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Boutique streaming service Walter Presents has acquired the U.K. rights to Spanish thriller “Lifeline.” The show will see its debut episode premiere on Channel 4 this Sunday with the rest of the season then available on Channel 4’s VOD service All 4.

The deal marks the second Spanish series to debut under the Walter Presents banner following Atresmedia and Globomedia’s “Locked Up.” Walter Presents is a British VOD platform specializing in foreign language drama, which launched in 2016 as a partnership between Channel 4 and Global Series Network.

“After the huge success of ‘Locked Up’ we are delighted to welcome another blockbuster Spanish series from Atresmedia. It is just as slick, compulsive and addictive as its predecessor,” said Walter Iuzzolino, curator of Walter Presents.

“Lifeline” is an Atresmedia Television series, produced by Globomedia for Spain’s Antena 3. The thriller stars Pablo Derqui as Spain’s greatest surgeon, who starts to experience...

Two decades after its first wan movie adaptation (starring Tom Berenger), Stephen Vizinczey's novel "In Praise of Older Women" has been transformed into another movie that doesn't quite work. Although the setting has been changed from World War II-era Hungary to the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, this version is equally unsuccessful in its depiction of a teenager's erotic coming of age.

The Spanish feature, which received its U.S. premiere at the 15th Miami Film Festival, has some names in its cast (Faye Dunaway, Joanna Pacula) and can certainly exploit its sexual content, but theatrical prospects are limited.

"Women" chronicles the amorous adventures of 15-year-old Andres, who is abandoned by his mother. He falls in with a group of anti-fascist rebels near the front, where he has his first romantic experience with a beautiful but slightly seedy countess (Dunaway) who is not above providing sexual favors to assure safe passage for her and her husband.

Andres is then sent to stay at his sergeant's house in Barcelona, where he quickly falls under the spell of the sergeant's beautiful daughter Julia (Ingrid Rubio). Unfortunately, Julia's not-so-understanding mother catches the two in the act and kicks Andres out. Making his living as a black marketeer, Andres enjoys a dissolute but dissatisfying lifestyle until the war ends, when he reunites with his mother, now married to a prominent fascist. His next experience comes with a married neighbor, Marta (Pacula), who starts out educating Andres about books but continues with lessons of a far different kind.

The political aspects of the film are interesting but far from compelling, and screenwriter Rafael Azcona and director Manuel Lombardero fail to render Andres' romantic adventures with sufficient poignance or depth. Even worse, most of the story is not particularly erotic.

The film drifts from one listless episode to another, and many of the characterizations are too broadly drawn to be credible, but not broad enough to be truly entertaining. It does have an evocative re-creation of the period and gorgeous cinematography that makes ordinary objects glimmer with passion. But as with the story and characterizations, all the pleasure lies on the surface.

IN PRAISE OF OLDER WOMEN

A Sogotel, S.A. Lolafilms presentation

with the participation of Canal Plus

and the collaboration of Sogepaq

Credits: Director: Manuel Lombardero; Screenplay: Rafael Azcona; Executive producer: Andres Vicente Gomez; Cinematographer: Jose Luis Alcaine; Editor: Ernest Blasi; Music: Jose Manuel Pagan. Cast: Andres: Juan Diego Botto; Andres (age 15): Miguel A. Garcia; Countess: Faye Dunaway; Irene: Carmen Elias; Marta: Joanna Pacula; Julia: Ingrid Rubio. No MPAA rating. Running time -- 101 minutes. Color/stereo.

Spanish director Carlos Saura has produced an uncharacteristically crude and ham-fisted thriller in "Taxi", a tale of vigilante justice set in the mean streets of Madrid, Spain. Although certain aspects of the story are undeniably compelling, the film is too crude for domestic art house consumption. It was recently showcased at the 14th Miami Film Festival, where director Saura is a perennial favorite.

"Taxi" centers on a group of disaffected cab drivers who decide to take the law into their own hands, ridding the city of those they consider to be undesirables, including illegal immigrants, hookers, gays, etc. When one of them picks up a fare he doesn't approve of, they gather at a nearby bridge and throw their hapless victim to his death.

Paz (Ingrid Rubio) is a teenage girl recruited by her father to help drive his cab part-time. Although partially distracted by a budding romance with Dani (Carlos Fuentes), the handsome son of one of the fellow cab drivers, she becomes increasingly suspicious of her fellow cabbies, and her quest for the truth leads to a violent showdown.

Director Saura cannily taps into the wave of prejudice and xenophobia that is sweeping across Europe, but he's more interested in lurid melodrama than in a serious examination of the problem. On that level, "Taxi" works well enough, although credibility is sacrificed. The two young leads are attractive, but the most interesting character is Reme (Agata Lys), Dani's mother, who possesses an intriguing blend of toughness and sexuality, hatred and tenderness.

TAXI

A P.C. Filmart release

P.C. Filmart/TVE/TF1 Internationial/

Canal Plus Espana/Saura Films

Director Carlos Saura

Producers Concha Diaz, Javier Castro

Screenplay Santiago Tabernero

Director of photography Vittorio Storaro

Editor Julia Juaniz

Music Manu Chao

Color/stereo

Cast:

Paz Ingrid Rubio

Dani Carlos Fuentes

Reme Agata Lys

Velasco Angel De Andres Lopez

Calero Eusebio Lazaro

Running time -- 110 minutes

No MPAA rating...