Drama

Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) is literally what its title suggests: a retelling of the "Orpheus and Eurydice" legend enacted by black performers. This time the setting is the annual Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Orpheus (Breno Mello) is a streetcar conductor; Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) has just jilted her lover and is attempting to escape his wrath. Orpheus himself falls in love with Eurydice, whereupon her ex-lover, disguised as the Angel of Death shows up and kills Eurydice. To reclaim his lost love, Orpheus enters "Hell" (the Rio morgue) and uses supernatural methods to revive the dead girl. A multi-award winner on the international film scene, Black Orpheus features a samba musical score by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hall Bartlett directs the rural drama The Children of Sanchez, based on the novel The Children of Sanchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family written by Oscar Lewis in the '60s. Anthony Quinn stars as the widowed Jesus Sanchez, a poor farmer struggling to provide for his family in Mexico City. Also starring Lupita Ferrer as Consuelo and Stathis Giallelis as Roberto. This is the last film in the 50-year career of international star Dolores del Rio, who plays the Grandma. Jazz-pop performer Chuck Mangione was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a Grammy award for his original musical score. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

This is a sympathetic, observant drama about the trials and tribulations of Macabea (Marcelia Cartaxo) who has left her home in northeastern Brazil to seek her fortune in Sao Paulo. Macabea misses her friends and family but stays with her dreams for the future -- even in the face of unfair treatment from her fellow office workers, her boyfriend, and her roommates. She has many traits that would resonate in a wide range of viewers, and she easily carries this story based on a novel by Clarice Lispector. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on Caridad Bravo Adams' novel, this is the story of a man who eventually falls in love with a woman he had previously wanted to kill. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

While arch surrealist Luis Bunuel never made a secret of his skepticism about the existence of God, he was also raised as a strict Spanish Catholic and remained fascinated with the church's teaching throughout his life, and his obsessions with both faith and the contradictions of dogma provided the basis for this episodic satiric comedy. Jean (Laurent Terzieff) and Pierre (Paul Frankeur) are two threadbare vagabonds who are making their way from Paris to Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, where the remains of Saint James are believed to be kept. While Jean and Pierre's journey begins in the 20th Century, as they travel they seemingly develop the ability to move through time and space as they pass through a variety of historical scenes taken from a broad range of theological texts -- and all involving heresy in one form or another. As they walk the long road to Santiago de Compostela (when they can't catch a ride), Jean and Pierre encounter Jesus (Bernard Verley), who decides not to shave his beard to keep his mother happy; a young boy with stigmata and unusual powers; the Marquis de Sade (Michel Piccoli), who patently struggles to teach atheism to a young girl he's captured; an eccentric priest who has an irreversible belief in transubstantiation until he changes his mind; two men who put their debate over Catholic dogma to the test in a duel with swords; and Satan (Pierre Clementi), who shows up just in time for a car wreck. La Voie Lactee (aka The Milky Way) was scripted by Bunuel and his frequent screenwriting collaborator Jean-Claude Carriere; each of the film's historic episodes was adapted faithfully from an actual biblical text or historical account. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this interesting cinematic tour of a woman's memory (winner of the 1985 Cannes Camera d'Or Award), Marie (Daniela Silverio) is a young Venezuelan who has been living in France and returns back home to liquidate her late aunt Oriana's hacienda. As Marie moves at a slow pace through the rooms of the hacienda, closed doors to chambers of memory in her mind begin to open. She recalls her adolescence spent in this house with her reclusive aunt, a woman who never left the premises. As Marie begins to remember events from that era from the perspective of an adult, she realizes why her aunt shut herself away. Parents should be advised that incest is a part of this story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Edward James Olmos portrays the real-life Jaime Escalante, a no-nonsense mathematic teacher in a tough East LA high school. Handed a classroom full of "losers" and "unteachables," Escalante is determined to turn his young charges' lives around. Drawing from his own cultural heritage, Escalante forms a bond with his largely Hispanic student body, evoking the names of famous Spaniards and Latin Americans whose great accomplishments were predicated on their ability to learn. The students gradually come to realize that the only way they'll escape their own poverty-stricken barrio is to improve themselves intellectually. As a result, the class' academic achievements soar dramatically -- too dramatically for the Educational Testing Service, which is convinced that the class' high test scores are the results of cheating. The triumphant exoneration of Escalante's students provides Stand and Deliver with its rousingly upbeat conclusion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Barras Bravas is a Spanish film about the evil workings of a big-city drug ring. ~ All Movie Guide

El Signo de la Muerte stars the famous Mexican comedian Cantinflas as a mild mannered man who ends up running with a group of bad guys who kill women for fun. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

The title character in Juan Colorado lives a life on the run from authorities who want him jailed for something he did not do. Soon he must decide to focus on the woman he loves, or sacrificing that love in order to even the score with those who have harmed him. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide