Look Out, Almodovar, Here Comes Aranda

Contrary to what American art-house bookings may suggest, Pedro Almodovar is not the only filmmaker working in Spain. Indeed, his current leading lady, Victoria Abril, had a thriving career long before their paths crossed in "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" and "High Heels."

Abril recently won the Berlin Film Festival prize for best actress for "Lovers," which was directed by Vicente Aranda, who first cast Abril as a teenage transsexual in "Cambio de Sexo" (1976) and has worked with her in a dozen other films. Now that "Lovers" is one of the few noncomedies to become a box-office hit in Spain, and has grossed close to $500,000 in just a few American theaters, the Almodovar monopoly appears to have been broken.

The inspiration for "Lovers" is a romantic triangle that ended in murder in the 1950s. The producer, Pedro Costa-Muste, has specialized in dramatizing such true stories for Spanish television, but he felt this one deserved big-screen treatment.

"It's very different from Almodovar's movies," said Muste during a visit to the Seattle International Film Festival last month (the movie is now at the Egyptian). He also sees it as different from such American movies as "Fatal Attraction," which he regards as "very moralistic."

In "Lovers," he points out, no one is all good or all bad: "They just don't know how to look for another solution. They're oppressed and they end up resolving their problems in blood." He said the script was designed to emphasize the relationship between the characters' behavior and their family backgrounds, and he sees the film's commercial success as a sign that audiences are ready to accept tougher material.

"It's important for a drama to be successful in Spain," he said. "There are so many ordinary comedies that become big hits. I was trained as a journalist, and I'm interested in reality, small stories that come from the newspaper."

Speaking through a translator, Muste was accompanied by Mirabel Verdu, a young movie veteran who plays Abril's rival for the affections of a malleable army veteran (Jorge Sanz).

"It's very strange for Almodovar to be the only Spanish filmmaker Americans know," said Verdu. "It's as if `Thelma & Louise' were the only movie imported from the United States."

Nevertheless, the distributor avoided opening "Lovers" at the same time as Almodovar's "High Heels," and the film ended up making its American debut as part of a "new directors" series in New York.

"Vicente is very happy to be a `new' director after 20 films," smiled Muste. "But it made an impression. They're talking about doing an Aranda retrospective in New York."

Verdu was also discovered by Aranda, who first cast her as Abril's sister in a television drama, "El Crimen del Capitan Franchez." Jorge Sanz has also acted in a couple of previous Aranda productions.

"Vicente always likes to work with the same people," said Muste. "If he makes `The Three Musketeers,' Victoria will be one of them. If he makes `Hamlet,' she will play Hamlet."

WOMEN'S FESTIVAL: No sooner has the Seattle International Film Festival ended - on a successful note, with attendance of more than 100,000 - another festival has sprung up in its place.

Sunday through June 25, the Neptune will be home to "Women Make Movies," a series organized by a 20-year-old New York media organization that claims to be the largest American distributor of films and videos by and about women. The collection includes several premieres as well as revivals of movies that have played here at the International Festival of Films by Women Directors.

The opening double bill, Sunday only, is made up of two documentaries by Pratibha Parmar: "A Place of Rage," in which Angela Davis, June Jordan and Alice Walker discuss civil rights, and "Khush," which incorporates Indian art and dance.

A program of short films about lesbians, including Su Friedrich's "First Comes Love," Viki Dun's "Can't You Take a Joke" and Penny McDonald's "Life on Earth as You Know It," plays at 5:15 and 9:30 p.m. Monday. Separate admission is required at 7:15 p.m. Monday for two documentaries about women's roles, "Hidden Faces" and "Canto a La Vida."

Two films by African-American women, "A Powerful Thang" and "Land Where My Father Died," will be shown at 5:50 and 9:10 p.m. Tuesday. Separate admission is again required for Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. program: a collection of shorts about mother-daughter relationships, including Anna Campion's "The Audition," Pam Tom's "Two Lies," Tracy Moffatt's "Night Cries" and Ngozi Onwurah's extraordinary "The Body Beautiful."

Back for the first time since the 1989 women's festival is Ulrike Ottinger's three-hour German epic, "Johanna d'Arc Mongolia," at 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. Trinh T. Minh-ha's film about allegorical Chinese storytelling, "Shoot for the Contents," will be screened at 5:30, 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday.

The festival concludes with a week-long run of Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust," which was screened earlier this year at the women's festival at the Seattle Art Museum. The Seattle Organizing Group of the National Black Women's Health Project is holding a benefit showing of Dash's film at 7:20 p.m. next Friday. The $10 tickets are available at Red & Black Books, Blackbird Books and by phone at 723-4798.

AROUND TOWN: The last New Film/New City program of the season, "Experimental Animation From Cal Arts," will be held at 10:15 p.m. tonight at New City Theater. The series then goes on vacation until Sept. 11 . . . 911 Media Arts Center, 117 Yale Ave. N., continues its "Documentaries Northwest" series at 8 tonight. Lorna Boschman will screen her films, "Scars" and "Our Normal Childhood," and discuss her subjective nonfiction films about sexuality, body image and family histories. At 8 p.m. tomorrow, 911 will show five films by Vancouver filmmaker Michael Hoolboom, including "The New Man" and "Man," which he made with Ann Marie Fleming. At 8 p.m. Thursday, 911 will screen "Flesh Histories: A Collection of Short Works," a collection of short films dealing with gender identity, including Shelly Silver's "We," Gran Fury's "Kissing Doesn't Kill," Tom Brozovich's "No Pain No Gain," and a collection of AIDS spots. Tickets are $3 for 911 members, $5 for others. For information, call 682-6552.

FUTURE FILE: The University of Washington is holding a weekend of film workshops, June 26-28, to be taught by director Robert M. Young ("Dominick and Eugene"), cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind"), screenwriter Stewart Stern ("Rebel Without a Cause") and producer Laszlo Pal ("Journey to Spirit Island"). For information, call 543-2310. . . . In addition to a Thursday-night series of Jean Arthur comedies that begins July 9, the Seattle Art Museum will be showing prize winners from Portland's 18th Northwest Film and Video Festival, at 7:30 p.m. July 17 and 18, and nine hours of James Dean's television work, Sept. 18, 19 and 20. . . . The Henry Art Gallery has scheduled two evenings of films by photographers: Eve Arnold's "Behind the Veil" (1971) and Susan Meiselas' "Voyages-Nicaragua" (1987), at 7:30 p.m. July 1 in Room 220 of Kane Hall at the University of Washington, and Henri Cartier-Bresson's "California Impressions" (1969) and "Southern Exposures" (1979) and Rene Burri's "Two Faces of China" (1968), at 7:30 p.m. July 15 at the same location. Tickets will be free to gallery members, $3 for the public. . . . At 8 p.m. June 27, 911 Media Arts Center will screen a collection of Pinhole Cinema films, including Mark Street's "Missing Something Somewhere" and Roger Jacoby's "How to Be a Homosexual."