The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Essential Viewing

France/Italy/Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie

Director: Luis Buñuel

Writers: Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Cinematographer: Edmond Richard

Cast: Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Julien Bertheau, Milena Vukotic

A group of wealthy friends attempt to enjoy a dinner party but are constantly interrupted, in Buñuel’s bitingly funny, enigmatically satirical, and delightfully cynical portrait of the idle rich, attackingly depicting corruption, prejudice, double standards, and illogical social conventions. Iain.Stott

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Live Flesh (1997)

Recommended

Spain/France

Feature Film

Original Title: Carne trémula

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Writers: Pedro Almodóvar, Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Ray Loriga, Ruth Rendell

Cinematographer: Affonso Beato

Composer: Alberto Iglesias

Cast: Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal, Ángela Molina, José Sancho, Penélope Cruz

A devilishly handsome but slightly naïve young man, the son of a prostitute who gave birth to him on a bus, gets out of prison, after serving six years for causing the paralysis of a police officer with an errant bullet, and determines to gain vengeance upon those he deems responsible for his ill deserved incarceration, but as time passes he begins to change his mind…. only fate has other ideas, in Almodóvar’s sexy, stylish, and thoroughly unpredictable thriller. Iain.Stott

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Open Your Eyes (1997)

Recommended

Spain/France/Italy

Feature Film

Original Title: Abre los ojos

Director: Alejandro Amenábar

Writers: Alejandro Amenábar, Mateo Gil

Cinematographer: Hans Burman

Composers: Alejandro Amenábar, Mariano Marín

Cast: Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Chete Lera, Fele Martínez, Najwa Nimri, Gérard Barray, Jorge de Juan

A man in a prison hospital, accused of murder, wearing a rubber mask, relates a fantastic story – involving beautiful women, disfiguring car crashes, revolutionary plastic surgery, and cryogenics – to his psychiatrist, explaining to him how he came to be there, in Amenábar’s thoughtful, disquieting, and thoroughly unpredictable piece of science fiction. Iain.Stott

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The Baby's Room (2006)

Recommended

Spain

Television Film

Original Title: La habitación del niño

Director: Álex de la Iglesia

Writers: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Álex de la Iglesia

Cinematographer: José Luis Moreno

Composer: Roque Baños

Cast: Javier Gutiérrez, Leonor Watling, Sancho Gracia, María Asquerino, Antonio Dechent

A young couple with a seven-month-old son move into the house of their dreams – a grand, old fixer-upper – but their perfect life is soon put under pressure when the father begins to see ghostly figures on the baby monitor, leading to some rather obsessive behaviour, in de la Iglesia’s decidedly creepy, thoroughly unpredictable, and surprisingly perceptive little ghost story. Iain.Stott

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Blessed by Fire (2005)

Recommended

Argentina/Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: Iluminados por el fuego

Director: Tristán Bauer

Writers: Tristán Bauer, Miguel Bonasso, Edgardo Esteban, Gustavo Romero Borri

Cinematographer: Javier Julia

Composers: Federico Bonasso, León Gieco

Cast: Gastón Pauls, Pablo Riva, César Albarracín, Víctor Hugo Carrizo, Virginia Innocenti, Juan Leyrado, Arturo Bonín

A former friend’s suicide attempt brings painful memories of the Falklands war flooding back to a 40-something Buenos Airean, in this movingly acted and painfully visceral film, which perfectly captures the bloody horrors and needless human tragedies of war, but unfortunately it is let down somewhat by its rather sentimental and nationalistic final act. Iain.Stott

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Timecrimes (2007)

Recommended

Spain

Feature Film

Original Title: Los cronocrímenes

Writer/Director: Nacho Vigalondo

Cinematographer: Flavio Labiano

Composer: Chucky Namanera

Cast: Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, Bárbara Goenaga, Nacho Vigalondo

Vigalondo’s thoughtful, dizzyingly circular, and hugely entertaining time travel thriller – which will have you asking the question “which came first the chicken or the egg?” – expertly depicts a balding, middle-aged man named Hector’s encounters with a beautiful, naked young woman, a mysterious scientist, and two balding, middle-aged men named Hector. Iain.Stott

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