José Luis Garci

Operación Palace

Finally, 33 years later, the whole truth behind the attempted coup d'état that shook Spain on the afternoon of February 23, 1981, is revealed by those who lived through those dreadful hours; a deep look behind the heavy curtain which hides the real mastermind, waiting to be unmasked.

Eloy de la Iglesia: Film Addict

A dauntless film director, an enfant terrible in his early days, confrontational with censorship, always pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression, chronicler of the darkest corners of the transition, De la Iglesia will fall into the clutches of drug addiction, being forgotten and sometimes repudiated for more than a decade before eventually shaking off the ostracism to make films once again, that habit he could never kick.

Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days

Film based on the characters of the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It tells a hypothetical meeting in Madrid between the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

Alfonso Sánchez

Famous Spanish film critic Alfonso Sánchez talks about his personal life, his work and Anouk Aimée. A sentimental tribute to one of the most relevant figures on the Spanish film scene.

Double Feature

Director José Luis Garci has turned his camera inward on filmmakers and screenwriters to portray them as so self-absorbed in the creative process that there is no other world, no other human relationship that can compete. As José (Adolfo Marsillach) and Federico (Jesus Puente) work together on a new screenplay, their interactions with their family (José's teen daughters, Federico's wife) disappear under the all-consuming task of creation. The daughters give up and go off on their own, and the wife joins a convent while Federico barely notices. And when the producer is interrupted by profound grief at the sudden death of his older son, he almost automatically returns to thinking about the film project when the funeral has ended. Garci honors many great directors at the beginning of this film, and the film continues to play out as an elaboration on this homage -- an illustration both of the dedication and the cost of filmmaking, no judgments given.

The Telephone Box

A man gets trapped inside a telephone box and nobody is able to free him.

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950

This movie doesn't have any coherent plot. It's the portrait of the lives of different people in the hard years of post-war in Spain (the 40's), and how they manage to survive in a country desolated by the war. Like other films: La colmena or Roma (Fellini) it shows us lots of characters and some moments of their lives.

Cradle Song

A group of nuns find an abandoned baby girl at the doorstep of their convent.

Operación Palace

Finally, 33 years later, the whole truth behind the attempted coup d'état that shook Spain on the afternoon of February 23, 1981, is revealed by those who lived through those dreadful hours; a deep look behind the heavy curtain which hides the real mastermind, waiting to be unmasked.

Eloy de la Iglesia: Film Addict

A dauntless film director, an enfant terrible in his early days, confrontational with censorship, always pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression, chronicler of the darkest corners of the transition, De la Iglesia will fall into the clutches of drug addiction, being forgotten and sometimes repudiated for more than a decade before eventually shaking off the ostracism to make films once again, that habit he could never kick.

Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days

Film based on the characters of the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It tells a hypothetical meeting in Madrid between the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

Alfonso Sánchez

Famous Spanish film critic Alfonso Sánchez talks about his personal life, his work and Anouk Aimée. A sentimental tribute to one of the most relevant figures on the Spanish film scene.

Double Feature

Director José Luis Garci has turned his camera inward on filmmakers and screenwriters to portray them as so self-absorbed in the creative process that there is no other world, no other human relationship that can compete. As José (Adolfo Marsillach) and Federico (Jesus Puente) work together on a new screenplay, their interactions with their family (José's teen daughters, Federico's wife) disappear under the all-consuming task of creation. The daughters give up and go off on their own, and the wife joins a convent while Federico barely notices. And when the producer is interrupted by profound grief at the sudden death of his older son, he almost automatically returns to thinking about the film project when the funeral has ended. Garci honors many great directors at the beginning of this film, and the film continues to play out as an elaboration on this homage -- an illustration both of the dedication and the cost of filmmaking, no judgments given.

The Telephone Box

A man gets trapped inside a telephone box and nobody is able to free him.

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950

This movie doesn't have any coherent plot. It's the portrait of the lives of different people in the hard years of post-war in Spain (the 40's), and how they manage to survive in a country desolated by the war. Like other films: La colmena or Roma (Fellini) it shows us lots of characters and some moments of their lives.

Cradle Song

A group of nuns find an abandoned baby girl at the doorstep of their convent.

Vida conyugal sana

Enrique is a thirty-year-old lawyer who is married to Ana. Apparently he is a normal man who has only one obsession: the commercials. He feels a real passion for the erotic world of the ads either in billboards, trash cans, public transport, magazines or television. The continuous publicity bombardment ends up leading him towards a neurosis that changes his personality.

El cronicón

Mi Marilyn

A memory of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), woman, actress, goddess, myth, in the words of the Spanish director and scriptwriter José Luis Garci, who returns to his childhood and recovers a lost paradise.

Los preparativos

Un uomo perbene

In June 1983 the journalist and TV presenter Enzo Tortora was arrested on charges of drug trafficking and belonging to the Camorra.

¡Al fútbol!

Any given Sunday of 1974 in Spain, soccer games in several stadiums, the sarcastic voice of commentators, the inevitable presence of advertising. Goal! The victors and the defeated.

Los nuevos españoles

A Spanish insurance company is absorbed by a multinational, so that, in order to modernize, its employees are obliged to carry out some training courses to adapt to the new situation and the new objectives. Given the relevance of what is at stake, the wives of these men will also be involved at work.

Summers el rebelde

Winner of the Silver Shell for Best Director for his debut film, Del rosa... al amarillo, Manolo Summers was the great revelation of Spanish cinema. Over time, he became a very popular figure, while criticism of him intensified. Now we will get to know his personality through his own words, as well as what his films tell us about him. And with the help of film critics, directors, professionals, and his family, we will discover Summers the rebel.

La gran comedia

Julian Ruiz, a real estate salesman and amateur filmmaker, wrote in the company of Anne, his romantic wife, a script that could mean his professional film debut. Mayte, Secretary of sales of real estate, is in love with Julian and, in turn, Jorge Padilla, the head of both, who is married to Josephine, a consumer who buys everything even without knowing it serves, is attracted by Mayte.

Beyond the Walls

This 1985 Spanish film reveals one of the many terrible aspects of 16th century Spain, still plagued by the radical Christian Inquisition, one of a plethora of difficulties Spaniards faced at the time. Spanish super star Carmen Maura plays a nun who agrees to a selfless scam, a fake stigmata, only to avoid separation from her lover, another nun. It's a serious and passionate work, highlighting the theme of outspoken women-against-repression, seen in other good gay and lesbian films. This is not a lesbian "Nun sense" or another "Dark Habits" (by Almodovar, which also starred Carmen Maura, and also set in a Spanish convent, with some lesbian nuns). Perhaps, best of all, 'Extramuros' is realistic and frank. It isn't shy about its characters' sexuality. Their sexuality, and the film as a whole are genuine.

The Crack: Inception

Madrid, Spain, 1975; shortly after the end of the Franco dictatorship. Six months after the mysterious death of his lover, a prestigious tailor, a married woman visits the office of the young Germán Areta, a former police officer turned private detective, to request his professional services.

Ninette

Andrés, a dowdy Spaniard, goes to Paris on holiday, hoping to meet a pretty French girl. His wishes may come true after meeting Ninette, his landlord's sensual and possessive young daughter.

Casablanca revisitada

A lyrical and nostalgic analysis of how Casablanca, the mythical film directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942, has influenced both film history and pop culture.

Murder in a Blue World

Set in the future, the story follows a nurse who tries to bring her own style of relief to people condemned to die. Her identity is a mystery and she may not be quite what she seems.

Miguel Velázquez. El catedrático del ring

The Grandfather

After his son dies, an elderly man comes back to Spain from the US and hopes to find out which of his granddaughters is true, and which one is bastard.

¡Qué grande es el cine!

TVE broadcasted this program on the occasion of the first centenary of the history of cinema, a feature film was broadcast weekly that, due to its characteristics, was of interest within the cinematographic world, directed and moderated by José Luis Garci, with the assistance of three experts , belonging to the world of cinema and literature, which debated following the screening of the chosen film.

Historias del otro lado

Plinio