Thanks again for all the suggestions.
Here’s what I picked up on the way home from work:
Y tu mama tambien - unrated version (only 9.99 at Frys!)
Santitos
Men With Guns
Belle Epoque
Live Flesh
Open Your Eyes
That should keep me busy for a while, though I’d like to get Amores Perros & Lucia y el sexo also.
Most movies I am familiar with are mentioned, but I’ll add Fresa con Chocolate. Its a Cuban film, and the only one I know of (unless you count Buena Vista Social Club) which is widely availiable in the United States.
Correction, the film is Fresa y Chocolate.
I just watched the unrated version of Y tu mama tambien. What’s the difference from the R rated version? The sex wasn’t any more explicit than I remembered. There was more pot smoking than I remebered, but that wouldn’t make the difference between a NC-17 and a R rating, would it?
Hmm, all the really good one have been mentioned, but I’ll add Amores Perros (Love’s a bitch, excellent movie but pretty violent) and Todo sobre mi madre (all about my mother, another Almodóvar film) both of which are on imdb’s top 250 list.
No, almodovar doesn’t make chick flicks. He does make artsy flicks. Think of him as the Woddy Allen of Spain. Not in style or theme, but by being the most high profile, artsy-fartsy director in the country. almodovar is gay, and a lot of his earlier films deal with sexuality, some of it strange.
He often used Antonia Banderas who is a much greater actor when performing in his native language. If you think he does chick flicks, try finding Matador, which is about a bullfighter who gets his kicks from killing women when he has sex with them. Graphic sex and violence.
And if you want even more sex, try ¡Atame!, with the delightful Victoria Abril starring opposite Antonio Banderas. There’s this toy submarine and a scene in the bath tub… hmmm.
His later works feature women in the lead, often dealing with a parent-grown child relationship. If you think any drama movie is a chick flick, then they fit the bill. But almodovar is far away from any American director making chick flicks.
All About My Mother (1999)*
El Amor Brujo (1967)
Belle Epoque (1992)*
Cabeza de Vaca (1991)*
Camila (1984)*
Carmen (1983), the Carlos Saura film
La Caza (1966)
Course Completed (1987)
Cría! (1976)*
El Crimen del Padre Amaro (2002)*
Double Feature (1984)
Dream of Light (1992)*
El — This Strange Passion (1952)*
The Exterminating Angel (1962)*
The Grandfather (1998)*
El Hijo de la Novia (2001)*
Hour of the Furnaces (1968)
I Am Cuba (1964)*
The Important Man (1962)
Letters from Marusia (1976)
La Ley de Herodes (2000)*
Lucía (1969)
Macario (1960)*
Mama Turns 100 (1979)
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968)*
My Dearest Señorita (1972)
The Nest (1979)
El Norte (1984)*
The Official Story (1985)*
Los Olvidados (1950)*
A Place in the World (1992)*
Plácido (1961)
Santiago, the Story of His New Life (1989)
Secrets of the Heart (1997)*
The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)*
Strawberry and Chocolate (1993)*
Talk to Her (2002)*
Tango (1998)*
Los Tarantos (1963)
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)*
Tlayucan (1961)
To Begin Again (1982)
Tristana (1970)*
The Truce (1974)
La Venganza (1959)
Verbena Trágica (1939)
Viridiana (1961)*
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)*
Los sin nombres is a good psychological/supernatural thriller that’s really frigging creepy.
Also, Intacto is another really good thriller with a very odd storyline. It’s about a secret society of people who believe incredibly lucky people can steal the luck of others, and engage in bizzare contests in hopes of getting to challange “The Jew”. Some of the dialogue is in English, but the storyline works out real well, the scripts is excelent, and it’s one of the most visually amazing films I’ve seen in a good long while.
Butterfly (“La Lengua de las mariposas” if I recall correctly.) Sad, achingly sad film about a kid growing up during the beginning of Franco’s fascist regime. I also second any votes for Almodovar films - they’re not chick flicks, but he does have a deserved reputation for fascinating films about women. That doesn’t make them chick-flicks in my view - and many of them show fairly explicit female nudity if you’re into that sort of thing (I’m thinking of the bathtub sex toy scene in Atame at the moment.)
Nico and Dani (“Krampack”) is another recent film that I just loved; it’s about two young guys, best friends, one of whom is gay, and how that effects their relationship. It’s got some of the best, most natural dialogue in any film I’m familiar with.