An Incredible and Complex Story, With Kate Beckinsale in the Beginning of Career

British/Spanish production based on Arturo Perez Reverte's  novel ,  telling of a mystery hidden in an art masterpiece

Light murder mystery with hairy armpits, doubles as Barcelona tourist advert

Canet de Mar, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Pierce Brosnan and Alison Doody in Taffin (1988)

Jennifer Jason Leigh in Heart of Midnight (1988)

Ursula Andress, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, Rosenda Monteros, and John Richardson in She (1965)

Tom Berenger, Melanie Griffith, Billy Dee Williams, and Jack Scalia in Fear City (1984)

We're playing on a vast board, encompassing both past and present.

Kate Beckinsale and Art Malik in Uncovered (1994)

Kate Beckinsale and Paudge Behan in Uncovered (1994)

Kate Beckinsale

John Wood

Sinéad Cusack

Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Michael Hirst

Jim McBride

A woman finds a hidden message in a restored painting questioning a knight&apos;s death. When her friend is murdered investigating it, a chess game&apos;s moves in the painting link to killings from the past that she must solve.

Uncovered

Quis Necavit Equitem?

&quot;Uncovered&quot; is based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte&apos;s novel &quot;The Flanders Panel&quot;. Julia Darro, a young art historian and restorer from Barcelona, is working on a fifteenth-century Flemish painting called &quot;The Game of Chess&quot;, when she discovers a painted-over message reading &quot;Quis Necavit Equitem?&quot; (Latin for &quot;Who killed the knight?&quot;) Julia begins to research the painting&apos;s background to discover the meaning of this inscription, and discovers that it relates to a 500-year-old murder mystery. She realises that the solution to the mystery is connected to the chess game being played in the picture, and knowing little of the game herself recruits Domenec, a talented local chess player, to assist her. Julia and Domenec, however, realise that they are in danger, as several people connected with their research are also murdered.

The central mystery is an intriguing and ingenious one, and well developed, although I could spot the identity of the murderer well before this was announced on screen. There are no really outstanding acting performances, but the lovely Kate Beckinsale makes a charming heroine (although I could never work out why she sneezes so much). Kate is one of the few actresses who can get away with wearing her hair boyishly short and still look strikingly beautiful.

One criticism I have heard is that although the main characters are all supposed to be Spanish they all speak English without foreign accents. This, however, is not something which has ever worried me. The use of native British or American accents to represent foreigners&apos; use of their own native languages is something I find perfectly acceptable. Charlton Heston&apos;s El Cid, for example, was also a Spaniard, and nobody complains that he speaks English like an American rather than like Manuel in &quot;Fawlty Towers&quot;.

This is one of the few films to take an interest in chess and art history, two rather intellectual pursuits, and it does so in such a way as to make both those subjects seem interesting, even glamorous, featuring a romance between a beautiful young art historian and a handsome chess genius. It makes good use of its setting, with some wonderful views of the city of Barcelona, especially the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. (One of the characters lives in an apartment in Casa Batlló, and Julia and Domenec first meet in Park Güell).

Although this film was an Anglo-Spanish co-production, and stars a well-known English actress, it is curiously unknown in Britain. Although it is nearly twenty years since it was made, I have never seen it on television here, and it is available on DVD in the US but not in the UK. Yet it is, I think, a film which deserves to be better-known. 7/10

"Uncovered" is based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel "The Flanders Panel". Julia Darro, a young art historian and restorer from Barcelona, is working on a fifteenth-century Flemish painting called "The Game of Chess", when she discovers a painted-over message reading "Quis Necavit Equitem?" (Latin for "Who killed the knight?") Julia begins to research the painting's background to discover the meaning of this inscription, and discovers that it relates to a 500-year-old murder mystery. She realises that the solution to the mystery is connected to the chess game being played in the picture, and knowing little of the game herself recruits Domenec, a talented local chess player, to assist her. Julia and Domenec, however, realise that they are in danger, as several people connected with their research are also murdered.

The central mystery is an intriguing and ingenious one, and well developed, although I could spot the identity of the murderer well before this was announced on screen. There are no really outstanding acting performances, but the lovely Kate Beckinsale makes a charming heroine (although I could never work out why she sneezes so much). Kate is one of the few actresses who can get away with wearing her hair boyishly short and still look strikingly beautiful.

One criticism I have heard is that although the main characters are all supposed to be Spanish they all speak English without foreign accents. This, however, is not something which has ever worried me. The use of native British or American accents to represent foreigners' use of their own native languages is something I find perfectly acceptable. Charlton Heston's El Cid, for example, was also a Spaniard, and nobody complains that he speaks English like an American rather than like Manuel in "Fawlty Towers".

This is one of the few films to take an interest in chess and art history, two rather intellectual pursuits, and it does so in such a way as to make both those subjects seem interesting, even glamorous, featuring a romance between a beautiful young art historian and a handsome chess genius. It makes good use of its setting, with some wonderful views of the city of Barcelona, especially the architecture of Antoni Gaudi. (One of the characters lives in an apartment in Casa Batlló, and Julia and Domenec first meet in Park Güell).

Although this film was an Anglo-Spanish co-production, and stars a well-known English actress, it is curiously unknown in Britain. Although it is nearly twenty years since it was made, I have never seen it on television here, and it is available on DVD in the US but not in the UK. Yet it is, I think, a film which deserves to be better-known. 7/10

A woman finds a hidden message in a restored painting questioning a knight's death. When her friend is murdered investigating it, a chess game's moves in the painting link to killings from the past that she must solve.

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