Fernando Méndez-Leite

Directing

Fernando Méndez-Leite

Born 1944-05-06 · Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Acting credits

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

Icónica Chamorro poster
2.0

Journalist Paloma Chamorro symbolized openness and modernity in Spain in the early 1980s. Her personality and her shows on TVE (then the only TV channel in the country) made her an influential transgressive icon.

Icónica Chamorro

2023

Stories of Our Cinema poster
6.3

In Spain, on May 11, 1896, at the Price circus, the first moving images ever shown in the country are projected. From that event, the Spanish actor Antonio Resines intends to compile a series of anecdotes to shape the amazing history of Spanish cinema, holding several conversations with prominent figures of the Spanish film industry.

Stories of Our Cinema

2019

Howard Hawks, San Sebastián 1972 poster
NR

In 1972, the American film director Howard Hawks travelled to San Sebastian to preside over the jury of the Film Festival. Two young film buffs, Jesús Martínez León and José Luis Cuerda, came from Madrid in the hope of interviewing him. After thirty years of life and films we recover that unpublished interview.

Howard Hawks, San Sebastián 1972

2003

El Quijote desde la platea poster
4.5

How Don Quixote de la Mancha, the immortal character created by Miguel de Cervantes in 1605, has been depicted in cinema, television, cartoons, theater, opera, ballet and other artistic disciplines. An adventure that began more than four hundred years ago in the pages of a book and is far from coming to an end.

El Quijote desde la platea

2019

The Memory of Cinema: A Film About Fernando Méndez-Leite poster
6.4

A look at the life and work of Spanish filmmaker and film critic Fernando Méndez-Leite, as he writes his memoirs and a novel with autobiographical resonances.

The Memory of Cinema: A Film About Fernando Méndez-Leite

2023

Memoria de Los Olvidados poster
NR

Javier Espada's documentary about the making of Bunuel's masterpiece "Los Olvidados".

Memoria de Los Olvidados

2025

Por la gracia de Luis poster
5.0

A walk through the work of Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010) that is neither a documentary nor a narrative movie, but a tribute to one of the greatest directors of Spanish cinema. Anything can happen: the performers are not themselves, but their characters; there are no interviews, but greetings; a series of entrances and exits. A joyful reunion, a celebration of life.

Por la gracia de Luis

2009

Eduardo Ducay: el cine que siempre estuvo ahí poster
3.0

No synopsis available yet.

Eduardo Ducay: el cine que siempre estuvo ahí

2015

La extraña pareja: Pajares y Esteso poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

La extraña pareja: Pajares y Esteso

2008

Marisol: llámame Pepa poster
6.7

A portrait of the actress and singer Pepa Flores, an incarnation of the recent history of Spain, who, in just twenty-five years of intense career, went from being Marisol, child prodigy of the Franco dictatorship, to being one of the first communist militants, icon of the Transition; an idol of the masses who became a discreet person after having claimed her right to remain silent.

Marisol: llámame Pepa

2024

The Tunnel poster
7.0

Adaptation of Ernesto Sábato's work, directed by José Luis Cuerda Juan Pablo Castel, a moderately famous painter, visits Larrea's office to tell him how he met María Iribarne at a painting exhibition. He recounts why he followed her upon realizing she understood his painting, and why he killed her after months of searching, finally establishing contact with her and experiencing a passionate and tumultuous love affair.

The Tunnel

1979

Behind the camera

La Regenta poster
NR

The imaginary city of Vetusta, a symbol of anachronistic and oppressive traditions, is the realm of hypocrisy and intolerance that makes Ana Ozores's life unbearable and inevitably tragic.

La Regenta

1995

La Regenta poster
NR

The imaginary city of Vetusta, a symbol of anachronistic and oppressive traditions, is the realm of hypocrisy and intolerance that makes Ana Ozores's life unbearable and inevitably tragic.

La Regenta

1995

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Niebla

1976

El hombre de moda poster
6.0

Pedro Liniers, a literature teacher, comes back to Madrid after his wife has just left him. Meanwhile, Aurora Villalba, came to Spain from Argentina, running away from the militaries, she has a special way of living her own way. Pedro wants to get back the job as a teacher through an old friend, Bruno Baena, who is the head master of the school. Aurora starts going to Pedro's classes. Pedro will become "El hombre de moda", very soon.

El hombre de moda

1980

El hombre de moda poster
6.0

Pedro Liniers, a literature teacher, comes back to Madrid after his wife has just left him. Meanwhile, Aurora Villalba, came to Spain from Argentina, running away from the militaries, she has a special way of living her own way. Pedro wants to get back the job as a teacher through an old friend, Bruno Baena, who is the head master of the school. Aurora starts going to Pedro's classes. Pedro will become "El hombre de moda", very soon.

El hombre de moda

1980

La corte de Ana poster
8.0

She appeared when Spain was waking up from a long post-war period and crying with melodramas starring children, a child prodigy unlike any other; a girl who, in time, would become a symbol of freedom and a total artist. Actress, singer, friend, lover. This is the story of Ana Belén.

La corte de Ana

2020

La corte de Ana poster
8.0

She appeared when Spain was waking up from a long post-war period and crying with melodramas starring children, a child prodigy unlike any other; a girl who, in time, would become a symbol of freedom and a total artist. Actress, singer, friend, lover. This is the story of Ana Belén.

La corte de Ana

2020

¡Ay, Carmen! poster
5.3

The personal and professional story, told in first person, of Spanish actress Carmen Maura, director Pedro Almodóvar's first muse and a brilliant artist in her own right.

¡Ay, Carmen!

2018

¡Ay, Carmen! poster
5.3

The personal and professional story, told in first person, of Spanish actress Carmen Maura, director Pedro Almodóvar's first muse and a brilliant artist in her own right.

¡Ay, Carmen!

2018

El productor poster
7.0

A conspirator? A man with his own ideas, obstinate in making them come true? An arm-wrestler? The greatest mocker of Franco's censorship? Someone determined to change the world by putting a mirror in front of it? A schemer? The most important name in the history of Spanish cinema?.... For some, he is the prototype producer, guilty of the existence of many excellent films, discoverer of directors like Erice, Saura, Chávarri, Gutiérrez Aragón, Armendáriz, Ricardo Franco, Martínez Lázaro, Gracia Querejeta, Fernando León? For others, the cause of some of the most passionate controversies of our cinema. Elías Querejeta, a different look, a different cinema.

El productor

2006