Stories of Our Cinema

Portrait of Alfredo Landa, Spanish cinema's most popular actor. From landismo to his greatest roles, featuring public affection, prestigious awards, unreleased material, and intimate testimonies about the person behind the performer

In 'Sidosa', the director and actor Eduardo Casanova makes the most intimate and significant revelation of his life: he has HIV. There is no precedent in Spain for a public figure to disclose that he is living with HIV — a step that organizations and activists have been calling for for years to help end the social stigma still associated with the virus.

The 70th anniversary of the “Fotogramas” magazine comes in the shape of a sentimental voyage through the history of Spanish cinema thanks to a mosaic of voices represented by people who make films, those who write them and those who consume them. The documentary pays tribute to the readers of “Fotogramas” helped by the leading figures of Spanish cinema, who will read to the camera the most representative letters received at its offices in the history of the magazine.

A portrait of film critic Carlos Boyero, one of the most followed and feared figures in Spanish cinema, surrounded by controversy and both love and hate.

Fernando Fernán Gómez (1921-2007), actor, writer, playwright and film director, was for decades one of the most important figures in Spanish culture. His close friends and relatives reveal another facet in which he stood out above all: that of being an excellent conversationalist, capable of hypnotizing and seducing those who listened to him.

The life and professional career of the Spanish filmmaker Florián Rey (1894-1962), a brilliant artist who began his career in silent films and had great commercial success during the Second Republic (1931-1936): a journey to the early days of Spanish cinema.

Natividad Zaro, born at the beginning of the 20th century, was a woman ahead of her time: a performer, playwright, screenwriter and film producer. Friend and collaborator of Lorca, Azorín, Valle Inclán or Forqué, who described her as the Spanish "Modesty Blaise", she produced Furrows (1951), Cannes for Best Film, and Dawn at Dark Door (1957), Extraordinary Jury Prize Berlin Film Festival.

Salamanca director Chema de la Peña recalls in this feature documentary professionals early filmmakers like Fernando Colomo, Fernando Trueba, Imanol Uribe, Carmen Maura and Antonio Resines, protagonists of the so called 'New Spanish Cinema' in the 80s. His first films were produced between friends, her back to the industry. Rolled with minimal budget and with the sole intention of having fun ... And big surprise were critical and box office successes. And also true generational manifestos.

When a billionaire entrepreneur impulsively decides to create an iconic movie, he demands the best. Renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas is recruited to mastermind this ambitious endeavour. Completing the all-star team are two actors with massive talent but even bigger egos: Hollywood heartthrob Félix Rivero and radical theatre actor Iván Torres. Both are legends, but not exactly best friends. Through a series of increasingly eccentric trials set by Lola, Félix and Iván must confront not only each other but also their own legacies. Who will be left when the cameras finally start rolling?

During the eve of the 6th of January, a record-breaking snowstorm sweeps across Spain. In the midst of its chaos, a group of robbers seizes the opportunity to hijack an armoured van. A few meters away is Leo, a finished policeman who has nothing to lose. With the unexpected aid of a young woman, he will try to stop the band from running away with their loot.

In 1931, a young soldier deserts from the army and falls into a country farm, where he is welcomed by the owner due to his political ideas. Manolo has four daughters, Fernando likes all of them and they like him, so he has to decide which one to love.

When American author Nicholas brings in a cosmetologist named Kika to prepare the corpse of his recently deceased son, she inadvertently revives the young man, then falls in love with him. Forces conspire against the couple, though, as Nicholas wants Kika for himself.

The story of two men on different sides of a prison riot -- the inmate leading the rebellion and the young guard trapped in the revolt, who poses as a prisoner in a desperate attempt to survive the ordeal.

For this second film in the cult comedy series Torrente takes our fat police officer from Madrid to Marbella in Spain to investigate a villain’s plot to destroy the city with a missile. This James Bond style slapstick comedy became the most successful box-office film in Spanish film history beating out only the first Torrente film.

After her experiences in Nazi Germany, actress Macarena Granada traveled to Hollywood, where she became a star. In the 1950s, the diva returns to Francoist Spain to star a Hollywood blockbuster about Queen Isabella I of Castile. (A sequel to The Girl of Your Dreams, 1998.)

Marina is a woman in her thirties who works organizing weddings. Not because she is an inveterate romantic just because, as she says, "when people are in love, they don't care about money". Unlike her customers, she enjoys a life without ties or commitments, until the moment when she falls in love with Carlos. The problem is not only he is about to get married, but also his fiancee is Marina's childhood friend and they have hired her as their Wedding Planner.

In Madrid, Spain, a mysterious serial killer ruthlessly murders his victims by recreating the first appearance of several comic book superheroes. Cosme, a veteran police inspector who is about to retire, works on the case along with the tormented inspector David Valentín and his own son Jorge Elías, a nerdy young man who owns a comic book store.

Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment.

The rude, lewd and crude Spanish ex-police officer Torrente finds himself facing jail time. Can he survive a twisted irony that places him where he has put so many others, both guilty and innocent?

After finding an enormous amount of money hidden in a dead man's apartment, real estate agent Julia must face the wrath of the very peculiar inhabitants of the apartment building, who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the money.

In the early Spanish Civil Post-war, in Madrid, during the most hard times of the Franco dictatorship, a group of second-rate players try to get out of their wretched lives taking advantage of the artistic caprices of the son of a rich man who supports the regime. They try to stage a Pre-war 'zarzuela' (a sort of Spanish operetta), 'La Corte Del Faraón', which ironically, thirty years later, is too obscene for the regime censorship. They finally manage to perform the 'zarzuela' but end up in the police station where they confirm that justice depends on which side are you on

During the Spanish Civil War, a troupe of Spanish filmmakers is invited to shoot a film at UFA studios in Nazi Germany.

Amparo, alone and destitute, with her acting career over, has decided to take her own life at the very hotel where she once filmed one of her forgotten movies. She hopes the press will at least take note of her desperate end. But she crosses paths with Toni, a twenty-year-old man as tormented as she is. Over the course of two days, they will discover one another and realize that neither is quite what they seem. They harbor dark secrets that gradually come to light amidst bored tourists, decadent parties, and tense silences. Little do they imagine that the conclusion of this strange bond between them will prove to be as unsettling as it is unexpected.

Madrid, 1965. When The Beatles arrive in the city, Diana goes to great lengths to meet them.

Fidel, an Asturian miner, after the closure of the mine where he works, decides to walk to Madrid with his family, to ask the king why the Constitution is not met, specifically the article that points out that all the Spanish citizens have the right to have a decent work. Will the king receive him?

Comedy set in 1977, in which a renowned playwright (Alberto San Juan) tries to shoot a social protest drama starring a doldrums folk, former child star (Natalie Poza) and produced by a producer and shameless liar (Miguel Rellán). Inexperience, ambition, lack of means and the love-hate relationship with the star director shooting become a craze.

Carmen, a journalist with two children, is on her third marriage, to Antonio, a record producer. Over the course of a year, we follow her through her discontents: Antonio's lateness, his fatigue when she wants to make love, his insistence on her company when she prefers solitude, his treating her work as less important than his, his casual and cruel dismissal of her opinions, her boss assigning her an incompetent editor, bartenders ignoring her, her passage into middle age. She can be feisty and edgy, which sometimes gets in the way of what would make her happy. And she regularly threatens to leave Antonio. Will she, and on what terms? What will he do?

Luis and Aurora live in the outskirts of Madrid, his life is quiet and peaceful until it reaches Antonio, her new neighbor. Luis says that neighbors are classic bores who put loud music, no wave and always call at inopportune to ask for something. But Aurora considers friendly, helpful and willing to help where needed. Things get complicated when Antonio Aurora and strike up a friendly relationship.

During the Spanish Civil War a platoon of mismatched Republican soldiers cross the front-line to steal the bull that the enemy is going to fight on the local holiday of the nearby village. In addition to ruining the Nationalist faction's celebration they want the animal in order to butcher it and feed their famished troops. They get caught in the process and have to go through a series of funny and pathetic incidents before they can get back to their side.

Wanted to fly to the sky ...And one day he got it When a child dares to steal the keys to the orphanage, guarded by a soldier, is exposed to too many dangers. This is the story of that child, freeing his birds, he demanded to life and men, their own freedom. '

The relationship of a adult man and a young girl.