS.
1985.112mn. Spanish/English subtitles. SF 015
Luis Puenzo / Hector Alterio, Norma Aleandro
This powerful Argentinean feature is the true
story of a comfortable middle-class couple and their
adopted daughter. As the film progresses, the couple
gradually begin to suspect that their
daughter may be
one of the many Argentinean children separated from
their parents as they are detained or tortured and
given away. The wife's journey of self-discovery reveals
the horrors of the military dictatorship in Argentina.
Directed by Luis Puenzo.
Open
Your Eyes
VHS.1997.117min.Span/English subtitles.SF037
By Amenabar, with P. Cruz, E. Noriega
Our
Lady of the Assassin
VHS.2001.Span/English subtitles. SF041
El Rey Pasmado
VHS.
110mn. Spanish. SF 007
Secrets of the Heart
DVD.
Spain. 1997. 108 min.
Spanish/English subtitles. SF027
Montxo Armendariz
A nine-year-old boy must come to terms with death
following his father's suicide. The boy and his brother
try to uncover the veil of secrecy in a household
overcome with grief, as the ghosts of the imagination
guide them to a better understanding.
Secrets of the Heart
VHS.
Spain. 1997. 108 min.
Spanish/English subtitles. SF027b
Strawberry
and Chocolate
VHS.1994.104 min.Span./English subtitles. SF033
Veronico Cruz
VHS.
1988. 106 mn. Argentina.
Spanish/English subtitles. SF 020
Miguel Pereira
A fascinating film from Argentina, Veronico Cruz
shows how the Falklands (Malvinas) war affected the
life of an Indian boy from one of Argentina's most
remote regions.
Women
on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
DVD. 1988. 89 min. Span./English
subtitles.SF031
By P. Almodovar, with C. Maura, A. Banderas
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