8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
Lucía is a waitress who lives and works in Madrid. After what she believes to be the loss of her boyfriend, tortured writer Lorenzo, she flees to a secluded island that he had often told her about. There she meets Carlos and Elena, who have also run away to the island to escape personal tragedy. Unbeknownst to them, all have connections to Lorenzo. Elena met him many years ago on the island and enjoyed beautiful, anonymous love-making with him in the sea by the light of a full-moon. 9 months later, Elena gave birth to Luna, but never managed to find Lorenzo. Carlos was the step-father of Belén, who disappeared after she unwittingly caused the death of Luna. As she hears more about the past of her two new housemates, Lucía is reminded of the book Lorenzo was writing, a tale about a journey into a dark, deep past that brought on his depression. Soon, the lines between fact and fiction begin to fall apart.
Starring: Paz Vega, Tristán Ulloa, Najwa Nimri, Daniel Freire, Elena AnayaErotic | 100% |
Romance | 80% |
Foreign | 14% |
Drama | 8% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: LPCM 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Sexual passion and rationality mix like oil and water, so it’s little wonder that wild, abandoned, throw caution to the wind sexual activity rarely makes “sense,” in the traditional, buttoned-down meaning of the word. That’s a very good thing as far as Sex and Lucía goes, a film that combines a largely impenetrable plot with lots of penetrating (so to speak) sex. Spanish writer-director Julio Medem caused a worldwide sensation with this film, which didn’t just depict a lot (as in a lot) of sex, it had no problem showing both women and men fully nude, with some of the men in full states of arousal. His refusal to cut (or even trim) some scenes led to the film going out unrated. That of course created a buzz on its own, which some jaded observers may think may have been part of the marketing plan all along. One way or the other, indie house Palm Pictures reaped the rewards, as Sex and Lucía became their biggest grossing foreign film to date. The film also swept away Spanish audiences and it reaped a bevy of Goya nominations (the Spanish version of the Oscar), taking home several, including one for star Paz Vega as Best Newcomer. (No pun intended on the “coming” part). Sex and Lucía is an undeniably lush and luscious fantasy laden film that exults in the same sort of incredibly labyrinthine cross-connections that made television’s Lost both so intriguing and occasionally maddening, as a group of supposedly disparate characters discover they’re all linked. While the film is easy to watch (especially for those with a more prurient interest in the nudity and sex than the actual often confusing storyline), it defies easy explication or, indeed, analysis, which, like sending it out unrated, may have been part and parcel of Medem’s plan all along.
Paz Vega
As mentioned above, Medem shot Sex and Lucía on digital video, but the director didn't stop there. This is a film literally filled to the brim with post-processing, including everything from extremely low contrast overly grainy footage, to weirdly filtered shots (especially on the island Lucía visits, where things are blanched, leaving things virtually colorless save for the ghost white sand and vaguely green trees), to extremely high contrast shots that push whites to near blooming levels. So giving a score to this AVC encoded 1080p image (in 2.35:1) becomes a bit of a challenge. I never saw the film theatrically, but I'm fairly sure this Blu-ray perfectly recreates the look and feel of the original theatrical presentation. That said, some of Medem's choices here are at least questionable. When contrast is pushed to the point where the image can't be clearly seen, what's the point? The good news is, large swaths of the film, while having bizarrely filtered color, are extremely sharp with excellent detail. Some of the island scenes are incredibly gorgeous, with amazing depth of field.
This isn't a film that screams out for a stunning lossless surround mix, but the original Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 does quite nicely for the film. I was surprised by the relative dearth of ambient surround activity in the film, but that really isn't a complaint. The island scenes, especially those next to the ocean, are awash (no pun intended) with water sounds. Directionality, while subtle, comes into play repeatedly throughout the film in such relatively minor things as the sound of a motor which pans nicely as the car moves across the screen. Dialogue is very clean, and the Goya winning score by Alberto Iglesias is very well mixed into the soundfield. There are some interesting, and quite subtle, uses of fairly low amplitude LFE throughout the film that up the tension considerably in a somewhat subliminal manner.
Sex and Lucía's supplements include:
If you're interested in Sex and Lucía only for its sex scenes, you might come away from this film woefully disappointed. There is certainly some steamy sex in the film, but the prurient interest here is negligible. While the film rarely makes much sense, it's buoyed by Vega's luminous star power and an overall dreamlike quality that makes even the illogical seem relatively reasonable. Recommended.
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