Themes: Starting Over, Love Triangles, Writer's Life
Main Cast: Paz Vega, Tristan Ulloa, Najwa Nimri, Daniel Freire, Daniel Freire, Elena Anaya
Release Year: 2001
Country: ES
Run Time: 129 minutes
Plot
Following up on his 1998 art-house hit Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Julio Medem spins this audacious film about flesh and forgetting. Lucia (Paz Vega) is a young Madrid waitress who is devastated to hear of the death of her old flame Lorenzo (Tristan Ulloa). Hoping to flee her troubles, she seeks out a beautiful island paradise her dead lover often talked about. There she meets and befriends Carlos (Daniel Freyre) and Elena (Najwa Nimri) who are also refugees of personal tragedies. Unbeknownst to all of them, the three each have a connection to Lorenzo. Years previously, Elena had a spontaneous fling with Lorenzo on the same island on the beach. Nine months later, she bore his daughter, Luna (Silvia Llanos), but unable to raise a child on her own, she enlisted the help of a nurse, Belen (Elena Anaya). In attempting to reconnect with the child he never knew, Lorenzo had a passionate affair with Belen, one which caused her to neglect Luna, with tragic results. As Lucia slowly learns these details, she recalls the book Lorenzo was writing just before his death, and soon the lines between fact and fiction begin to slip away. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
A romantic and gorgeous film, Lucia Y El Sexo has a serpentine plot that viewers may not be able to keep up with. But it hardly matters as this film is a delight for the senses in every other way. There's plenty of sex served up hot and steamy, a beautiful island where Lucia strolls around naked, and luscious cinematography that focuses on both bodies and countryside. Lorenzo (Tristan Ulloa) is a less than successful novelist, but he has inspired one avid fan, Lucia (Paz Vega), and the scene where she meets him in a restaurant and immediately asks him to move in with her is a romantic knockout. Their relationship sours as Lorenzo discovers that he has a child from a one-night-fling a few years back. He tries to get close to the kid, which fuels his writing, and has an almost fling with his daughter's nanny. From there, the film features some improbable coincidences and a bit of sentimental mush, but this in no way takes away from this completely engaging work. Lucia Y El Sexo is a mature film about sex and relationships that is both thoughtful and very hot. ~ Adam Bregman, All Movie Guide
The film begins with Lucía (Paz Vega) at work as a waitress, talking on the phone with her depressed boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa). Worried, she goes home to console him. Finding an empty apartment, Lucía frantically looks for him. She finally receives a phone call from the police and finds a suicide note, but she is so afraid of the bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst has happened to Lorenzo. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía decides to travel to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked about.
The plot breaks to six years earlier. Lorenzo is having casual sex in the ocean with a woman named Elena (Najwa Nimri). They part ways, expecting to never see each other again. She becomes pregnant with his baby, so she ventures off to find him.
Lorenzo talks with his literary agent at a restaurant, discussing his writer's block. Lucía catches his attention as he gets up from his table. She tells him that ever since she read his latest book, she has been following him and has fallen passionately in love with him. A smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the sexy, passionate Lucia and they move in together at Lorenzo's apartment.
The film then continues interweaving past and present, people in real life and the characters in Lorenzo's novel.
As the past plays out, we see Lorenzo repeatedly stalling for time on his new book to his editor while his relationship with Lucia deepens. Lorenzo learns that he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child at her school while meeting her babysitter Belén (Elena Anaya). Lorenzo uses his new encounters as content for his book. Belén flirts with Lorenzo and invites him over Elena's house while she babysits the daughter, Luna (Silvia Llanos). Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to make love. However, they are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family dog kills her. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression. All the while, he writes about his new experiences with Belén. Lucía reads it, thinking it is fiction.
Reaction
The film soon became an international success, winning Vega a Goya Award for Best Female Newcomer. The cinematography is by Kiko de la Rica, and the score by Alberto Iglesias.
