:
Javier Camara,
Javier Camara,
Candela Peña,
more...
:
Pablo Berger,
Pablo Berger
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: First Run Features
: Foreign
: 91 min.
: Spanish
: English
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The sexual revolution meets a bumbling door-to-door salesman and his beautician wife in the form of "educational" sex films in this satiric comedy, set in Spain in 1973. Alfredo Lopez (Javier Cámara) is an encyclopedia salesman whose work has not been going especially well lately, which is worrisome to his wife, Carmen (Candela Peña), who is eager to have a baby. As it happens, encyclopedia sales have been dismal overall, and publisher Don Carlos (Juan Diego) strikes upon an idea for a more lucrative product line -- an "audiovisual encyclopedia of human reproduction," consisting of 8 mm movies demonstrating different ways for couples to make love. Don Carlos sets up a meeting between his sales staff and Dennis (Thomas Bo Larsen), a pornographer from Denmark who likes to tell people he once worked with Ingmar Bergman. While most of the salesmen refuse to have anything to do with Don Carlos' new scheme -- especially since pornography is strictly illegal under the Franco regime -- Alfredo grudgingly goes along, and despite initial misgivings Carmen is drafted to star in the first film in the series. As the films become an underground success in Spain and earns a more high-profile reputation in Denmark, Carmen is recognized in public as a glamorous porn star, and Alfredo deludes himself into believing he and Dennis are making art films. But Alfredo's ambitions get the better of him when he begins writing a screenplay for a serious feature film and Carmen becomes increasingly obsessed with having a child. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
"Pablo Berger's Torremolinos '73 is one of the funniest and slyest satires ever to come out of Spain," writes Sean Axmaker, who talks with the director about the political, cultural and sexual repression under Franco - and how his characters find ways to indulge ravenously anyway. Full Article >>
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| Sex without sin -- but with some sadness
by talltale
March 1, 2006 - 9:22 AM PST
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2 out of 3 members found this review helpful
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What an unusual comedy is TORREMOLINOS 73. Filmed in an utterly realistic manner (for much of its length, at least), it draws you in almost as would a documentary. The plot is there, and it's a good one, yet so real seem the two leads (Javier Camara & Candela Pena), so strong are their performances, that, although I have seen both actors many times previously, it was as though this was a first encounter.
While "T 73" is a movie in which sex and pornography (nothing hard-core) figure as prominently as almost any you'll see, there's nary a trace of shame or prurience in either the performances or the viewer. This is astonishing, I think, and something of a "first." The movie actually takes sex into a new realm, though in a different manner, as did the Spanish/Mexican movie "Compassionate Sex." The comedy here is so grounded and quiet that you may not laugh out loud until one particular scene arrives. In it, a fellow who makes porn films but who has cut his theoretical teeth on the work of Ingmar Bergman, creates his "masterpiece." Talk about hilarious.
Yet there is a sadness to this movie that I think outweighs its lovely, low-key comedy. And I wouldn't have it any other way. It deals with love and how to make a living under the Franco regime, after all, and while it is never overtly political, it scores points just the same. And I doubt that the "money shot," as the porno term goes, will ever again have quite the ramifications that it takes on here. According to the IMDB, writer/director Pablo Berger has made only this (plus a few short films) in his nearly 20-year career. If he never makes another, "Torremolinos 73" will stand as one-of-a-kind. Bonus: Ubiquitous Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen ("King Arthur," "The Green Butchers," "Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself") makes another of his always-interesting appearances. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.43)
14 Votes
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