Sinatra

Oh, this movie is a truly jewel! It stars Alfredo Landa (one of the greatest and most sadly underrated spanish actors) as a lonely, depressing and poor man who lives in Barcelona (specifically in a cheap motel) and whose job is to imitate Frank Sinatra in an also cheap cabaret (where Groucho Marx or Marilyn Monroe are also imitated). The movie follows this special character (who everybody calls Sinatra) on his meetings with weird people (the sex obsessed owner of the motel (Luis Ciges) or a troubled and "pregnant" teenager (Maribel Verdú) between others), his life in the motel and his misery.

This is not Ken Loach or that kind of realism, though. Is a very special movie, sometimes odd and strange (the religious psychopath for example) but wonderfully written, directed and acted and with a high level of nostalgy, loneliness and sadness. Just a brief and powerful scene summarizes the feeling that the movie leaves on you: Sinatra is walking on the Ramblas (a popular street from Barcelona) when some cops approach him thinking he's a junkie or something and begin to frisk him breaking his jacket. The image of poor Sinatra with his coat broken is one of the most powerful scenes I've ever seen on spanish cinema.

Movies like SINATRA leaves you with a strange and sad feeling...