Ricardo Alcala

An American ornithologist meets a French student on a trip to the Basque Country in 1975.
2000-12-20
6
6.9An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.
0.0In South American woods, lives a mysterious bird that has inspired myths and stories among indigenous peoples. Some of them link that bird with ghosts, due to its ability to use camouflage. Others say that whoever hears its unusual song will be haunted. During an investigation, the encounter with the bird triggers a series of strange events.
5.2Fanatical birdwatchers have descended upon a small town in the Arkansas bayou in hopes of finding the celebrated Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Declared extinct in the 1940’s, the bird has apparently been spotted by numerous experts. Enter amateur birder and poet Johnny Neander, who has convinced his taciturn sidekick that he will be the one to find the elusive woodpecker. The ensuing chaos divides the small town between believers and non-believers, rabid environmentalists and opportunistic entrepreneurs. Much like the bird itself, Woodpecker explores the intersection of fact and fiction, manipulating our notions of documentary and narrative techniques within a tragic comedy about hope, perception, and some very very strange birds.
0.0Peter is a socially awkward young man, whose only responsibility is to walk his nine-year-old neighbour home from school - over the heaths and green hills of rural England. As he makes a new friend in an ageing birdwatcher, Peter finds himself ensnared in a knot he cannot untangle.
6.2Jimmy Bancroft, a fighter pilot, who is recovering from injuries sustained during the Battle of Britain, and Hazel Court, a nurse, come across a pair of rare birds nestling in a field. After a run in with the army, and a couple of thieves, they, with the cooperation of the village people and the Ornithology Society, help the eggs to hatch. A wonderful look at life in a small village, during World War II.
5.8Ornithologist Abner Peacock sells off his modest-selling birdwatching periodical to a charlatan who turns it into a girlie mag, making it a massive financial success. After Peacock and the magazine are taken to court on obscenity charges, he unwillingly becomes a reluctant hero and ends up a swinging libertine.
6.0Three fanatical bird-watchers spend an entire year competing to spot the highest number of species as El Nino sends an extraordinary variety of rare breeds flying up into the U.S., but they quickly discover that there are more important things than coming out on top of the competition.
7.2In the mid-1980s, the GAL, a Spanish paramilitary group, pursues and assassinates members of the terrorist gang ETA who have taken refuge in the sanctuary they have created in the south of France. Grégoire Fortin, advisor to the French Minister of Justice, and Domingo 'Txomin' Iturbe, leader of ETA, are forced to negotiate in order to find a solution to the violence that plagues the region.
5.3A down-and-out restaurateur and his neighbor hatch a plan to lure bird watchers to their small Newfoundland town and increase tourism by announcing the presence of a rare duck.
0.0"The Winged Detectives" is a queer coming-of-age short film, which follows Reagan and her friends as they prepare for the annual bird-watching competition. Tensions quickly rise for Reagan with the introduction of potential new friends and the absence of a special team member.
5.9Set in the early 20th century, the film follows a game warden who arrives in Florida to enforce conservation laws. He soon finds himself pitted against Cottonmouth, the leader of a fierce group of bird poachers.
6.1An old professor rents a mysterious old villa, and finds a tape recorded by a previous occupant, detailing her debauched lifestyle and the events leading to her murder.
5.5New York City, October 10, 1965. A group of wooden giant figures from Pamplona, representing Basque culture and traditions, parade down the street; but the local authorities have not allowed the appearance of all of them: due to the racial prejudices that persist in many sectors of society, the participation of two black giants has been banned.
8.0Irene is a lonely 50-year-old ornithologist who, during secret research in the rainforest, immerses herself in a sensory journey to rescue her desires, facing her dilemmas that confront the illegal trafficking of wild birds.
7.4An anonymous narrator outlines a bizarre journey taken through "H", aided by a series of extraordinary maps, and his previous dealings with the mysterious Tulse Luper and the keeper of the bird house at the Amsterdam Zoo.
8.312-year-old Victor and his father attend the Annual Ornithology Competition, where Victor wants to prove his worth by spotting the rarest bird and win 1st prize – for his father's sake. Victor's plan seems realistic, since last year's winner, Daniel, has a broken leg and is unable to attend. But Daniel shows up unexpectedly and now the match intensifies.
5.7David Portnoy, a 15-year-old birding fanatic, thinks that he's made the discovery of a lifetime. So, on the eve of his father's remarriage, he escapes on an epic road trip with his best friends to solidify their place in birding history.
6.1Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, an ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-the-Cross-style tests.
7.0A mystery writer is intrigued by the tale of notorious criminal Dimitrios Makropolous, whose dead body was found washed up on the shore in Istanbul. He decides to follow the career of Dimitrios around Europe, in order to learn more about the man. Along the way he is joined by the mysterious Mr. Peters, who has his own motivation.
7.1Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
6.6Based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère, it is inspired by the real-life story of Jean-Claude Romand. L'Adversaire's protagonist Jean-Marc Faure (Auteuil) pursues an imaginary career as a doctor of medicine in a plot more closely based on Romand's life and Carrère's book than was Laurent Cantet's 2001 film L'Emploi du Temps. The film was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
5.9A student on a trip to France is tricked into smuggling secrets across the Iron Curtain by a sexy spy.
6.7Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
7.0High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.
6.3While on a grand world tour, The Muppets find themselves wrapped into an European jewel-heist caper headed by a Kermit the Frog look-alike and his dastardly sidekick.
6.9Paulie, a talking parrot, recounts his travels looking for his original owner to a Russian janitor who helps him to the end of his journey.
6.3A shy San Francisco librarian and a bumbling cop fall in love as they solve a crime involving albinos, dwarves, and the Catholic Church.
7.4When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
6.7Marie is just out from prison when she runs into Baptiste, a young paranoid needing companionship. In their pursuit of a mysterious briefcase carried by Marie's former lover, they roam the street of Paris, transformed into a giant board game, a maze spotted with mysterious traps, puzzling clues, and chance encounters. Maybe they are bricks in some sinister scheme, maybe they are playing a board game, maybe it's a fairy tale, maybe it's yet something else...
6.6A once-celebrated kid detective, now 31, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity. Until a naive client brings him his first 'adult' case, to find out who brutally murdered her boyfriend.
7.5Cinephile slackers Franz and Arthur spend their days mimicking the antiheroes of Hollywood noirs and Westerns while pursuing the lovely Odile. The misfit trio upends convention at every turn, be it through choreographed dances in cafés or frolicsome romps through the Louvre. Eventually, their romantic view of outlaws pushes them to plan their own heist, but their inexperience may send them out in a blaze of glory -- which could be just what they want.
7.0Four women were murdered, each was knifed and, though they had their clothes torn, they weren't molested. As the famed police inspector Jules Maigret pieces the clues together, he comes to realize that for the elusive man that he suspects to be unmasked, he has to set him a trap.
6.2Inspector Lavardin is called to a provincial village to investigate a murder – only to find that one of his ex-lovers is the victim’s widow.
6.0A mysterious stranger works outside the law and keeps his objectives hidden, trusting no one. While his demeanor is paradoxically focused and dreamlike all at once, he embarks on a journey that not only takes him across Spain, but also through his own consciousness.
6.2Horrified at the prospect of her beloved school being sold, a young French girl named Madeline uses her wit and craftiness to attempt to save it, making an unlikely new friend in the process.
6.9An ornithologist mistaken for an explosives expert is sent alone into a small French town during WWI to investigate a garbled report from the resistance about a bomb which the departing Germans have set to blow up a weapons cache.
6.0Gu, a famous gangster, has just escaped from jail. All french police is after him. Before leaving the country with Manouche, the woman he loves, Gu needs a final job to get some money. The job works, but a police's scheming makes Gu appear as a traitor to his own accomplices. Gu will do whatever it takes to clean his honor...