Friday, June 03, 2005

Las edades de Lulú


Bigas Luna: Las edades de Lulú (ES 1990) starring Francesca Neri.

Lulu.
    ES © 1990 Iberoamericana Films. P: Andrés Vicente Gómez.
    D: Bigas Luna. SC: Bigas Luna and Almudena Grandes – based on the novel of Almudena Grandes. DP: Fernando Arribas. PD: Miguel Chicharro. COST: Antonio Alvarado. ED: Pablo González del Amo. Sound: Daniel Goldstein, Ricardo Steimberg.
    Starring Francesca Neri (Lulú), Oscar Ladoire (Pablo), María Barranco (Ely), Fernando Guillén Cuervo (Marcelo), Javier Bardem (Jimmy).
    Long version 101 min
    A used print with good definition of colour without subtitles. Print check viewing at Orion, Helsinki, 3 June 2005.

A woman's sexual odyssey from the first experiences of the shy girl to the dangerous adventures of the grown-up woman. A veritable anthology of sexual experience in the modern world, done as explicitly as possible this side of hard-core pornography. Francesca Neri is very good as the title character of this daring film. In the end she gets to experiment with groups of gay men, and is caught in a trap to be tied up and raped in front of paying gangsters (?). This end is too predictable; why do all art films that deal sex themes honestly have to lead to tragedy? Dumb porn is closer to reality with its happy endings. Yet this is an interesting vision of a tornado of desire. The Wedekind reference is deserved.

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