News

Ernesto Alterio y Pilar Castro encabezan el reencuentro. © Disney

Ya se ha compartido el primer teaser tráiler de Todos los lados de la cama, secuela de El otro lado de la cama y Los 2 lados de la cama, que reúne a su mítico reparto 22 años después bajo la dirección de Samantha López Speranza, que debuta en la dirección de largometrajes.

En Todos los lados de la cama, tras décadas sin verse, Javier (Ernesto Alterio) y Carlota (Pilar Castro) montan en cólera cuando descubren que sus hijos Óscar (Jan Buxaderas) y Julia (Lucía Caraballo) planean casarse. ¿Quién a su edad tiene una relación heteronormativa y exclusiva en 2025 con todo lo que les queda por experimentar? ¿Es que no les han enseñado nada como padres? Ni Paula (Natalia Verbeke), madre de Óscar; ni Rafa (Alberto San Juan), convertido en gurú contra las relaciones tóxicas; ni Pilar (María Esteve), wedding planner; ni su...

The creator and executive producers of the streaming hit Money Heistare back with another grand drama, Billionaires’ Bunker. The series is expected to hit Netflix globally this fall, and in anticipation, the platform has unveiled a sneak peek, hinting at what’s coming. Created by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato, Billionaires’ Bunker stars Miren Ibarguren, Joaquín Furriel, Natalia Verbeke, Carlos Santos, Montse Guallar, Pau Simón, Alicia Falcó, Agustina Bisio, and Álex Villazán, among others.

As the title implies, Billionaires' Bunker sees a group of billionaires take refuge in a luxury bunker designed to endure any imaginable catastrophe as World War III is about to break out, per the official synopsis. These people are forced to coexist after locking themselves in, and through screens, they’ll watch the bewildering spectacle of the world they knew collapsing above their heads. The logline continues:

“As the situation outside becomes increasingly terrifying, they...

Un selecto grupo de multimillonarios se refugia en un búnker de lujo. © Netflix

Netflix ha presentado el primer tráiler de su nueva serie original española El refugio atómico, de Álex Pina y Esther Martínez Lobato, el dúo responsable de La Casa de papel y Sky Rojo.

¿Y si la Tercera Guerra Mundial estuviera a punto de estallar y las personas más ricas del planeta se escondieran bajo tierra? Eso es lo que plantea El refugio atómico. La historia transcurre en Kimera Underground Park, un sofisticado búnker subterráneo donde un grupo de multimillonarios presencia el colapso del mundo exterior a través de pantallas. Tiene 20.000 metros cuadrados y 45 viviendas familiares con una o varias habitaciones, cuyos precios oscilan entre 48 y 70 millones de euros (la página web ficticia del complejo forma parte de la promoción: https://bunkerkimera.com/). Mientras fuera reina el caos, ellos disfrutarán de su pequeña y exclusiva ciudad con cancha de básket,...

Un selecto grupo de multimillonarios se refugia en un búnker de lujo. © Netflix

Netflix ha presentado el primer vistazo a su nueva serie original española El refugio atómico, de Álex Pina y Esther Martínez Lobato, el dúo responsable de La Casa de papel y Sky Rojo.

¿Y si la Tercera Guerra Mundial estuviera a punto de estallar y las personas más ricas del planeta se escondieran bajo tierra? Eso es lo que plantea El refugio atómico. La historia transcurre en Kimera Underground Park, un sofisticado búnker subterráneo donde un grupo de multimillonarios presencia el colapso del mundo exterior a través de pantallas. Tiene 20.000 metros cuadrados y 45 viviendas familiares con una o varias habitaciones, cuyos precios oscilan entre 48 y 70 millones de euros (la página web ficticia del complejo forma parte de la promoción: https://bunkerkimera.com/). Mientras fuera reina el caos, ellos disfrutarán de su pequeña y exclusiva ciudad con cancha de básket,...

13 years before he was starring in Guy Ritchie's latest crime series alongside Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren, and dominating the streaming charts alongside Timothy Olyphant in Havoc, Tom Hardy'sreputationcontinued to grow as he joined two Hollywood mainstays in Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon in a spy thriller meets romantic comedy, This Means War. Directed by McG, the movie sees CIA agents and suave suit-wearers Tuck (Hardy) and Fdr (Pine), an inseparable pair of operatives, whose friendship and professional lives come crashing down after they find out they are dating the same woman, Lauren Scott (Witherspoon).

Sadly, the movie fared terribly with critics and most audiences, earning a disastrous 25% critics score on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience score of 56% not doing much to help the cause. For Hardy, this marks his lowest Rotten Tomatoes score of his entire filmography, which is quite some feat considering the many underwhelming projects in his catalog.

Natalia Verbeke, Julián López, Ángela Cervantes y Vebjørn Enger protagonizan el nuevo largometraje de David Serrano. © The Mediapro Studio

Ha comenzado en distintas localizaciones de Vizcaya el rodaje de Laponia, una atípica comedia navideña dirigida por David Serrano (Voy a pasármelo bien) y escrita por Cristina Clemente y Marc Angelet.

Laponia, basada en la exitosa obra de teatro homónima estrenada con éxito en países como España, Estados Unidos, Croacia, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Venezuela y República Checa, entre otros, transcurre durante una Nochebuena en Rovaniemi, capital de la región finlandesa de Laponia y ‘supuesto’ lugar de origen y residencia de Santa Claus. Allí vive Nuria (Ángela Cervantes) con su marido Olavi (Vebjørn Enger) y su hija. Después de años sin celebraciones conjuntas, decide invitar a su hermana Mónica (Natalia Verbeke), a su cuñado (Julián López) y al hijo de ambos para vivir unas navidades de postal. Pero todo se desmorona cuando...

The excitement and cosplay fun of San Diego Comic-Con is coming to Europe. Under an agreement managed by Img Licensing, “Sdcc is setting roots outside the United States for the first time in its history, making its European debut in Málaga,” the Andalucía region of Spain, this September, organizers said on Monday.

For four days from Sept. 25-28, 2025, the city will host the first official San Diego Comic Convention-licensed event outside the U.S. “This historic milestone would not have been possible without the institutional support of the Junta de Andalucía and the Málaga City Council, who have firmly committed to making Málaga the European capital of popular arts,” Sdcc said.

The international expansion was unveiled during an event at the Gran Hotel Miramar in Málaga, hosted by director, and screenwriter Santiago Segura, and including Junta de Andalucía president Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, Mayor of Málaga Francisco de la Torre Prados,...

Málaga, Spain, is primed to take center stage in the world of pop culture when it hosts the first-ever international edition of the iconic San Diego Comic-Con (Sdcc).

For over five decades, Sdcc has been a can’t-miss event for fans and creators of comics, films, television, and all other mediums of pop culture distribution. Now, for the first time, Sdcc is stepping outside the U.S. with Malaga, Spain, chosen as its European host city. The milestone was officially unveiled today during a star-studded event held at the Gran Hotel Miramar in the Spanish coastal city.

Thanks to an agreement facilitated by Img Licensing, Sdcc will hold its first-ever licensed event outside the U.S. from Sept. 25 to 28 of this year. This move marks the beginning of a new chapter for the convention, bringing its celebrations of comics and culture to a European audience. The commitment to Malaga’s...

Ernesto Alterio y Pilar Castro encabezan el reencuentro bajo la dirección de Samantha López Speranza. © Disney

Comienza el rodaje de “Todos los Lados de la Cama”, secuela de “El Otro Lado de la Cama” y “Los 2 Lados de la Cama”, que reúne a su mítico reparto 22 años después bajo la dirección de Samantha López Speranza, que debuta en la dirección de largometrajes.

En “Todos los Lados de la Cama”, tras décadas sin verse, Javier (Ernesto Alterio) y Carlota (Pilar Castro) montan en cólera cuando descubren que sus hijos Óscar (Jan Buxaderas) y Julia (Lucía Caraballo) planean casarse. ¿Quién a su edad tiene una relación heteronormativa y exclusiva en 2025 con todo lo que les queda por experimentar? ¿Es que no les han enseñado nada como padres? Ni Paula (Natalia Verbeke), madre de Óscar; ni Rafa (Alberto San Juan), convertido en gurú contra las relaciones tóxicas; ni Pilar (María Esteve), wedding planner...

Spanish broadcaster Rtve and production companies Tornasol and DeAPlaneta have teamed with German production-sales company Zdf Enterprises on “Ana. all in,” a legal thriller starring Maribel Verdú based on Spanish author Roberto Santiago’s best-seller “Ana.” Representing the series internationally, Zdfe will be presenting the series at MipT. Variety was able to speak with the series’ lead actor ahead of the Cannes-based market.

“Ana. all in” turns on Ana, a small-time lawyer thrust into the underground world of illegal gambling when her brother is accused of killing the manager of the Gran Castilla Casino. After assembling a small but energetic team, this Spanish Erin Brockovich goes head-to-head with the Goliath that is one of the world’s largest gambling industries.

Ana’s best friend Concha is played by fellow Spanish standout Natalia Verbeke (“The Other Side of the Bed”), and is one of the most significant people in Ana’s...

The helmer has wrapped the shoot for this tense Movistar+ series, the cast of which includes Natalia Verbeke, Ernesto Alterio, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Juan Diego Botto. Todos mienten (lit. “They’re All Lying”) is a thriller written and directed by Barcelona-born Pau Freixas (Deadly Cargo), toplined by Irene Arcos, Natalia Verbeke, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Ernesto Alterio, who are flanked by Juan Diego Botto, Miren Ibarguren, Eva Santolaria (who previously worked with the filmmaker on Héroes), Amaia Salamanca, Jorge Bosch and Carmen Arrufat, the big revelation from Lucía Alemany’s feature debut, The Innocence. Principal photography – which began in October and took place on location in Barcelona, Tarragona and Girona – is just wrapping now, after a shoot that was forced to adhere to the requisite health-and-safety measures to ensure that it could go ahead while halting the spread of the coronavirus. The synopsis tells of how the peaceful life of the.

A Polish-born Holocaust survivor decides to travel from Buenos Aires to Lodz to fulfill a promise he made nearly 70 years earlier in Argentine writer-director Pablo Solarz’s touching, albeit occasionally heavy-handed, drama “The Last Suit.” Thankfully, this late-life road movie also boasts plenty of poignant and humorous moments that will play well with older viewers and those seeking Jewish-interest content. After reaping numerous audience awards on the festival circuit, the film begins a U.S. theatrical run in New York on Sept. 21, before expanding to Los Angeles on Sept. 28 and later the hinterlands via small but enterprising distribution outfit Outsider Pictures.

Despite a bum right leg that he nicknames “tzuris” because of the aggravation it gives him, stubborn, 88-year-old retired tailor Abraham Bursztein still has plenty of fight and flair left in him. Unfortunately, his family refuses to recognize it. Bursztein, like some latter-day King Lear, has already foolishly divided his property among his daughters,...

Warm-hearted but silly French comedy, set in 1960 and starring the excellent Fabrice Luchini as a stockbroker in the stuffy world of the Parisian haute bourgeoisie. He falls for the family's new Spanish maid (Natalia Verbeke) and begins a social revolution among the inhabitants of the sixth-floor servants' quarters, who include Almodóvar favourites Carmen Maura and Lola Dueñas.

ComedyWorld cinemaJason Solomons

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The Amazing Spider-Man (12A)

(Marc Webb, 2012, Us) James Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary. 136 mins

New, improved-formula Spider-Man: does whatever last decade's Spider-Man couldn't! The world was hardly screaming out for a rejigged "origins" story, but this at least gives you less comic-book primary colour and more teen-drama shading. Plus better special effects, although the rooftop monster-battle climax feels same-old. Yes, it's a brazenly commercial exercise, but Garfield's limber geekiness tips the balance.

God Bless America (15)

(Bobcat Goldthwait, 2011, Us) Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke Smith. 105 mins

American media idiocy literally comes under fire in this outlandish Falling Down-meets-Natural Born Killers shooting spree.

The Hunter (15)

(Daniel Nettheim, 2011, Aus) Willem Dafoe, Frances O'Connor, Sam Neill. 102 mins

Dafoe's craggy gravitas dominates this scenic tale of a hunt for the extinct (or is it?) Tasmanian Tiger.

Strawberry Fields (15)

(Frances Lea, 2012, UK) Anna Madeley, Christine Bottomley.

A hit in France, this retro clowdpleaser is a victim of its own stodginess

Consider this the French equivalent of The Help: a retro crowdpleaser just mild and evasive enough to have become a massive hit on home turf. The starchy 1960s household of Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain unravels with the arrival of a new maid: the moderately fiery Spaniard María Gonzalez, played by Natalia Verbeke. Luchini almost rescues it from its own complacency, but the script is equal parts blocked toilets and soft-boiled eggs.

Rating: 2/5

World cinemaComedyMike McCahill

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DVD Release Date: March 13, 2012

Price: DVD $27.99

Studio: Strand Releasing

Say hello to The Women on the 6th Floor.

Popular and pleasing European actresses Carmen Maura (Law of Desire), Sandrine Kiberlain (Madamoiselle Chambon) and Natalia Verbeke (The Method) serve up some solid “upstairs/downstairs” laughs in the 2010 French-Spanish comedy The Women on the 6th Floor.

The film is set in Paris, 1960, where the world of bourgeois couple Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini, Potiche) and Suzanne (Kiberlain) is turned upside-down when they hire a Spanish maid named María (Verbeke). Through María, Jean-Louis is introduced to a wacky kind of alternative lifestyle on the building’s sixth floor, the servants’ quarters. There, he befriends a group of sassy Spanish maids, refugees of the Franco regime, who teach him there’s more to life than stocks and bonds, and whose influence on the house will ultimately transform everyone’s life.

Directed and co-written by Philippe Le Guay,...

The Women On The 6th Floor is a new period comedy/ drama from France that surprisingly has much in common with one of 2011′s American blockbusters, The Help. Both films are set in the societal upheaval of the early 1960s and both concern the travails of domestic workers and their employers. While the Us version was tied to the civil rights movement ( with literally life and death at stake ), the French story is more concerned with social class structure along with a second chance romance. Still both films have a great deal of empathy for the sometimes invisible ” hired help”.

Jean Louis ( Fabrice Luchini) is a successful investment consultant at his old, established family banking firm in 1960′s Paris. He and his status-seeking socialite wife, Suzanne ( Sandrine Kiberlain ) and two spoiled preteen sons ( usually away at an exclusive boarding school ) reside in a large downtown apartment complex. Living above Jean Louis...

Strand Releasing Berta Ojea and Fabrice Luchini

The cheery tone and smiling lead actors of Philippe Le Guay’s latest film, “The Women on the 6th Floor,” embody the false assumption of nostalgic perfection. There are no problems in this polished version of 1960s Paris — families are whole, food is plentiful and the Fourth French Republic is strong.

But Le Guay, who turns 55 later this month, meant for the film to have a sunny disposition. “We wanted to create a sort of distinct ambiance,...

The women on the sixth floor in the French period film The Women On The 6th Floor are Spanish maids, and while they’re trapped doing menial household tasks, they’re also earthy and fun, with a zest for life unfamiliar to their starchy, wealthy Parisian employers who inhabit the fancy apartments in the lower floors. One of those, stockbroker and building owner Fabrice Luchini, discovers their world after his wife (Sandrine Kiberlain) hires a new housekeeper—the pretty Natalia Verbeke, who proves an irresistible lure away from the conservative existence where he’s been stuck. This comedy from writer-director ...

Title: The Women on the 6th Floor Directed By: Philippe Le Guay Written By: Philippe Le Guay Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain, Natalia Verbeke, Carmen Maura Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/15/11 Opens: October 7, 2011 Folks in the U.S. Tea Party might be horrified to note-if they can catch subtle clues-that the writer-director has communist or at least socialist tendencies, and that his leftist views come to fruition in the story. This is not to say that “The Women on the 6th Floor” is principally political, which it is only in the broad sense. Instead, Philippe Le Guay’s interest is in amusing his audience while painlessly giving us a...

Chicago – For the first time, a foreign film festival in Chicago will focus solely on the latest and greatest works from France. On July 22nd, the Music Box Theatre will kick off its three-day inaugural festival of French cinema, featuring eight pictures that have recently garnered praise from audiences and festival goers around the globe. It may prove to be just the ticket for movie buffs bored with summer blockbusters and outdated superheroes.

Bookending this year’s festival are appearances by two major figures in the French film industry. Director/co-writer Jean-Pierre Améris will be present for the opening night screening of his neurotic comedy, “Romantics Anonymous,” starring Benoît Poelvoorde (“Man Bites Dog”) and Isabelle Carré (“Private Fears in Public Places”). The picture was a surprise hit in France, thus rekindling interest in Améris’s acclaimed body of work (his 2004 drama “Lightweight” was screened at Cannes).

One of the country’s most respected veteran actresses,...

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

It has been given the more toner-friendly English language title of Service Entrance, but comic French drama Les Femmes Du 6eme Etage translates literally as The Women on the 6th Floor. Shown out of competition in Berlin, the film was very warmly received thanks in part to the performances of its sweet and amiable leading man, Fabrice Luchini, and its beautiful Spanish leading lady played by Natalia Verbeke. These actors combine with the film’s leisurely pacing and entertaining scenario to ensure that it is a winsome and inoffensive crowd-pleaser.

The film, set in the 1960s, follows a wealthy, middle-aged Parisian stockbroker named Jean-Louis (Luchini) whose long-standing maid quits following a row with his demanding wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain). Unable to clean up after themselves, the couple desperately need a new maid. But when Suzanne’s high society friends insist French maids aren’t the done thing anymore,...

Officials from the 61st Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the Competition program for this year’s event. It includes 22 films, 16 of which will be competing for the awards.

In addition there will be two special screenings: In solidarity with the convicted Iranian director Jafar Panahi, his film “Offside” will be presented on Feb. 11, the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Also, the European premiere of Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” will be shown as a special screening in the Berlinale Palast.

The winner of the Golden Bear will be announced at the festival awards ceremony on Feb. 19.

The following is the complete Berlinale Competition program.

“A Torinói Ló” (“The Turin Horse”) Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland

Directed by Béla Tarr

With János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos

World premiere

“Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland” (“Almanya”) Germany

By Yasemin Samdereli – debut film

With Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardin, Aylin Tezel,...

TORONTO -- Canadian producer Peace Arch Entertainment Group on Tuesday said it has acquired the international sales rights to Arritmia, the Rupert Evans-starring thriller about a prisoner escaping from Gunatanamo. The picture from Spanish producer Iker Monfor that began production last month in Spain also stars Derek Jacobi and Natalia Verbeke (Son of the Bride). Writer and directing credits belong to Spanish director Vincente Penarrocha (Fuera Del Cuerpo), while Michiyo Yoshizaki (Titus, Basquiat) is producing. The thriller about a prisoner facing the brutality of an internment camp and elusive freedom outside its gates was brought to Peace Arch by Penny Wolf, recently installed executive vp of international sales and marketing at the Vancouver-based company.

It's not too early to start anticipating that this outstanding Argentine-Spanish co-production will be one of the Academy Award nominees for foreign film. Close to perfection in every regard, provoking more laughs and tears than all the films one sees in any given season combined -- and a movie that would make such masters as Frank Capra and Billy Wilder proud -- "Son of the Bride" (El Hijo de la Novia) earned the Special Grand Prix of the Jury award in main competition at the World Film Festival of Montreal (HR 9/4).

Director and co-writer Juan Jose Campanella worked for much of the past decade in the United States in television and won two Emmy Awards for directing. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Son" with Fernando Castets after the pair collaborated on Campanella's 1999 feature "Same Love, Same Rain". While the Spanish-language "Son" has strong appeal to mature audiences, a smart domestic distributor could take it on the art house circuit, where the film could achieve a resounding success.

Rafael (Ricardo Darin) is a 42-year-old restaurant owner and divorcee who wants to change his life. Always on his cell phone dealing with work problems, he's got a beautiful girlfriend (Natalia Verbeke) and a loyal staff, but money problems and pressures to sell his business are taking a toll. He has a young daughter who lives most of the time with his ex-wife, while his aging father, Nino (Hector Alterio), who started the restaurant Rafael took over, is a gentle, supportive soul.

The title refers to Nino's desire to grant the decades-long wish of his wife, Rafael's mother (Norma Aleandro), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to have a church wedding. In scene after exquisite scene one gets to knows these characters and sympathize with them. Rafael is a man in crisis who does not judge others and does not blame the world for his problems. But he's also not always aware of how much love and support he has to help him get to the next stage of life.

When he has a heart attack but recovers to nearly his former energetic self, Rafael decides he needs more "freedom" and sells the restaurant, while also contemplating a move to Mexico. Fortunately, those around him, including a childhood friend-turned-actor (Eduardo Blanco), are not altogether behind him, and the lead makes the best of what he's already got.

From the constant stream of little jokes and bittersweet moments involving his parents, work and the women in his life to the unabashedly emotional peaks, Rafael's story is so uncommonly rendered with cinematic skill that it frankly leaves one delirious with admiration. The cinematography, music, editing and, most of all, the performances cannot be praised too much.

SON OF THE BRIDE

Pol-ka Prods., Patagonik Film Group

Jempsa, Tornasol Films

Director: Juan Jose Campanella

Screenwriters: Juan Jose Campanella, Fernando Castets

Producers: Adrian Suar, Fernando Blanco

Director of photography: Daniel Shulman

Production designer: Juan Vera

Editor: Camilo Antolini

Music: Angel Illaramendi

Color/stereo

Cast:

Rafael: Ricardo Darin

Nino: Hector Alterio

Norma: Norma Aleandro

Juan Carlos: Eduardo Blanco

Naty: Natalia Verbeke

Running time -- 123 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Friday, Aug. 29

Sundance Film Series

An all-singing, all-dancing take on infidelity, Spain's "El Otro Lado de la Cama" (The Other Side of the Bed) is a big fluff ball of a sex farce that's so light and flimsy it's a wonder they were able to thread it through the projector.

That apparently suited audiences just fine back home, where the picture, from veteran comedy director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, was one of the country's top-grossing 2002 releases and went on to receive half a dozen Goya Award nominations.

Screened at the just-wrapped Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, it's also one of a group of independent films being released in 10 American markets this fall as part of the inaugural Sundance Film Series.

But it's unlikely "The Other Side of the Bed" will have much of an impact on this side of the pond, considering, among other things, the lack of familiarity viewers will have with the contemporary Spanish pop hits covered by the game but decidedly not golden-throated cast members.

Madrid provides a vivid setting for the ensuing passion that surrounds a pair of couples who have trouble sticking with their original configurations.

To start with, Paula (Natalia Verbeke) has just dumped Pedro (Guillermo Toledo) for a Mystery Man who turns out to be his best buddy and tennis partner Javier (Ernesto Alterio). As Javier keeps the charade going for as long as he can, his in-the-dark girlfriend Sonia (Paz Vega) ultimately provides despondent Pedro with more than a shoulder on which to cry.

Figuring something's up when Sonia fails to come home one night, Javier is convinced she's having an affair -- with a lesbian friend from her theater company.

If all this sounds like it's stuck in some kind of sitcom-y "Love, Iberian Style" vortex, it's probably because David Serrano's cutesy, coincidence-riddled script does little to suggest otherwise.

The big novelty here is that in between all the coupling and recoupling, each of the attractive cast members finds time to express their inner emotions in song and dance -- and the fact that no one in the ensemble can pull off either particularly well actually makes it all rather endearing, at least in the early going.

But after a while, the innocuous tunes, with (translated) titles like "Honeymoon" and "Tell Me That You Love Me", and Pedro Berdayes' charmingly clunky but spirited choreography (imaginatively set in places like health club bathrooms and museums) begin to grow as labored as the script's tangle of deceiving appearances.

Ultimately, those likable actors, particularly Sonia's Paz Vega, who was recently seen in "Talk to Her" and "Sex and Lucia", go a considerable distance in making "The Other Side of the Bed" a comfy but quickly forgettable destination.

The Other Side of the Bed

A Sundance Channel presentation

Credits:

Director: Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, Screenwriter: David Serrano

Producers: Tomas Cimadevella, Jose Antonio Sainz de Vicuna

Director of photography: Juan Molina Temboury

Art director: Julio Torrecilla

Editor: Angel Hernandez-Zoido

Costume designer: Inma Garcia

Music: Roque Banos

Choreographer: Pedro Berdayes

Cast:

Javier: Ernesto Alterio

Sonia: Paz Vega

Pedro: Guillermo Toledo

Paula: Natalia Verbeke

Rafa: Alberto San Juan

Pilar: Maria Esteve

Sagaz: Ramon Barea

Running time -- 114 minutes

MPAA rating: R...

It's not too early to start anticipating that this outstanding Argentine-Spanish co-production will be one of the Academy Award nominees for foreign film. Close to perfection in every regard, provoking more laughs and tears than all the films one sees in any given season combined -- and a movie that would make such masters as Frank Capra and Billy Wilder proud -- "Son of the Bride" (El Hijo de la Novia) earned the Special Grand Prix of the Jury award in main competition at the World Film Festival of Montreal (HR 9/4).

Director and co-writer Juan Jose Campanella worked for much of the past decade in the United States in television and won two Emmy Awards for directing. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Son" with Fernando Castets after the pair collaborated on Campanella's 1999 feature "Same Love, Same Rain". While the Spanish-language "Son" has strong appeal to mature audiences, a smart domestic distributor could take it on the art house circuit, where the film could achieve a resounding success.

Rafael (Ricardo Darin) is a 42-year-old restaurant owner and divorcee who wants to change his life. Always on his cell phone dealing with work problems, he's got a beautiful girlfriend (Natalia Verbeke) and a loyal staff, but money problems and pressures to sell his business are taking a toll. He has a young daughter who lives most of the time with his ex-wife, while his aging father, Nino (Hector Alterio), who started the restaurant Rafael took over, is a gentle, supportive soul.

The title refers to Nino's desire to grant the decades-long wish of his wife, Rafael's mother (Norma Aleandro), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to have a church wedding. In scene after exquisite scene one gets to knows these characters and sympathize with them. Rafael is a man in crisis who does not judge others and does not blame the world for his problems. But he's also not always aware of how much love and support he has to help him get to the next stage of life.

When he has a heart attack but recovers to nearly his former energetic self, Rafael decides he needs more "freedom" and sells the restaurant, while also contemplating a move to Mexico. Fortunately, those around him, including a childhood friend-turned-actor (Eduardo Blanco), are not altogether behind him, and the lead makes the best of what he's already got.

From the constant stream of little jokes and bittersweet moments involving his parents, work and the women in his life to the unabashedly emotional peaks, Rafael's story is so uncommonly rendered with cinematic skill that it frankly leaves one delirious with admiration. The cinematography, music, editing and, most of all, the performances cannot be praised too much.

SON OF THE BRIDE

Pol-ka Prods., Patagonik Film Group

Jempsa, Tornasol Films

Director: Juan Jose Campanella

Screenwriters: Juan Jose Campanella, Fernando Castets

Producers: Adrian Suar, Fernando Blanco

Director of photography: Daniel Shulman

Production designer: Juan Vera

Editor: Camilo Antolini

Music: Angel Illaramendi

Color/stereo

Cast:

Rafael: Ricardo Darin

Nino: Hector Alterio

Norma: Norma Aleandro

Juan Carlos: Eduardo Blanco

Naty: Natalia Verbeke

Running time -- 123 minutes

No MPAA rating...