Aranda, Vicente

Carmen

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 08/05/2008 Run time: 119 minutes Rating: Nr

Mad Love (2001)

Spain's answer to Elizabeth is a 16th-century political conspiracy drama inspired by the true story of the "mad" Queen Joan and transformed by septuagenarian Vicente Aranda (Lovers, Jealousy) into an earthy bodice ripper. Age certainly hasn't dulled his taste for hot-blooded cinema. Spanish beauty Pilar López de Ayala, with her doe eyes and milky complexion, is the royal innocent sacrificed in a political marriage to the swarthy Prince Philip (Daniele Liotti with a Fabio mane of hair), a womanizing cad whose wandering eye transforms the naive virgin into a tempestuously jealous wife. Aranda matches Pedro Almodóvar in the arena of self-destructive love, obsessive passion, sweaty cinematic sex, and deliriously melodramatic spectacle. If this portrait of Joan as a volatile package of emotional nitroglycerin borders on melodramatic cliché, López de Ayala gives her a fiery, full-blooded passion and Aranda mounts her romantic obsession in an unhinged, undeniably lusty costume drama. --Sean Axmaker

Libertarias

Spain, July 19, 1936. The War has just begun and women as always play their part in this human tragedy. Maria, an innocent young nun, is forced to leave the convent after the arrival of the revolutionary troops in Barcelona. She takes refuge in a brothel, where she meets a group of "Libertarias", who are being "drafted" for the "Free Women" organization under the leadership of Pilar (Ana Belen) a pure feminist warrior, passionate and fiery. Alongside, Charo (Loles Leon) the hooker with the heart of gold and Floren (Victoria Abril) a spiritualist, Maria joins in. Within the brutal realities of war, Maria experiences love with an unexpected character and companionship through those she is fighting with. Libertarias is an epic of six women fight for freedom, their struggle for justice amid their passionate cry for a better world. One of Spain's best known directors, Vicente Aranda, Winner at the Tokyo International Film Festival, has made 17 previous films including the internationally acclaimed "Amantes".

The Blood Spattered Bride

Till Death Do They Part!

A beautiful young bride marries into a family with a dark secret and quickly becomes haunted by dreams of a mysterious woman. When her visions become flesh, the newlywed finds herself drawn into a nightmare of unholy communion, violent murder and forbidden sexual desires.

Written and directed by Vicente Aranda (LOVERS) and starring Simon Andreu (BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN), Maribel Martin (A BELL FROM HELL), and Alexandra Bastedo (THE GHOUL), this haunting shocker of lesbianism and reincarnation is based upon Le Fanu's immortal vampire tale "Carmila." THE BLOOD SPATTERED BRIDE has been restored from the original negative materials and is presented completely uncut and uncensored.

EXTRAS:
U.S. Combo Theatrical Trailer

Si Te Dicen Que Cai (If They Tell You I Fell...)

Lumiere & Company

Some of the world's leading directors (David Lynch, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders, Zhang Yimou, John Boorman) use the original Lumiere picture camera to create short films all over the world. Interactive Menus, Production Notes, Scene access, Trailer, Languages: French, Subtitles: English

Aventis

Aventis is based around a legendary Spanish style of storytelling, known in the Catalan language as "aventis," blending fact, fiction and myth to tell its epic tales. Decades after the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona, a doctor and a nurse stumble across a body that played a vital role in their childhood "aventis". As flashbacks reveal the story that may or may not have happened, this modern couple uncovers a whole new series of surprises.

Celos (Jealousy)

CELOS tells a story of human jealousy that begins when Antonio discovers a photo of his fiancée Carmen with another man. Suddenly overcome by a need to learn more, Antonio is swept away by an obsession to uncover Carmen's secret past, risking everything to learn the truth. Starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (THE MACHINIST, WITHOUT A TRACE), Daniel Giménez Cacho (BAD EDUCATION, INNOCENT VOICES), and María Botto (SOLDIERS OF SALAMINA).

The Blood Spattered Bride

Spanish cinema veteran Vicente Aranda, best known for such art-house fare as The Lovers and Libertarias, first hit the international scene in 1972 with this sexy vampire thriller. Simon Andreu is a young and inexperienced new bride whose violent nightmares are invaded by a mysterious woman in white. Her husband (Dean Selmier), who at first appears sensitive and consoling, has a tendency for rough lovemaking, and his practical jokes show a strange, sadistic streak. Andreu discovers a vandalized portrait of her husband's ancestor, Mircalla Karnstein, a young bride found a century ago lying next to her dead husband in a blood-soaked wedding dress. Mircalla's mysterious phantom soon emerges from Andreu's dreams and enters her world. This twist on Sheridan Le Fanu's story "Carmilla" (which also inspired Carl Dreyer's Vampyr and a host of erotic horror films in the 1970s) suggests that this vampire is less an agent of evil out to corrupt the innocent maiden than a physical manifestation of the maiden's own subconscious sexual fears and fantasies. The mysterious blood-spattered bride rises from her grave like an avenging devil. Her "official" entrance, buried naked on an empty beach and breathing through a snorkel, is one of the most memorable images in modern horror cinema. It seduces Andreu, too, unleashing her repressed psychosis in a bloody homicidal frenzy. Aranda's style is earthier than French or British vampire films, less a dream world than a world invaded by nightmares. It's handsome and accomplished--spooky, edgy, sexy, and startlingly violent. --Sean Axmaker

Jealousy (Celos)