Before Night Falls 2000  R, 125 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Julian Schnabel
Cast: Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Michael Wincott, Najwa Nimri, Hector Babenco, Jerzy Skolimowski, Vito Maria Schnabel
Noted anti-Castro Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem) is the subject of this film about a poor boy who grows up and joins Castro's revolutionary forces. After the revolution, Arenas moves to Havana, publishes his first novel, and participates in the gay underground. His actions are considered dangerous by Castro's political regime, and Arenas is sentenced to concentration camps and later is exiled. Finally free and living in NY, Arenas contracts the AIDs virus and ultimately kills himself. What makes this film extraordinary is not the plot; instead, it is the painstaking blend of the movie's sights and sounds that tugs at viewers' emotions. Bardem was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award.
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 Collateral 2004  R, 115 min.
Genre: Action / Drama / Thriller
Director: Michael Mann
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Bruce McGill, Irma P. Hall, Barry Shabaka Henley, Richard T. Jones, Bodhi Elfman, Debi Mazar, Javier Bardem, Klea Scott, Emilio Rivera, Jamie McBride
Taxi driver Max (Jamie Foxx) dislikes the heavy daily L.A. traffic, so he drives at night when there is far less pressure–until he picks up Vincent (Tom Cruise). Max soon catches on that Vincent is a contract killer (the first victim is thrown out a window and lands on top of the taxi). Max is supposed to play the chauffeur on Vincent's rounds, which involves killing five people that night. Two Academy Award nominations were received, including Best Supporting Actor (Jamie Foxx)
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 The Dancer Upstairs 2002  R, 128 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: John Malkovich
Cast: Javier Bardem, Juan Diego Botto, Laura Morante, Elvira Minguez, Alexandra Lencastre, Oliver Cotton, Luis Miguel Cintra, Javier Manrique, Abel Folk, Marie-Anne Verganza
Latin American policeman Rejas (Javier Bardem) tracks down a revolutionary guerilla leader while he balances his private world as a loving father, his liaison with his daughter's beautiful ballet teacher (Laura Morante), and the world of corruption in which he operates.
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Goya's Ghosts 2006  R, 114 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Milos Forman
Cast: Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Randy Quaid, Blanca Portillo, Michael Lonsdale, Jose Luis Gomez, Mabel Rivera, Craig Stevenson, Julian Wadham, Simon Andreu, Jack Taylor, David Calder
In 18th-century Spain during the Inquisition, painter Francisco Goya (Stellan Skarsgard) is working on a portrait of the archconservative Brother Lorenzo and, at the same time, is painting a portrait of one of his favorite models, Ines (Natalie Portman). After Ines is arrested on suspicion of being a Jew, she is thrown into prison where she is tortured and then raped by Lorenzo. Her father Tomas (Jose Luis Gomez) begs Goya to intercede. But Goya, who is terrified of the Church, will only stand on the sidelines unwilling to help. Fifteen years later, Napoleon (Craig Stevenson) and his army "liberate" Spain, and Lorenzo is now Napoleon's prosecutor. Ines is set free from prison and tells Lorenzo that they have a daughter. Lorenzo declares Ines insane, institutionalizes her, and sets out to find the daughter. Once again, Goya watches helplessly from the sidelines.
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 Live Flesh 1997 R, 100 min.
Genre: Foreign / Thriller
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Francesca Neri, Liberto Rabal, Angela Molina, Jose Sancho, Penelope Cruz, Pilar Bardem, Alex Angulo, Mariola Fuentes, Yael Be
A sex-filled thriller aptly describes this foreign film in which an accidental shooting leaves one man (Javier Bardem) paralyzed and another (Liberto Rabal) in prison. Years later, upon his prison release, fate brings the men together again–in a very mixed-up world.
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Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health 1996 N/R, 120 min.
Genre: Foreign / Comedy
Director: Manuel Gomez Pereira
Cast: Ana Belen, Juanjo Puigcorbe, Gabino Diego, Penelope Cruz, Carles Sans, Lola Herrera, Laura Conejero, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Javier Bardem
A couple meets in a most unusual way: under the bed of John Lennon. Both were devoted fans and got caught there when John came home. Thus begins an on-again, off-again relationship over a 30-year period. A good comedy/romance that has them meeting in unlikely places and circumstances over the years.
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 Love in the Time of Cholera 2007 R, 138 min.
Genre: Drama / Romance
Director: Mike Newell
Cast: Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, John Leguizamo, Hector Elizondo, Fernanda Montenegro, Liev Schreiber, Laura Harring, Angie Cepeda, Marcela Mar, Juan Angel
Based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 1998 novel, this story is set in Colombia where Dr. Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt) dies falling out of a mango tree. The day of the funeral, Florentino Ariza (Javier Bardem) arrives and delivers a message to the widow, Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), informing her that he has been in love with her for the past 51 years. The film then flashes back to their long-ago, ill-fated courtship and continues through their lives over the last half-century.
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Mondays in the Sun 2002 R, 113 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
aka: Los Lunes al sol
Director: Fernando Leon de Aranda
Cast: Javier Bardem, Luis Tosar, Jose Angel Egido, Nieve de Medina, Enrique Villen, Celso Bugallo, Joaquin Climent, Aida Folch, Serge Riaboukine, Laura Dominguez, Andres Lima, Pepo Oliva, Fernado Tejero, Antonio Mourelos, Cesar Cambeiro
Out-of-work shipyard workers in Spain gather in a bar where they commiserate with each other over the closing of their town's shipyard. Santa (Javier Bardem) sees hope for the future and wants to move to Australia, while Jose (Luis Tosar) feels insecure about his marital status because it is his wife (Nieve de Medina) who is bringing in the money to support them. Amador's (Celso Bugallo) wife left him awhile ago, and he is depressed but assures the others that she will be returning. Lino (Jose Angel Egido), unlike the others, keeps searching for employment. But, for all of them, each day is an idle day with no job on the horizon.
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Mouth to Mouth 1995 R, 110 min.
Genre: Foreign / Comedy
Director: Manuel Gomez Pereira
Cast: Javier Bardem, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Jose-Maria Flotats, Maria Barranco, Myriam Mezieres, Jordi Bosch, Fernando Guillen Cuervo, Amparo Baro, Emilio Gutierrez Caba, Tres Hanley, Alastair Mackenzie, Kiti Manver
Out-of-work actor Victor (Javier Bardem) takes a job at a phone sex company and enjoys success as a hustler of people calling in. Things heat up when he receives a call from Amanda (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) and begins an affair with her.
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 No Country for Old Men 2007 R, 122 min.
Genre: Drama / Thriller
Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root, Rodger Boyce, Beth Grant, Ana Reeder, Boots Southerland
Based on Cormac McCarthy's 2005 novel, this story, set in Texas during 1980, is about Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who comes across a truckload of drugs and a case containing $2 million in the middle of a half dozen murdered bodies. Moss picks up the $2 million and takes off with the cache. But, escape will not be easy. In hot pursuit are Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) who is outmatched by sadistic, psychopathic killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who stays on Moss' trail across Texas. In this film, the Coen brothers give us a masterful story. The film received four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director(s), and Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). Four other nominations were received.
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The Sea Inside 2004 PG-13, 125 min.
Genre: Foreign / Drama
Director: Alejandro Amenabar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Belen Rueda, Lola Duenas, Mabel Rivera, Celso Bugallo, Clara Sugura, Joan Dalmau, Alberto Jimenez, Tamar Novas, Francesc Garrido, Josep Maria Pou, Andrea Occhipinti, Alberto Amarilla, Federico Perez Rey, Nicolas Fernandez Luna
Spaniard Ramon Sampedro was paralyzed during a diving accident and spent the next 30 years as a quadriplegic. This film depicts his real-life battle with family and the court system to grant him the right of euthanasia. The film received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for one other.
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2008 PG-13, 96 min.
Genre: Comedy / Drama / Romance
Director: Woody Allen
Cast: Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Christopher Evan Welch, Chris Messina, Kevin Dunn, Julio Perillan, Zak Orth, Pablo Schreiber, Josep Maria Domenech, Abel Folk, Carrie Preston, Manel Barcelo
Americans Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are best friends vacationing at the Barcelona home of Vicky's aunt, Judy (Patricia Clarkson), and her husband Mark (Kevin Dunn). Vicky is studious and engaged to level-headed Doug (Chris Messina). Cristina, on the other hand, is a free spirit in search of love. They meet an artist, Juan Antonio (Javier Barden) who invites them to join him for a menage a trois in the town of Oviedo. Christina thinks that is a great idea, moves in with Juan, but ends up in a messy situation when his ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) arrives on the scene and takes up residence with them because she needs Juan's company after a failed suicide attempt. Meanwhile, Vicky, who had gone along for the trip, ends up in a one-night stand with Juan after having a few drinks, and that one night might give Vicky second thoughts about her visiting fiance Doug. Good Woody Allen fare. Penelope Cruz won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
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| Oscar: Best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men (2007) |
1. Before Night Falls (2000)
2. Collateral (2004)
3. The Dancer Upstairs (2002)
4. Goya's Ghosts (2006)
5. Live Flesh (1997)
6. Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health (1996)
7. Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)
8. Mondays in the Sun (2002)
aka: Los Lunes al sol
9. Mouth to Mouth (1995)
10. No Country for Old Men (2007)
11. The Sea Inside (2004)
12. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)
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