The First Night of My Life

Rating:
Summary: La primera noche de mi vida: a poignant screwball comedy
Review: "The First Night of My Life" is another of the short films commissioned for French television as part of the "2000 Seen by..." project (e.g., "Tamas and Juli"), dealing with the idea of the coming millennium. This 1998 film from Spanish director Miguel Albaladejo tells of Manuel (Juango Martinez), a poor anuel), a social worker and his pregnant wife, Paloma (Leonor Watling) who leave for a New Year's Eve party in Madrid. The couple just miss the wife's father (Emilio Gutierrez Caba), who was coming to offer them a ride. When the father's car is stolen by a cheap hood named Johnny (Carlos Fuentes), things just continue to get worse. At first this looks like just another screwball comedy, but Albaladejo constructs the tale so that the concincidences and random events bring everything to a satisfying conclusion and a memorable final shot. "La primera noche de mi vida" won a couple of Spanish critics awards for Best Picture. The problem, of course, will be finding it in your local video store.

Rating:
Summary: La primera noche de mi vida: a poignant screwball comedy
Review: "The First Night of My Life" is another of the short films commissioned for French television as part of the "2000 Seen by..." project (e.g., "Tamas and Juli"), dealing with the idea of the coming millennium. This 1998 film from Spanish director Miguel Albaladejo tells of Manuel (Juango Martinez), a poor anuel), a social worker and his pregnant wife, Paloma (Leonor Watling) who leave for a New Year's Eve party in Madrid. The couple just miss the wife's father (Emilio Gutierrez Caba), who was coming to offer them a ride. When the father's car is stolen by a cheap hood named Johnny (Carlos Fuentes), things just continue to get worse. At first this looks like just another screwball comedy, but Albaladejo constructs the tale so that the concincidences and random events bring everything to a satisfying conclusion and a memorable final shot. "La primera noche de mi vida" won a couple of Spanish critics awards for Best Picture. The problem, of course, will be finding it in your local video store.

Rating:
Summary: Of interest to DVD owners
Review: I have already reviewed this movie, but just wanted to add this blurb about subtitles and this movie:

I have been reading the reviews of films like "Tierra" and "The Official Story" which say that subtitles cannot be turned off on the DVD versions. I just wanted to add that, for "The First Night of My Life" (and "All About My Mother") the subtitles can be turned off. For "The First Night of My Life" the options are English subtitles or no subtitles (Spanish subtitles are not available), and for "All About My Mother" Enlish or Spanish subtitles are available, or you can turn the subtitles off; It is nice to be able to turn off subtitles if you want to.

If you review other films in Spanish (DVD version), please mention subtitles in your review: which languages are available and can they be turned off. Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Of interest to DVD owners
Review: I have already reviewed this movie, but just wanted to add this blurb about subtitles and this movie:

I have been reading the reviews of films like "Tierra" and "The Official Story" which say that subtitles cannot be turned off on the DVD versions. I just wanted to add that, for "The First Night of My Life" (and "All About My Mother") the subtitles can be turned off. For "The First Night of My Life" the options are English subtitles or no subtitles (Spanish subtitles are not available), and for "All About My Mother" Enlish or Spanish subtitles are available, or you can turn the subtitles off; It is nice to be able to turn off subtitles if you want to.

If you review other films in Spanish (DVD version), please mention subtitles in your review: which languages are available and can they be turned off. Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: A decent Spanish comedy.
Review: This is the story of a man and his very pregnant girlfriend heading off for the center of Madrid for New Year's Eve on Dec. 31, 1999. Several other stories are told (involving a host of characters: a begger, a rich man, thieves, cab drivers, police, store clerks, and a slum family), and all are intertwined (kind of like how "Pulp Fiction" and "Grand Canyon" had intertwining stories). As for the movie itself, it was a good movie and was very funny at times (this is a comedy), but just didn't have as much substance as I would have liked, I just never really cared about all but a couple of the characters. It isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a great movie either. If you are looking for a Spanish comedy you won't be angry with yourself if you see this one.

If you are looking for Spanish (language) comedies, also take a look at Kika and Guantanamera (the only other two Spanish language comedies that I have seen).

Rating:
Summary: A decent Spanish comedy.
Review: This is the story of a man and his very pregnant girlfriend heading off for the center of Madrid for New Year's Eve on Dec. 31, 1999. Several other stories are told (involving a host of characters: a begger, a rich man, thieves, cab drivers, police, store clerks, and a slum family), and all are intertwined (kind of like how "Pulp Fiction" and "Grand Canyon" had intertwining stories). As for the movie itself, it was a good movie and was very funny at times (this is a comedy), but just didn't have as much substance as I would have liked, I just never really cared about all but a couple of the characters. It isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a great movie either. If you are looking for a Spanish comedy you won't be angry with yourself if you see this one.

If you are looking for Spanish (language) comedies, also take a look at Kika and Guantanamera (the only other two Spanish language comedies that I have seen).