Not too many Portuguese movies arrive to our shores these days. So it was refreshing to watch Adán y Eva, a delightful comedy about the never-ending battle of the sexes, splendidly directed by Joaquim Leitão.

María de Medeiros is Catarina Meneses, a popular TV personality that wants to have a child. The problem is that she is a lesbian. Enter Rafael Tristán (Karra Elejalde), an attractive, good-natured doctor, popular with humanitarian causes, who refuses to be interviewed. She convinces him to grant her an interview, and eventually also seduces him into having sex. She gets what she wants: becomes pregnant, doesn’t notify Rafael about it, and disappears from his life. However, Te (a very funny Ana Bustorff, who steals the movie), her lover, doesn’t approve of Catarina’s pregnancy, and does everything that she can in making her life miserable. In the meanwhile, Rafael finds her, complicating matters, and help comes in the way of Francisco (Joaquim de Almeida), a fellow TV reporter, who’s supposed to work on assignment with her. All these situations put Catarina against the wall, forcing her to make one of the most important decisions of her life.

Adán y Eva won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress (de Medeiros), Best Actor (de Almeida), Best Film, and Best Director. (Portugal / Spain / France, 1995, color, 104 min)

The English don’t want to be forgotten. To get more to the point, the English don’t want you to forget their history. And who can blame them? Theirs is a culture that has lasted centuries, along with its traditions. That attitude is reflected in their movie industry, and once in a while they make a film about their rich historical past, when Kings and Queens ruled with splendor. The latest installment of this glorified practice is the colorful and handsome The Duchess, another witty tale of grandeur and historical bits, based on events that happened around 1774 and thereafter.

The very-much-in-demand Keira Knightley plays Georgiana, a young and liberal woman, who to some degree seems to be manipulated by her mother, Lady Spencer (Charlotte Rampling), to marry an aristocrat. She succeeds and, after marrying the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes), her daughter eventually becomes Georgiana, The Duchess of Devonshire. More on The Duchess – Paramount

One of the greatest tragedies in today’s world, and, for that matter, century, is the constant exodus of Cubans from their country, trying to reach the United States, where they are granted automatic residence if they are able to make to its mainland. To accomplish this, they device and construct all kinds of rafts, in which they try to navigate the 90 miles that separate both countries. Many, if not most times, they fail and can’t achieve their dreams. Every raft has a history, and that is one of the messages that the precious and eye-opening Finally the Sea successfully conveys.

The movie, which in Spanish is titled Al fin, el Mar, goes right to our guts with its opening scene, in which we witness the painful departure of some Cubans from the island, leaving behind their grieving relatives. We are then taken to Key West, Florida, where we meet Tony (Joel Nuñez) and his boss, Chris (David Andriole), two Wall Street executives that are peacefully relaxing at a beach, before returning to New York. Suddenly, a piece of wood washes ashore, and Tony recognizes it as part of a raft. It has the names Pablo and Mariana carved on it. Tony is immediately captivated by this incident, and decides to find more information about Pablo and Mariana (Audry Gutiérrez Alea, daughter of the late Cuban director Tomas Gutiérrez Alea). As time goes by, he becomes obsessed about finding them, and decides to go to Cuba. After all, Tony’s mother was Cuban. Once in Cuba, he rediscovers his culture and his roots, and meets people which he cares about. Meanwhile, Chris keeps calling him to return to New York, where the work is pilling up. Tony will have to decide what is that he really wants in life.

More on Finally the Sea — Desert Mountain Media

When it comes to movies dealing with immigration – especially the US / Mexican border –, many, if not most, of them deal with the injustices that the immigrants encounter with the way of life in this country, and the people that resent their presence. It is very hard to make a film that deals with what immigrants do to other immigrants, and how they hurt each other in pursuit of the so-called American dream. Sangre de Mi Sangre (Blood of my Blood) successfully covers this ugly part of the human condition in an honest and uncompromised way.

The films begins in Mexico, where we meet Juan (Armando Hernández), who is running away from a group of men that apparently are trying to beat him up. He succeeds in escaping, but accidentally gets smuggled into a truck that is carrying illegal immigrants to the United States. Once inside the truck, he makes friends with Pedro (Juan Adrián Espíndola), who is going to New York to find his father, Diego, who he says owns a restaurant in Brooklyn.  Unfortunately for Pedro, Juan is not an honest person, and steals his possessions, including his father’s address information. Juan eventually locates Diego (Jesús Ochoa), a lonely, hard-working man, who refuses to believe that Juan is his son. Slowly, but surely, Juan wins Diego’s confidence, always plotting to rob Diego’s savings.

More on Sangre de Mi Sangre — IFC Films

The Beach Boys is, without a doubt, a seminal band in the history of Rock & Roll. “The Beach Boys and the Satan” is a fascinating and absorbing German documentary in which the filmmakers not only present aspects of their work and legacy, but also connect this band with Charles Manson, whose tribe was responsible for the brutal assassinations of Sharon Tate and others on August, 1969. Through interviews with several players, including Brian Wilson – the so-called band’s brain –, we learn about the relation between Beach Boy Dennis Wilson – who tragically died in an accident – and record producer Terry Melcher, who at one time lived at 10050 Cielo Drive, site of the murders. The DVD has plenty of music and, in a very creative way, documents the bands career, especially the classic “Pet Sounds,” giving us a starting point to explore their music and history. (Germany, 1997, color and B & W, 59 min)