Instructional Media Center
• November feature - Spanish film •
Spanish films – we’ve got a lot of them. This list is a rather random sampling of some notable ones. For a complete list by title, click here (includes videos with dubbed Spanish language tracks). Or if you’d prefer to browse the collection in person, come on down to the IMC and ask the circulation desk worker to let you into the media vault. Most Spanish films are located under call# PN1995.9.S. If you don’t see your favorite Spanish movie on the list and want to correct this horrible injustice, send an email to me with the film title and a brief annotation.
Como agua para chocolate = Like water for chocolate - PN1995.9.S7 L564 2000 DVD
Not only will Tita’s mom not let her marry her boyfriend, she hooks him up with her older sister. All of Tita’s passion is transferred into her cooking, and wild things happen to the people that eat her food. This 1992 adaptation Laura Esquivel’s novel went on to win all eleven of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures Ariel Awards.
Atame! = Tie me up/Tie me down! - PN1995.9.S7 A835 2000 DVD
Comedy in which Antonio Bandaras portrays a recently released mental patient with an unconventional approach to creating a family.
Y tu mamá también = And your mother too - PN1995.9.T44 Y5 2002 DVD
Teenage best friends go in search of a hidden beach on the coast of Mexico during which they pick up a woman in the midst of a relationship crisis. The mix of emotions, sexual tension and self-discovery provide an alluring narrative.
Butterfly = La lengua de las mariposas - PN1995.9.S7 B988 2000 DVD
A shy young boy is brought out of his cocoon by a wise teacher who shows him the wonder of the natural world around him, amidst the growing tensions and chaos of the Spanish Civil War in Galicia.
La Historia oficial = The Official story -PN1995.9.S7 H589 2004 DVD
A naive mother slowly realizes that the parent's of her "orphaned" adopted daughter were victims of Argentina's dirty war, and were murdered by the government, and that her husband knew of the circumstances.
El orfanato = The orphanage -PN1995.9.S6 O7435 2008 DVD
A mother’s dream to turn the orphanage she grew up in into a school for special needs children doesn’t pan out when the house turns out to be haunted.
El Angel exterminador = Exterminating angel - PN1995.9.S6 A54 2008 DVD d.1/2
The fabulous dinner party hosted by the Noblie's loses it's discreet charm when guests realize that for some mysterious reason, they can not leave a room. Chaos ensues.
Amores Perros = Love’s a bitch - PN1995.9.S7 A46 2001 DVD
Three different people are catapulted into dramatic and unforeseen circumstances in the wake of a terrible car crash: a young punk stumbles into the sinister underground world of dog fighting; an injured supermodel's designer pooch disappears into the apartment's floorboards; and an ex-radical turned hit man rescues a Rottweiler with a gunshot wound.
Lucía y el sexo = Sex and Lucia -PN1995.9.S8 S49 2003 DVD
After the loss of her long-time boyfriend, Lucía seeks refuge on a quiet Mediterranean island where she meets a new man and begins to discover the dark secrets of her past relationship.
El laberinto del fauno = Pan's labyrinth - PN1995.9.F36 P367 2007 DVD
It’s understandable why Ofelia finds fairy tales and her imagination preferable to the reality of facist Spain and asshole step father. She’s not particularly surprised when the stick insect turns out to be a fairy or when she is told she is princess of the underworld and must be perform three tasks to be reunited with here true family. Winner of 3 Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Art Direction.
Todo sobre mi madre = All About My Mother - PN1995.9.S8 T646 2000 DVD
Manuela is a devoted single mother who needs to come to grips with the death of her 17-year-old son, Esteban. She had never told Esteban about his father, but after reading her son's journal she realizes she has to find Esteban's father, and explain what has happened. She leaves Madrid for Barcelona, to reconnect with her old friend Agrado, who introduces her to Rosa, a young nun in trouble, and Huma Rojo, a brilliant actress whom young Esteban idolized. A Hollywood melodrama done up as Greek tragedy translated into the context of everyday modern life, the film sums up both the boundlessness and the limitations of a mother's love.
Las Hurdes = Land Without Bread - PN1995.9.F7 C54 1990 video
Documents the improvished district of Las Hurdes in Spain capturing the poverty, illiteracy, and disease which frame the lives of the inhabitants.
Un chien andalou = An Andalusian dog - PN1995.9.F7 C54 1990 video
A surrealistic movie written over the course of a three day exchange of fantasies and dreams between Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali.
El Espiritu de la colmena = The Spirit of the Beehive - PN1995.9.S87 S65758 2006 DVD
One of the greatest films about childhood ever made. Director Victor Erice zeroes in on the wonder and awe and fear at the center of films and dreams.
Hable con ella = Talk to Her - PN1995.9.S8 H325 2003 DVD
Marco, a journalist grieving for a love affair that ended ten years ago, falls in love with Lydia, a bullfighter also on the rebound. Benigno, a nurse, dedicates his life to his only patient, a young dancer in a coma as a result of an accident four years before; he talks to her, reads to her, holds photographs in front of her closed eyes. When Lydia is brought comatose to the hospital where Benigno works, he and Marco become friendly, and the nurse encourages the journalist to talk to her and hope for a miracle. Marco is Sancho to Benigno's Quixote, and as Benigno's hopes for his patient become fantasies, Marco tries to inject reality.
Biutiful - PN1997.2 .B5885 2011 DVD
Uxbal is a man on the wrong side of the law who struggles to provide for his children on the dangerous streets of Barcelona. As fate encircles him, Uxbal learns to accept the realities of life, whether bright, bad, or biutiful.