Gabriel Retes

Acting

Gabriel Retes

Born — Died

1947-03-25 — 2020-04-20

Place of birth

Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico

Known for

Acting

Credits

82 titles

José Ignacio Gabriel Jorge Retes Balzaretti (March 25th, 1947 – April 20th, 2020) was a Mexican film director, writer, producer, and actor. His 1977 film Paper Flowers was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival. His 1979 film Broken Flag was entered into the 11th Moscow International Film Festival. His 1999 film A Sweet Scent of Death was entered into the 21st Moscow International Film Festival.

Known for

Cómo Filmar Una XXX poster
6.3

Ulises Alpuyeca, a film initiate, wants to make his debut feature and he accepts the first opportunity offered to him to direct a film, without knowing that it is foing to be a porn movie. Gudelio Medina, photographer and Ulysses's old mate, convinces him to do it. All participants in the film, start, unaware of the main porn star gender, making room for hilarious entanglements, but once committed to the project they must discover how to shoot a porn movie and in the process, just maybe, discover love.

Cómo Filmar Una XXX

2017

A Sweet Scent of Death poster
6.0

Ramón is secretly in love with Adela. One morning, he discovers her corpse among the oat fields

A Sweet Scent of Death

1999

Broken Flag poster
6.9

When a group of young filmmakers witness and film a crime of passion, the most outrageous blackmail of the century begins. By means of a fantastic plan, the filmmakers send to the murderer, a financial and industrial big shot, a copy of the movie that incriminates him and they demand him an improvement of the standard of living for the working class.

Broken Flag

1979

Puerto Padre poster
6.2

As a teenage orphan from Chira Island searches for his godfather on the mainland, his innocent memory of childhood is gradually replaced by an unsettling reality upon learning the truth about his origins.

Puerto Padre

2014

Bienvenido-Welcome poster
6.2

During a business trip, a married man (José) has an affair with a blonde who leaves him the message "Welcome to the world of AIDS". Later, his wife Maria, unaware of the situation, makes love to her husband when he is drunk. The consequences of the contagion are devastating. José and María find the support of a group of filmmakers who decide to make a film of their story.

Bienvenido-Welcome

1995

Taken Identity poster
4.0

Felino, his girlfriend and his two friends, have their film rejected from every film festival, so they decide to submit it as major filmmaker Tomas Guevara latest film.

Taken Identity

2020

Film credits

2010s · 7 titles

Cómo Filmar Una XXX poster
6.3

Ulises Alpuyeca, a film initiate, wants to make his debut feature and he accepts the first opportunity offered to him to direct a film, without knowing that it is foing to be a porn movie. Gudelio Medina, photographer and Ulysses's old mate, convinces him to do it. All participants in the film, start, unaware of the main porn star gender, making room for hilarious entanglements, but once committed to the project they must discover how to shoot a porn movie and in the process, just maybe, discover love.

Cómo Filmar Una XXX

2017

Puerto Padre poster
6.2

As a teenage orphan from Chira Island searches for his godfather on the mainland, his innocent memory of childhood is gradually replaced by an unsettling reality upon learning the truth about his origins.

Puerto Padre

2014

El viaje de Keta poster
3.4

Keta is a professional makeup artist with a big butt and large thighs, but she also has big dreams. The truth is that Keta with her overweight, her addiction to marijuana and her pink hair can not get a job anywhere, so she ends up as a drug dealer handing out goods to her neighbor - who is addicted to all kinds of painkillers-, to an actress of soap operas as schizophrenic as a cocaine addict; also going through a swinger couple, a prude housewife, a not so prude nun and a host of characters that will surely make more than one viewer is reflected.

El viaje de Keta

2018

Given In Love poster
5.0

A romance between the painters and writers: Dr. Atl and Nahui Olin arises in this era, the 20's, while Jose Vasconcelos founded the Ministry of Education and call all the intellectuals of the country for this project. Mr. President Alvaro Obregon, who feels devotion for the intellectuals allows one of the most important cultaral crusades of our history. In this liberal atmosphere where gays, the divorce, the vote for women, began to be accepted, several of our protagonists are given in love within a whirl of ideas, passions, political and ideological propositions.

Given In Love

2016

Almost Thirty poster
3.9

Hilarious romantic comedy which main essence is based on the maturation process that young people face when entering their thirties. When their options come to settling down and starting a family or pursuing and achieving what they've always dreamed of, even though this could become a risk for their economic and emotional stability.

Almost Thirty

2013

Borrar de la Memoria poster
6.3

A love story turned assassination against the backdrop of the 1968 student massacre whose unresolved status is finally resolved in tense life threatening conditions. The story of a stubborn journalist who undertakes the clarification and bringing to justice of the heinous murder of one student forty years later represents a dedicated effort to force a country from denial to reconciliation and closure of tragic social and political events in a country´s history. A nation cannot allow official cover-ups that seek to delete and erase from the collective memory events that prevent a nation´s march towards social justice.

Borrar de la Memoria

2010

A Day for Manuel poster
NR

In a small town in Mexico, Manuel, an lonely old man living a mundane life meets a stranger on his way to work. The stranger reveals he is Death and that he has come to take him. Realizing he isn't ready to die, Manuel asks for more time.

A Day for Manuel

2017

2000s · 4 titles

1990s · 7 titles

A Sweet Scent of Death poster
6.0

Ramón is secretly in love with Adela. One morning, he discovers her corpse among the oat fields

A Sweet Scent of Death

1999

Bienvenido-Welcome poster
6.2

During a business trip, a married man (José) has an affair with a blonde who leaves him the message "Welcome to the world of AIDS". Later, his wife Maria, unaware of the situation, makes love to her husband when he is drunk. The consequences of the contagion are devastating. José and María find the support of a group of filmmakers who decide to make a film of their story.

Bienvenido-Welcome

1995

Under California: The Limit of Time poster
6.2

Damian is a married artist living in Los Angeles with his wife. After Damian accidentally hits a woman with his car and flees the scene, he seeks atonement and travels alone to Mexico, both to find peace and to reconnect with his family roots. Assisted by local guide Arce, Damian locates his grandmother's resting place and searches for redemption through a long trek in the arid wilderness of his ancestral land.

Under California: The Limit of Time

1998

El Cometa poster
5.9

After witnessing the arrest of her father for publishing "subversive" material against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, Valentina escapes taking a sack of gold coins with her in order to hand it over to rebel Francisco I. Madero, who is in San Antonio, Texas. That is how Valentina begins a long journey as a member of a traveling circus, where she finds love next to Victor, who, fascinated by the cinematographer, films everything that occurs before his eyes, in times of great political turbulence.

El Cometa

1999

Coup at Daybreak poster
6.8

The film follows the events of the night of February 4, 1992 in Caracas, Venezuela. That night a group of military rebels staged a coup d'etat. Venezuelans found themselves as virtual prisoners. As the coup starts and fighting takes place from a military base which is in the center of the city's most affluent areas, with both luxury high rises and palatial mansions. The area of La Carlota provides a wealth of very interesting, often flamboyant and typical characters of the Latin America upper middle and upper classes. They are among the most affected. Various vignettes in these different characters' homes are developed. These people's reactions, lifestyles, vices, and humanity come out in a very honest fashion under duress.

Coup at Daybreak

1998

El bulto poster
6.7

After being in a comma for 20 year, Lauro wakes up in a very different Mexico than the one he lived on. Ideas, hopes, ways-of-life and customs have changed, and Mexicans of the nineties are strangers for a man sleeping since 1971. Lauro will have to deal with the changes brought by the History, and will have to accept that the future is never as we imagined it when we were young.

El bulto

1992

Futuro sangriento poster
6.0

No synopsis available yet.

Futuro sangriento

1991

1980s · 4 titles

1970s · 18 titles

End of the Party poster
5.4

A motorcycle gang goes to a mansion where a party is being held and joy turns into tragedy.

End of the Party

1972

Juegos de alcoba poster
4.4

Anthology movie -- three anecdotes relating to liberated, post-sixties, sexual behavior. Swinging couples, hippie-style free-love, etc...

Juegos de alcoba

1971

Letters from Marusia poster
5.6

Chronicle of the repression that a foreign company exerts on the miners of a small nitrate town in Chile, whose workers decide to claim their most essential rights. A reflection of the historic union struggles in the northern Chile that ended with terrible repressive acts.

Letters from Marusia

1975

Omen poster
5.0

While attending the birth of Isabel, the wife of foreigner Felipe, Mama Santos predicts that "something terrible is going to happen in the town." From this omen, calamities will torment the locals.

Omen

1974

Lo mejor de Teresa poster
6.5

Ambitious young woman decides to leave her backwards hometown and move to Mexico City to study for a scientific degree.

Lo mejor de Teresa

1977

The Perfect Woman poster
5.7

Marcela, a former film star, seeks tranquility in the suburbs after marrying a wealthy industrialist. Her past haunts her with admirers and daily violence. Overwhelmed by a distant husband, a demanding child, critical in-laws, and loneliness, she escapes to an imaginary world to avoid the grim and the ugly.

The Perfect Woman

1979

Las Fuerzas Vivas poster
6.0

It narrates the phenomenon of the Mexican Revolution, satirically reflected through what happens in a town far from the places where the true Revolution was fiercely fought.

Las Fuerzas Vivas

1975

El cielo y tú poster
5.0

Priest suffers a head injury, develops amnesia, ends up in a hippie commune.

El cielo y tú

1971

The Encounter of a Lonely Man poster
6.0

Alberto is a journalist who remembers an event 15 years ago, when his friend Gabriel saved a girl from a fire suffering third-degree burns. When he tells the story to his friends, one of them asks him to write it with realism, so Alberto comes back to his old town to meet Gabriel again.

The Encounter of a Lonely Man

1974

Triángulo poster
5.4

The story of Mother and Daughter for a Husband and Stepfather who was killed by shotgun.

Triángulo

1972

Paper Flowers poster
4.6

On the thinnest of pretexts, a horde of homeless people descend on the apartments of two members of the comfortable middle class and proceed to loot and vandalize both homes, leaving the next morning with many of the belongings they found there, as well as one of the residents who has opted to join them. This political allegory is based on two plays by the Chilean playwright Egon Wolff.

Paper Flowers

1978

They Call Him Marcado poster
4.4

The Kid is a vicious psychopath given to laughing a lot, an actor manqué who leads a gang of looters and rapists, and is incestuous with his father to boot. The town’s resident Mater Dolorosa, madam of the brothel, hires her lover Marcado to kill the Kid, who is of course her son.

They Call Him Marcado

1971

The Cubs poster
5.2

After having his genitals brutally mutilated during childhood, a man must face prejudice and himself.

The Cubs

1973

Los Cacos poster
6.8

A group of Soccer-loving friends devise a plan to make easy money.

Los Cacos

1972

Cristo 70 poster
6.3

Running from the law, young crooks hole up in a small town... and get hooked into performing in the town's Passion Play.

Cristo 70

1970

Ya somos hombres poster
4.7

No synopsis available yet.

Ya somos hombres

1971

The Cornered Beast poster
5.0

A man who pretends to be a Dutch immigrant, is discovered by the Israelite Secret Service that he is a German Nazi War Criminal who escaped to Mexico.

The Cornered Beast

1975

Luz Externa poster
NR

"Luz Externa was one of the most ambitious productions of the Mexican super 8. The script is based on the monologue of Ernesto, a jipiteca machín, who tells a friend of his mystical adventures with his girlfriend [...] What was probably the super 8 film that best portrayed the countercultural world of the first half of the seventies in Mexico was not seen in its time, despite the expectation that its filming caused in the press." - Álvaro Vázquez Mantecón, El Cine Súper 8 en México

Luz Externa

1974

Behind the camera

Cómo Filmar Una XXX poster
6.3

Ulises Alpuyeca, a film initiate, wants to make his debut feature and he accepts the first opportunity offered to him to direct a film, without knowing that it is foing to be a porn movie. Gudelio Medina, photographer and Ulysses's old mate, convinces him to do it. All participants in the film, start, unaware of the main porn star gender, making room for hilarious entanglements, but once committed to the project they must discover how to shoot a porn movie and in the process, just maybe, discover love.

Cómo Filmar Una XXX

2017

A Sweet Scent of Death poster
6.0

Ramón is secretly in love with Adela. One morning, he discovers her corpse among the oat fields

A Sweet Scent of Death

1999

Broken Flag poster
6.9

When a group of young filmmakers witness and film a crime of passion, the most outrageous blackmail of the century begins. By means of a fantastic plan, the filmmakers send to the murderer, a financial and industrial big shot, a copy of the movie that incriminates him and they demand him an improvement of the standard of living for the working class.

Broken Flag

1979

Broken Flag poster
6.9

When a group of young filmmakers witness and film a crime of passion, the most outrageous blackmail of the century begins. By means of a fantastic plan, the filmmakers send to the murderer, a financial and industrial big shot, a copy of the movie that incriminates him and they demand him an improvement of the standard of living for the working class.

Broken Flag

1979

Bienvenido-Welcome poster
6.2

During a business trip, a married man (José) has an affair with a blonde who leaves him the message "Welcome to the world of AIDS". Later, his wife Maria, unaware of the situation, makes love to her husband when he is drunk. The consequences of the contagion are devastating. José and María find the support of a group of filmmakers who decide to make a film of their story.

Bienvenido-Welcome

1995

Bienvenido-Welcome poster
6.2

During a business trip, a married man (José) has an affair with a blonde who leaves him the message "Welcome to the world of AIDS". Later, his wife Maria, unaware of the situation, makes love to her husband when he is drunk. The consequences of the contagion are devastating. José and María find the support of a group of filmmakers who decide to make a film of their story.

Bienvenido-Welcome

1995

Taken Identity poster
4.0

Felino, his girlfriend and his two friends, have their film rejected from every film festival, so they decide to submit it as major filmmaker Tomas Guevara latest film.

Taken Identity

2020

Taken Identity poster
4.0

Felino, his girlfriend and his two friends, have their film rejected from every film festival, so they decide to submit it as major filmmaker Tomas Guevara latest film.

Taken Identity

2020

Taken Identity poster
4.0

Felino, his girlfriend and his two friends, have their film rejected from every film festival, so they decide to submit it as major filmmaker Tomas Guevara latest film.

Taken Identity

2020

New World poster
5.7

Towards the end of the 16th century, the Spanish conquerors living in the New World faced a serious problem: the evangelization of the indigenous people, who did not understand or accept Christianity due to their unshakable faith in their own religion. The court of the Inquisition cracks down on heretics and the natives prepare for a general uprising ...

New World

1978

New World poster
5.7

Towards the end of the 16th century, the Spanish conquerors living in the New World faced a serious problem: the evangelization of the indigenous people, who did not understand or accept Christianity due to their unshakable faith in their own religion. The court of the Inquisition cracks down on heretics and the natives prepare for a general uprising ...

New World

1978

La mudanza poster
5.8

Between chargers, noise and improvisedly placed furniture, a couple experiences a violent marital crisis, ignoring that they are observed by many characters that will soon face them with their own demons. Inspired by a work by Vicente Leñero, Gabriel Retes orchestrates a portrait without concessions of the hell of the marriage institution and love chaos, made in video format in 1990 and completed by the filmmaker more than a decade later.

La mudanza

1990

Los Naúfragos II:  Los Piratas poster
7.4

The Cast Aways saga continues as the shipwrecked islanders discover a cave full of buried treasures, along with the bones of Pirates. They use the cave as a shelter and plan an escape with the loot. Before their plan is complete, a ship arrives with pirates, lead by a young woman, who have come to claim their treasure as their own, and a battle ensues between them and the shipwrecked islanders.The islanders discover by chance that the new arrivals have no claim to the treasure, and their leader a treasure hunting imposter.

Los Naúfragos II: Los Piratas

1986

The Castaways of Liguria poster
6.0

A fire started by Harry Thompson destroys the Liguria, a legendary ship of the 19th century, and its treasure of gold and diamonds sinks in the sea. Thompson manages to escape unaware that Albizetti sleeps in the same lifeboat he uses. They manage to arrive at a deserted island, which has also been reached on the opposite shore– by the other survivors of the shipwreck: three children, a woman and three men.

The Castaways of Liguria

1985

La Ley de las Mujeres poster
5.6

A group of women take the law in their own hands after a friend has been raped and killed by some masked men.

La Ley de las Mujeres

1995

Chin Chin el teporocho poster
6.1

Rogelio’s story, a young man of humble origin in the neighborhood of Tepito, who falls in love with the daughter of a wealthy grocer, Michelle, but his marriage to her will be a failure and he will end up as a one more drunk.

Chin Chin el teporocho

1976

@Festivbercine.ron poster
6.6

A group of young filmmakers want to register a movie in a famous festival, but they are rejected so they decide to register at the Guadalajara Film Festival using the name of an old retired famous filmmaker. Everything gets complicated when the movie is accepted in Guadalajara, but on condition that the director goes to the festival.

@Festivbercine.ron

2004

@Festivbercine.ron poster
6.6

A group of young filmmakers want to register a movie in a famous festival, but they are rejected so they decide to register at the Guadalajara Film Festival using the name of an old retired famous filmmaker. Everything gets complicated when the movie is accepted in Guadalajara, but on condition that the director goes to the festival.

@Festivbercine.ron

2004

Wild Women poster
5.1

Women escape from prison to search for a treasure whose location has been revealed to them by a dying old woman.

Wild Women

1984

Wild Women poster
5.1

Women escape from prison to search for a treasure whose location has been revealed to them by a dying old woman.

Wild Women

1984

Wild Women poster
5.1

Women escape from prison to search for a treasure whose location has been revealed to them by a dying old woman.

Wild Women

1984

The Hard Years poster
6.7

Three boys, after participating in the events of 1968 in Mexico, find themselves in the need to get away from the social struggle

The Hard Years

1973

The Hard Years poster
6.7

Three boys, after participating in the events of 1968 in Mexico, find themselves in the need to get away from the social struggle

The Hard Years

1973

The Naked City poster
6.6

A gritty tale of survival set against a city ripe with violence and corruption. The Naked City tells the tale of Alfonso and Aurelia, who with their infant daughter flee the scene of a traffic accident they inadvertently caused, leaving several people seriously injured. On the run, they check into a hotel in a different part of the town. By coincidence, or fate, the hotel is about to be attacked by a violent gang, who resume to hold everyone hostage, moving room to room raping, killing and brutalizing the guests. When it is turn to visit with the young couple it is their time to decide to succumb to the violence, or fight back.

The Naked City

1989

The Naked City poster
6.6

A gritty tale of survival set against a city ripe with violence and corruption. The Naked City tells the tale of Alfonso and Aurelia, who with their infant daughter flee the scene of a traffic accident they inadvertently caused, leaving several people seriously injured. On the run, they check into a hotel in a different part of the town. By coincidence, or fate, the hotel is about to be attacked by a violent gang, who resume to hold everyone hostage, moving room to room raping, killing and brutalizing the guests. When it is turn to visit with the young couple it is their time to decide to succumb to the violence, or fight back.

The Naked City

1989

The Naked City poster
6.6

A gritty tale of survival set against a city ripe with violence and corruption. The Naked City tells the tale of Alfonso and Aurelia, who with their infant daughter flee the scene of a traffic accident they inadvertently caused, leaving several people seriously injured. On the run, they check into a hotel in a different part of the town. By coincidence, or fate, the hotel is about to be attacked by a violent gang, who resume to hold everyone hostage, moving room to room raping, killing and brutalizing the guests. When it is turn to visit with the young couple it is their time to decide to succumb to the violence, or fight back.

The Naked City

1989

Paper Flowers poster
4.6

On the thinnest of pretexts, a horde of homeless people descend on the apartments of two members of the comfortable middle class and proceed to loot and vandalize both homes, leaving the next morning with many of the belongings they found there, as well as one of the residents who has opted to join them. This political allegory is based on two plays by the Chilean playwright Egon Wolff.

Paper Flowers

1978

Mujeres en el acto poster
5.0

These women think, due to her social position, that they live in a “bubble of soap”. Nevertheless, when this mirage explodes, they remain in the air, in a free fall. Based on a novel by Ricardo Garibay.

Mujeres en el acto

2006

Mujeres en el acto poster
5.0

These women think, due to her social position, that they live in a “bubble of soap”. Nevertheless, when this mirage explodes, they remain in the air, in a free fall. Based on a novel by Ricardo Garibay.

Mujeres en el acto

2006

Given In Love poster
5.0

A romance between the painters and writers: Dr. Atl and Nahui Olin arises in this era, the 20's, while Jose Vasconcelos founded the Ministry of Education and call all the intellectuals of the country for this project. Mr. President Alvaro Obregon, who feels devotion for the intellectuals allows one of the most important cultaral crusades of our history. In this liberal atmosphere where gays, the divorce, the vote for women, began to be accepted, several of our protagonists are given in love within a whirl of ideas, passions, political and ideological propositions.

Given In Love

2016

Given In Love poster
5.0

A romance between the painters and writers: Dr. Atl and Nahui Olin arises in this era, the 20's, while Jose Vasconcelos founded the Ministry of Education and call all the intellectuals of the country for this project. Mr. President Alvaro Obregon, who feels devotion for the intellectuals allows one of the most important cultaral crusades of our history. In this liberal atmosphere where gays, the divorce, the vote for women, began to be accepted, several of our protagonists are given in love within a whirl of ideas, passions, political and ideological propositions.

Given In Love

2016

Given In Love poster
5.0

A romance between the painters and writers: Dr. Atl and Nahui Olin arises in this era, the 20's, while Jose Vasconcelos founded the Ministry of Education and call all the intellectuals of the country for this project. Mr. President Alvaro Obregon, who feels devotion for the intellectuals allows one of the most important cultaral crusades of our history. In this liberal atmosphere where gays, the divorce, the vote for women, began to be accepted, several of our protagonists are given in love within a whirl of ideas, passions, political and ideological propositions.

Given In Love

2016

Los años duros: El nacimiento de un guerrillero poster
6.2

The lives of Rolo, Chino and Boby take different courses since the student movement of the 60’s. Some years later, the friends meet again. Rolo has turned into a guerrilla fighter, Boby into a businessman and Chino into an embittered and solitary man.

Los años duros: El nacimiento de un guerrillero

1989

House Arrest poster
5.0

Because of a millionaire fraud, a man is condemned to house arrest, and the only place where he can serve sentence is his mother’s house, affected with Alzheimer disease. The arrival of the man disrupts the life of the people who live with the elder woman. With turns of the screw, the story feels dramatic, but it also contains certain amount of irony. It talks about human and family relations with a total absence of violence.

House Arrest

2008

House Arrest poster
5.0

Because of a millionaire fraud, a man is condemned to house arrest, and the only place where he can serve sentence is his mother’s house, affected with Alzheimer disease. The arrival of the man disrupts the life of the people who live with the elder woman. With turns of the screw, the story feels dramatic, but it also contains certain amount of irony. It talks about human and family relations with a total absence of violence.

House Arrest

2008

El bulto poster
6.7

After being in a comma for 20 year, Lauro wakes up in a very different Mexico than the one he lived on. Ideas, hopes, ways-of-life and customs have changed, and Mexicans of the nineties are strangers for a man sleeping since 1971. Lauro will have to deal with the changes brought by the History, and will have to accept that the future is never as we imagined it when we were young.

El bulto

1992

El bulto poster
6.7

After being in a comma for 20 year, Lauro wakes up in a very different Mexico than the one he lived on. Ideas, hopes, ways-of-life and customs have changed, and Mexicans of the nineties are strangers for a man sleeping since 1971. Lauro will have to deal with the changes brought by the History, and will have to accept that the future is never as we imagined it when we were young.

El bulto

1992

Tribulaciones en el seno de una familia burguesa poster
6.3

No synopsis available yet.

Tribulaciones en el seno de una familia burguesa

1973

La muerte de un paletero poster
5.0

No synopsis available yet.

La muerte de un paletero

1989

South poster
6.0

A surreal and horseless approach to classic western tropes.

South

1969