Films with a Spanish Feel and Atmosphere Worth Watching
If you like historical fiction, we recommend the movies “Pan’s labyrinth” , Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning, beautiful and brutal historical adventure set in Navarra. This is set just after the Spanish Civil War and is a story of a girl who moves to an old mill and discovers a labyrinth (at the centre of which is a faun who sets challenging tasks). The horrors of the real world and the fantasy are perfectly mixed. Also there is “Vacas”, Julio Medem’s epic masterpiece about two Basque families through three generations from the late 19th century.
Another is “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway about his experiences as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. Hemingway’s film “The Sun Also Rises” from 1957 is about a group of American expatriate writers who live a dissolute lifestyle in France and Spain in 1920 and has beautiful shots of the Spanish countryside. It stars Ava Gardner and Errol Flynn and highlights the running of the bulls in Pamplona and two bullfights.
Almost everyone has heard of “El Cid” from 1961, a dramatisation of the legendary Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, known as El Cid. This is a 3-hour epic but a good but light introduction to the history and geography of Spain.
A lovely film and a favourite of many is “Vicky Christina Barcelona” starring Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz. Two friends on holiday in Barcelona fall for the same man … a painter. L’Auberge Españole is a comedy and completely different about a strait-laced student moving into an apartment also in Barcelona with six others from all over Europe.
Another good film is ”Land and freedom” by Ken Loach which tells of a young communist from Liverpool, who travels to Barcelona to fight in the Civil War. It is quite reminiscent of George Orwell´s book “Homage to Catalonia”.
A more modern thriller set in Spain is the film “The Cold Light of Day” whereby a family is kidnapped during their sailing trip in Spain and a young Wall Street trader is confronted with the person who is responsible.
If you prefer costume dramas then try “Goya´s Ghosts” which focuses on the Inquisition and the time of Napoleon. Francisco Goya was the Court painter and although this is not a true story the historical locations are real.
The Mediterranean is the setting of “Open Your Eyes” starring Penélope Cruz, which was remade as the more successful “Vanilla Sky” and tells of a playboy who ends up in a mental facility and cannot remember why. Whereas“Lucia y el Sexo” starring Paz Vega was based in Formentera; Paz Vega was the waitress who fell in love with a writer, played by Adam Sandler in “Spanglish”.
If you want to watch a film in Castilla-La Mancha region, try “Volver” a story a family of women, with Penélope Cruz again.
Try “The Way” if you are visiting Galicia. Martin Sheen is a grieving father walking the Camino del Santiago in the place of his son, who died while trekking it. It is set in the provinces of the Basque Country and Galicia and shows the countryside. Finally, for a film with locations throughout Spain, there is “The Hit” from 1984, a gangster film, set in Madrid, Zaragoza and the Aragon region.
If interested, please also see our blogs on “What books can I read to learn more about Spain?”.