ESSENTIAL SPANISH FILMS

Reverse year order, most essential first.

Ah, Spain! Land of the bull and the baking plains, of guitar and gazpacho, of fiestas and flamenco, siestas and Cervantes, of paella and Picasso, Alicante and El Cid; the scorching sun, the sashaying swarthy senoritas of Salamanca, the monstrous man-eating catfish of the Ebro, the dark coal mining valleys of Asturias, and the extraordinary braying citizens of Gijon. Oh and the beautiful Picos de Europa, lovely verdant Galicia, the buildings of Gaudi and the Moors; land with a soul large enough for Welles; elusive, impenetrable, vivacious, seductive, sensuous, irrepressible...