Funereal toga party commemorating the culture clash in a majestic computer-generated Alexandria, pre-Islam: pagans, Christians, Jews. It is no surprise — although given the locale, and given the drift of current events in the region, it is an undoubted provocation — that the Christians, out from under the Roman sandal, …
Julian Schnabel relates another true-life tale from the wide world of art, this one a little more liberated from convention than his Basquiat or his Before Night Falls (though it immediately and continually brings to mind Alejandro Amenábar's The Sea Inside), the tale of Jean-Dominique Bauby, an editor at Elle …
The handsome face of a successful skirt-chaser is ruined in a car wreck, then restored. Or is this, or any part of it, a dream? Is it reality or is it virtual reality? Is it fiction or science fiction? (Quotable line: "Don't think about it anymore, or you'll go crazy.") …
Some of the credit must presumably go to The Sixth Sense for reopening the door to an old-fashioned, low-tech, thick-atmosphered ghost story. There remains plenty of credit still to spread around among the Spanish writer and director (and musical scorer!) Alejandro Amenábar, heretofore known for the overly tricksy Open Your …
Alejandro Amenábar (The Others) writes, co-produces, and directs a fun cast (Ethan Hawke, Emma Watson, David Thewlis) in a thriller that combines psychology (regression therapy) and religion (ritual Satanic abuse). Hoo!
Factual story of a Spanish quadriplegic who, after twenty-some years of paralysis, took his fight to the courts for the right to die. Given its intrinsic limitations, the film is well directed (by Alejandro Amenábar), well photographed (by Javier Aguirresarobe, who collaborated with this director on The Others), and well …
Cameron Crowe follows up his most "personal" work, the semi-autobiographical Almost Famous, with the umpteenth Hollywood remake of an art-house import, Alejandro Amenábar's science-fiction brain-twister, Open Your Eyes. The most personal ingredient here, aside from the selection of oldies on the soundtrack, appears to be the latex mask worn by …