At this year's Academy Awards ceremony, Javier Bardem was once again nominated for an Oscar, this time for his role as a father who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Biutiful (2010); it marked the first time an actor fully performing in Spanish was nominated for such an award. Although Bardem is the first Spanish actor to be nominated for an Academy-award in a leading performance in an English-language film (Before Night Falls, 2000), other Spanish movie stars have appeared as well in films made outside of Spain; some of these films are Hollywood productions, others are European or Latin American movies. Our summer film series at the Instituto Cervantes New York showcases a number of these talented actors and actresses from Spain who have enjoyed important international careers by revisiting some of their signature roles in Spanish cinema.
SCHEDULE OF SCREENINGS
June 29 6:30pm
MONDAYS IN THE SUN/ LOS LUNES AL SOL (Fernando León, Spain, 2002, 113 minutes)
Bardem leads four other excellent Spanish actors in this hard-hitting ensemble film about the devastating effects of unemployment on a group of laid-off shipyard workers in a Spanish northern town. Winner of five Goya awards, including Best Picture of 2002.
July 6 6:30pm
TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN/ ÁTAME (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 1989, 110 minutes)
As we await the release of the first collaboration in over 20 years between Antonio Banderas and Almodóvar, let's revisit their last work together: this once controversial love story between a slightly unhinged man released from a psychiatric hospital (Banderas) and the heroin-addicted B-movie actress he has kidnapped (Victoria Abril).
July 13 6:30pm
COMMON WEALTH/LA COMUNIDAD (Alex de la Iglesia, Spain, 2000, 110 minutes)
In this gripping dark comedy by cult Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, Carmen Maura (Goya award for Best Actress) gives a tour de force performance as a real estate agent who must fight off the murderous impulses of a greedy group of neighbors who seek to lay their hands on the hidden fortune she has found in a dead man's apartment.
July 20 6:30pm
TRISTANA ( Luis Buñuel, Spain/France/Italy, 1970, 95 minutes)
Besides his work in the Oscar-winning French Connection and its sequel, as well as in many other European movies, Fernando Rey appeared in several of Bunuel's films, including this adaptation of Benito Pérez Galdós' novel about an aging nobleman who seduces his young ward (a radiant Catherine Deneuve), only to lose her to a young painter (Franco Nero).
July 27 6:30pm
GOYA IN BORDEAUX/GOYA EN BURDEOS (Carlos Saura, Spain/Italy, 1999, 107 minutes)
Although Francisco Rabal is best known abroad for his work with Luis Buñuel, he also appeared in films by Antonioni, Visconti, Rivette, and Friedkin. In this lushly pictorial film about the artist's final years of exile in southern France, Rabal plays Goya for the second time in his career. The stunning cinematography is by the distinguished Academy Award winner Vittorio Storaro.
August 3 6:30pm
SOLO MÍA/ONLY MINE (Javier Balaguer, Spain, 2001, 100 minutes)
Catalan actor Sergi López is almost as well known in France as in his native Spain. In Balaguer's debut film, he plays another of his signature villain roles: a husband whose uncontrollable jealousy and violent behavior push his lovely wife (Paz Vega) to the edge of sanity.
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For further information, please contact Barbara Celis: [email protected].
All films are shown with English subtitles. Screenings take place in the auditorium of the Instituto Cervantes New York, 211 East 49th Street (between Third and Second avenues). Admission to the films is free of charge.