Adrift in Madrid

The American Cinematheque’s 10th annual Recent Spanish Cinema series at the Egyptian continues tonight at 7 p.m. with Ferdinand Merinero’s frenetic “La Novia de Lazaro” (Lazaro’s Wife) a tale of Cuban lovers transplanted to Madrid for whom the term “tempestuous” is far too inadequate a description. Handsome, tousle-haired Lazaro (Roberto Govin) hustled the streets for 18 months before being able to bring his gorgeous girlfriend, Lola (Claudia Rojas), over to Spain from Cuba. In the process, he has become such a manic-depressive that when he’s supposed to be meeting his lover at the airport, he has instead been arrested for attempted rape. This sets Lola, nearly as mercurial as he is, adrift in Madrid to live on the edge, enduring various lurid experiences. Merinero goes way over the top time and time again, but his emotional honesty is as undeniable as it is extravagant. Rojas is such a smoldering stunner -- think Sonia Braga -- and Merinero has such energy that “La Novia” undeniably holds attention and is also pretty sexy. Ramon Salazar’s “Piedras” (Stones), which follows “La Novia,” is a splendid instance of the stuff of melodrama taken to a fully dimensional level by an exceptionally skilled and observant filmmaker’s commitment to his material and to his actors. The result is a notably graceful, artfully structured film that introduces us to five Madrid women whose lives touch one another’s in varying degrees and in ways wholly unexpected. Salazar inspires multifaceted portrayals of them.

Mariano Barroso’s 1995 “Extasis” (Ecstasy) formidably teams Javier Bardem with the elegant, silver-haired Federico Luppi, who play off each other as effectively as Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier did in “Sleuth” years ago. Bardem is cast as a young, reckless crook whose partner in crime, Max (Daniel Guzman), is the son of a famous theater director, Daniel Peligro (Luppi), who has never seen him. They decide to rob Peligro, but to avoid any possible father-son emotional entanglement, Bardem’s Rober decides he will pass himself off as Max. What Rober doesn’t count on is Daniel’s formidable charm -- or that he will perceive in Rober an acting potential. Plenty of implications and irony follow.

Of these four films, Ricardo Franco’s 1997 “La Buena Estrella” (Lucky Star) is the most powerful. With simplicity and a firm but understated control, Franco tells a most confounding yet persuasive tale with a triangle similar to that of “La Novia.” One morning while driving to his small-city butcher shop, Antonio Resines’ Rafael rescues a young prostitute, Mariana (Maribel Verdu), from her pimp-boyfriend, Daniel (Jordi Molla), who is beating her savagely. The kindly, solitary, middle-aged Rafael gives shelter to Mariana, who ends the butcher’s isolation. Based on a true story, “La Buena Estrella” is wonderfully unpredictable. What concerns Franco is the miraculously redemptive power of love, especially on the part of a deceptively mild type like Daniel, who is in fact a selfless man of courage and daring, of saintly impulses and human emotions. Franco builds to an all-stops finish that not only works, but also is called for in light of how expertly and perceptively he has constructed his film and directed his cast in what have to have been terrifically taxing roles.

*

Screenings

“La Novia de Lazaro” and “Piedras”: Tonight, 7 and 9:15 p.m., respectively. American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 466-FILM.

“Extasis”: Friday, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian Theatre.

“La Buena Estrella”: Sunday, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian Theatre.