The Wishful Thinkers (2013)
Genre : Drama
Runtime : 1H 34M
Director : Jonás Trueba
Synopsis
What some filmmakers do when they are not making movies: they waste time; they eat and get drunk; they take a walk after watching a movie; they fall in love; they are alone or with friends, building future memories for a future movie.
The story revolves around a Basque Roman Catholic priest dedicated to committing as many sins as possible, a death metal salesman from Carabanchel, and the Italian host of a TV show on the occult. These go on a literal "trip" through Christmas-time Madrid to hunt for and prevent the reincarnation of the Antichrist.
Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.
Bourne is brought out of hiding once again by reporter Simon Ross who is trying to unveil Operation Blackbriar, an upgrade to Project Treadstone, in a series of newspaper columns. Information from the reporter stirs a new set of memories, and Bourne must finally uncover his dark past while dodging The Company's best efforts to eradicate him.
A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured.
Pepa resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events.
Fifteen-year-old Lulu has never known any affection from her family. But when she goes to a rock concert with Pablo, a friend of the family, he introduces Lulu to her first sexual experience. Years later, Pablo and Lulu have married; Pablo has created a sheltered, private world for Lulu, into which nothing intrudes. However, Lulu tires of her cloistered existence, and begins hanging out in shady bars, looking for vicarious thrills and danger.
London, 1956. Genius actor and film director Laurence Olivier is about to begin the shooting of his upcoming movie, premiered in 1957 as The Prince and the Showgirl, starring Marilyn Monroe. Young Colin Clark, who dreams on having a career in movie business, manages to get a job on the set as third assistant director.
A brilliant plastic surgeon creates a synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.
Madrid, June 1991. After celebrating a session of Ouija with her friends, Verónica is besieged by dangerous supernatural presences that threaten to harm her entire family.
Ferdinand, a little bull, prefers sitting quietly under a cork tree just smelling the flowers versus jumping around, snorting, and butting heads with other bulls. As Ferdinand grows big and strong, his temperament remains mellow, but one day five men come to choose the "biggest, fastest, roughest bull" for the bullfights in Madrid and Ferdinand is mistakenly chosen. Based on the classic 1936 children's book by Munro Leaf.
Italy, 1970. An increasing legion of harmless warriors begins a peaceful struggle for sexual freedom through pornography, shaking and shocking religious authorities and conservative political institutions. They are ironic, happy, crazy. They are dreamers, defenders of definitive communion between body and soul. But they were censored and humiliated. They were mistreated and arrested for demanding loud a new cultural renaissance.
Spain, 1970s. A Clockwork Orange, a film considered by critics and audiences as one of the best works in the history of cinema, directed by Stanley Kubrick and released in 1971, was banned by the strict Franco government. However, the film was finally premiered, without going through censorship, during the 20th edition of the Seminci, the Valladolid Film Festival, on April 24, 1975. How was this possible?
Laura, a Spanish woman living in Buenos Aires, returns to her hometown outside Madrid with her Argentinian husband and children. However, the trip is upset by unexpected events that bring secrets into the open.
Recently released from a mental hospital, Ricky ties up Marina, a film star he once had sex with and keeps her hostage.
Following the tragic death of her teenage son, Manuela travels from Madrid to Barcelona in an attempt to contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. She reunites with an old friend, an outspoken transgender sex worker, and befriends a troubled actress and a pregnant, HIV-positive nun.
Raimunda lives and works in Madrid with her husband Paco and their daughter Paula. Raimunda's sister Sole lives nearby. The two sisters miss their mother Irene who died several years ago in a house fire along with their father. When a former neighbor from their hometown reports that she has seen the ghost of Irene, the daughters do not believe her. After a murder and a family tragedy, however, Irene's spirit materializes around her daughters to comfort them.
Salvador Mallo, a filmmaker in the twilight of his career, remembers his life: his mother, his lovers, the actors he worked with. The sixties in a small village in Valencia, the eighties in Madrid, the present, when he feels an immeasurable emptiness, facing his mortality, the incapability of continuing filming, the impossibility of separating creation from his own life. The need of narrating his past can be his salvation.
After being estranged for 15 years, flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo re-enters her daughter Rebeca's life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebeca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky's ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs...
Madrid, summer 2011. Economic crisis. 15-M movement and 1.5 million pilgrims waiting for the Pope’s arrival live side by side in a Madrid that’s hotter and more chaotic than ever. In this context, detectives Velarde and Alfaro must find what seems to be a serial killer. Their against-the-clock hunt will make them realise something they’d never imagined: neither of them are so very different from the killer.
Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.