Rolling Stones Bridges to Buenos Aires

A look at the musical genius of Brian Jones in the early days of the Rolling Stones. Contains some strong language.

In 1865, a handful of Welsh exiles took refuge in Argentina, and the long-standing interaction between these two very different cultures sets the stage for this comedy-drama from filmmaker Marc Evans. Gwen (Nia Roberts) and Rhys (Matthew Gravelle) are a couple from Cardiff whose relationship is going through a rough patch; her career as an actress is in a slump, so when he gets an assignment to do a photo essay on the Welsh community in Patagonia, she tags along as an assistant. While Gwen and Rhys are hoping the working holiday with help kick-start their marriage, things take a turn for the worse when she becomes infatuated with Mateo (Matthew Rhys), a handsome local man working as their driver. Meanwhile, Alejandro (Nahuel Perez Biscayart) grudgingly agrees to accompany his elderly aunt Cerys (Marta Lubos) as she leaves her small village to have needed surgery, but he soon discovers she actually has other plans, and is instead flying to Wales to see the land her late mother once called home. Patagonia received its world premiere at the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival.

When her fiancée Buck Gonzales is killed, dance hall queen Cleo Borden inherits his wealth. Included are oil wells supervised by British engineer Carrington, whom Cleo sets out to win by becoming a "lady." She races her horse in Buenos Aires, gains social position by loveless marriage to bankrupt Colton, and even sings in an opera. But when she meets Carrington again, he's become the Earl of Stratton…

Wild Orchid is the title of a 1989 erotic film starring Mickey Rourke and Carré Otis. It was directed by Zalman King, from the screenplay by King and Patricia Louisiana Knopp. A woman lawyer becomes mesmerized by a self-made millionaire during an encounter in Rio setting off a series of erotic encounters.

This film is a story of a close, but complex friendship between two women against the backdrop of the military dictatorship. They swear everlasting friendship and promise to become actresses. Twenty years later, Raquel has indeed become a famous Argentine actress. Maria is married to an electrician and has three children.

Analía’s mother sends her to Buenos Aires to deliver some handicrafts. She is expected to return home quickly to the country town where she is to take on her family’s hairdressing salon. But by chance an address mix-up leads her to a Muslim community where she finds herself taking part in a ritual completely unknown to her. She is given several objects which seem to harbour a mysterious message: these include a tunic, a map and a recipe in Farsi. Enthralled by the new world she has entered, Analía decides on the spur of the moment to take on another identity. She rents a room nearby and, coming across the name ‘Habiba Rafat’ in the personal ads one day, chooses this as her new name. She decides to learn how to speak this strange language, pray like a Muslim, find a job and make new friends. She is determined to find out what it means to be somebody else. Director María Florencia Álvarez’s film takes for its subject the invention of a new identity; her protagonist oscillates between her fear of discovery and her fascination for a new and unknown world. When Habi meets a young Lebanese man she finds herself obliged to make her next big decision.

Anarchy is often used as a synonym for chaos and destruction with anarchists seen as black-clad nihilists fomenting violence at peaceful protests. But NO GODS NO MASTERS reveals the far more complex history of a viable social system and the men and women who devoted themselves to making it a reality.

THE GAUCHO was made two years after Vittorio Gassman's collaboration with Dino Risi in IL SORPASSO (THE EASY LIFE), perhaps their best of many films together. Although not as strong as the earlier film, this is a movie of substantial merit and deserves to be much better known. Gassman plays Mario Ravicchio, a financially-strapped press agent who accompanies an Italian production company on its trip to Buenos Aires to present a film at a festival there. He spends much of his time, when not seducing women, trying to accumulate some money, whether by gambling or attempting to finagle capital from expatriate Italian Marucchelli (Amedeo Nazzari), now a rich industrialist in Argentina. He gets friendship, nice words, but no money. Mario tries to tap another former friend from Rome, Stefano, but the guy turns out to be more impoverished than he is. The man is played by comic actor Nino Manfredi (of BREAD AND CHOCOLATE fame) in a short but magnificently acted supporting role as a down-and-out emigrant who has given up hope of success. The first encounter between Manfredi and Gassman with the exuberant exchange of affection between old friends is a treasure to behold. Italian actress Silvana Pampanini does a nice turn as an over-the-hills actress trying to marry a well-off Argentine who has been courting her for some time. Mario returns to Italy disillusioned but not without that saving `gioia di vivere' that characterizes him throughout this likable film with its many little rewards for the viewer. Ettore Scola, who later directed Gassman in DOWN AND DIRTY, lent his hand to the screenplay.

Kansas-born Emily Reed is an intelligent but naive young woman who has made a name for herself as a lawyer and is hired to work with businesswoman Claudia Lirones, who is putting the finishing touches on a major real estate deal. Claudia brings Emily with her as she jets off to Rio De Janeiro to wrap up the sale of a resort hotel to the Chinese. When Claudia is unexpectedly called away, Emily is left in the care of James Wheeler, an expatriate American multi-millionaire.