José Luis Garci

Directing

José Luis Garci

Born 1944-01-20 · Madrid, España

José Luis Garci is a Spanish director, producer, film critic, TV presenter, screenwriter and author. He earned worldwide acclaim and his country's first Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for Begin the Beguine (1982). Four of his films, including also Sesión continua (1984), Asignatura aprobada (1987) and El abuelo (1998), have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, more than any other Spanish director. His films are characterized for his classical style and the underlying sentimentality of their plots.

Acting credits

Operación Palace poster
6.2

Finally, 33 years later, the whole truth behind the attempted coup d'état that shook Spain on the afternoon of February 23, 1981, is revealed by those who lived through those dreadful hours; a deep look behind the heavy curtain which hides the real mastermind, waiting to be unmasked.

Operación Palace

2014

Eloy de la Iglesia: Film Addict poster
NR

A dauntless film director, an enfant terrible in his early days, confrontational with censorship, always pushing the boundaries of freedom of expression, chronicler of the darkest corners of the transition, De la Iglesia will fall into the clutches of drug addiction, being forgotten and sometimes repudiated for more than a decade before eventually shaking off the ostracism to make films once again, that habit he could never kick.

Eloy de la Iglesia: Film Addict

2025

Cradle Song poster
6.5

A group of nuns find an abandoned baby girl at the doorstep of their convent.

Cradle Song

1994

Vida conyugal sana poster
4.0

Enrique is a thirty-year-old lawyer who is married to Ana. Apparently he is a normal man who has only one obsession: the commercials. He feels a real passion for the erotic world of the ads either in billboards, trash cans, public transport, magazines or television. The continuous publicity bombardment ends up leading him towards a neurosis that changes his personality.

Vida conyugal sana

1974

The Night of the Sunflowers poster
6.4

Two speleologists, Esteban and Pedro, travel to a mountainous area located in northern Spain, near a small village, to study a newly discovered cave and determine if it is of scientific interest, while Gabi, Esteban's wife, awaits their return on a lonely road at the foot of the mountain.

The Night of the Sunflowers

2006

El crack dos poster
6.9

Private detective Germán Areta el Piojo investigates the life of a gay man who has apparently abandoned his partner. When they both turn up dead, it seems one killed the other before committing suicide, but Areta is not convinced.

El crack dos

1983

Miguel Velázquez. El catedrático del ring poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Miguel Velázquez. El catedrático del ring

2025

Samuel: Hollywood vs Hollywood poster
NR

The epic story of a great man of cinema, Samuel Bronston, as recounted by those who knew him. Bronston created a parallel Hollywood in Spain that was much larger than the one in California, and this provoked the wrath of an industry that ultimately devoured him.

Samuel: Hollywood vs Hollywood

2024

Summers el rebelde poster
6.0

Winner of the Silver Shell for Best Director for his debut film, Del rosa... al amarillo, Manolo Summers was the great revelation of Spanish cinema. Over time, he became a very popular figure, while criticism of him intensified. Now we will get to know his personality through his own words, as well as what his films tell us about him. And with the help of film critics, directors, professionals, and his family, we will discover Summers the rebel.

Summers el rebelde

2024

Olea… ¡Más alto! poster
NR

An account of the life and work behind the camera of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Olea, whose very personal viewpoint, interested in all kinds of subjects, approached in very different ways, but always with a very characteristic style, has analyzed the social and political life of Spain for more than five decades.

Olea… ¡Más alto!

2020

La noche de los cien pájaros poster
4.8

The young Enrique leaving to study at the University and is married to Juana. One day he meets a painter who takes Enrique into another life and confused begin to think about taking some drastic measures.

La noche de los cien pájaros

1976

Viva la clase media poster
5.6

Drama based on the true life of a group of middle class and members of the Communist Party of Spain, who were involved in clandestine political activities during the sixties.

Viva la clase media

1980

Enrique Herreros poster
6.5

The story of Enrique Herreros (1903-1977), cartoonist, advertiser, poster designer, talent manager, actor, producer and filmmaker, and the most daring of mountaineers; the man who, along with his companions from the so-called “other Generation of '27,” brought Hollywood to Madrid's Gran Vía, turning a grey and sinister post-war city into the capital of an incipient and ambitious cultural industry.

Enrique Herreros

2011

Behind the camera

¡Al fútbol! poster
5.9

Any given Sunday of 1974 in Spain, soccer games in several stadiums, the sarcastic voice of commentators, the inevitable presence of advertising. Goal! The victors and the defeated.

¡Al fútbol!

1975

¡Al fútbol! poster
5.9

Any given Sunday of 1974 in Spain, soccer games in several stadiums, the sarcastic voice of commentators, the inevitable presence of advertising. Goal! The victors and the defeated.

¡Al fútbol!

1975

El cronicón poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

El cronicón

1970

Cradle Song poster
6.5

A group of nuns find an abandoned baby girl at the doorstep of their convent.

Cradle Song

1994

Cradle Song poster
6.5

A group of nuns find an abandoned baby girl at the doorstep of their convent.

Cradle Song

1994

Alfonso Sánchez poster
6.3

Famous Spanish film critic Alfonso Sánchez talks about his personal life, his work and Anouk Aimée. A sentimental tribute to one of the most relevant figures on the Spanish film scene.

Alfonso Sánchez

1980

Alfonso Sánchez poster
6.3

Famous Spanish film critic Alfonso Sánchez talks about his personal life, his work and Anouk Aimée. A sentimental tribute to one of the most relevant figures on the Spanish film scene.

Alfonso Sánchez

1980

Vida conyugal sana poster
4.0

Enrique is a thirty-year-old lawyer who is married to Ana. Apparently he is a normal man who has only one obsession: the commercials. He feels a real passion for the erotic world of the ads either in billboards, trash cans, public transport, magazines or television. The continuous publicity bombardment ends up leading him towards a neurosis that changes his personality.

Vida conyugal sana

1974

Mi Marilyn poster
6.4

A memory of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), woman, actress, goddess, myth, in the words of the Spanish director and scriptwriter José Luis Garci, who returns to his childhood and recovers a lost paradise.

Mi Marilyn

1975

Mi Marilyn poster
6.4

A memory of Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962), woman, actress, goddess, myth, in the words of the Spanish director and scriptwriter José Luis Garci, who returns to his childhood and recovers a lost paradise.

Mi Marilyn

1975

Double Feature poster
5.5

Director José Luis Garci has turned his camera inward on filmmakers and screenwriters to portray them as so self-absorbed in the creative process that there is no other world, no other human relationship that can compete. As José (Adolfo Marsillach) and Federico (Jesus Puente) work together on a new screenplay, their interactions with their family (José's teen daughters, Federico's wife) disappear under the all-consuming task of creation. The daughters give up and go off on their own, and the wife joins a convent while Federico barely notices. And when the producer is interrupted by profound grief at the sudden death of his older son, he almost automatically returns to thinking about the film project when the funeral has ended. Garci honors many great directors at the beginning of this film, and the film continues to play out as an elaboration on this homage -- an illustration both of the dedication and the cost of filmmaking, no judgments given.

Double Feature

1984

Double Feature poster
5.5

Director José Luis Garci has turned his camera inward on filmmakers and screenwriters to portray them as so self-absorbed in the creative process that there is no other world, no other human relationship that can compete. As José (Adolfo Marsillach) and Federico (Jesus Puente) work together on a new screenplay, their interactions with their family (José's teen daughters, Federico's wife) disappear under the all-consuming task of creation. The daughters give up and go off on their own, and the wife joins a convent while Federico barely notices. And when the producer is interrupted by profound grief at the sudden death of his older son, he almost automatically returns to thinking about the film project when the funeral has ended. Garci honors many great directors at the beginning of this film, and the film continues to play out as an elaboration on this homage -- an illustration both of the dedication and the cost of filmmaking, no judgments given.

Double Feature

1984

Double Feature poster
5.5

Director José Luis Garci has turned his camera inward on filmmakers and screenwriters to portray them as so self-absorbed in the creative process that there is no other world, no other human relationship that can compete. As José (Adolfo Marsillach) and Federico (Jesus Puente) work together on a new screenplay, their interactions with their family (José's teen daughters, Federico's wife) disappear under the all-consuming task of creation. The daughters give up and go off on their own, and the wife joins a convent while Federico barely notices. And when the producer is interrupted by profound grief at the sudden death of his older son, he almost automatically returns to thinking about the film project when the funeral has ended. Garci honors many great directors at the beginning of this film, and the film continues to play out as an elaboration on this homage -- an illustration both of the dedication and the cost of filmmaking, no judgments given.

Double Feature

1984

Los preparativos poster
9.0

No synopsis available yet.

Los preparativos

1968

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950 poster
6.0

This movie doesn't have any coherent plot. It's the portrait of the lives of different people in the hard years of post-war in Spain (the 40's), and how they manage to survive in a country desolated by the war. Like other films: La colmena or Roma (Fellini) it shows us lots of characters and some moments of their lives.

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950

2004

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950 poster
6.0

This movie doesn't have any coherent plot. It's the portrait of the lives of different people in the hard years of post-war in Spain (the 40's), and how they manage to survive in a country desolated by the war. Like other films: La colmena or Roma (Fellini) it shows us lots of characters and some moments of their lives.

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950

2004

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950 poster
6.0

This movie doesn't have any coherent plot. It's the portrait of the lives of different people in the hard years of post-war in Spain (the 40's), and how they manage to survive in a country desolated by the war. Like other films: La colmena or Roma (Fellini) it shows us lots of characters and some moments of their lives.

Merry-Go-Round c. 1950

2004

Murder in a Blue World poster
4.7

Set in the future, the story follows a nurse who tries to bring her own style of relief to people condemned to die. Her identity is a mystery and she may not be quite what she seems.

Murder in a Blue World

1973

Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days poster
4.7

Film based on the characters of the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It tells a hypothetical meeting in Madrid between the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days

2012

Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days poster
4.7

Film based on the characters of the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle. It tells a hypothetical meeting in Madrid between the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

Holmes & Watson: Madrid Days

2012

Ninette poster
5.2

Andrés, a dowdy Spaniard, goes to Paris on holiday, hoping to meet a pretty French girl. His wishes may come true after meeting Ninette, his landlord's sensual and possessive young daughter.

Ninette

2005

Ninette poster
5.2

Andrés, a dowdy Spaniard, goes to Paris on holiday, hoping to meet a pretty French girl. His wishes may come true after meeting Ninette, his landlord's sensual and possessive young daughter.

Ninette

2005

Casablanca revisitada poster
9.0

A lyrical and nostalgic analysis of how Casablanca, the mythical film directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942, has influenced both film history and pop culture.

Casablanca revisitada

1992

Casablanca revisitada poster
9.0

A lyrical and nostalgic analysis of how Casablanca, the mythical film directed by Michael Curtiz in 1942, has influenced both film history and pop culture.

Casablanca revisitada

1992