Wonderful Movie

One of my all time favorites.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Blistering performances.

This is a French film directed by the Spanish director Bigas Luna, who has done a very good job with a difficult and ambiguous subject, which alternates between reality and fantasy so often that it is like a shuttle service. One really does not know from one scene to the next whether something is really happening or is being imagined. That is a tightrope, but Luna does not fall off. In this, he is assisted by the dreamy performances of Olivier Martinez (half French, half Spanish-Moroccan) and the well known Spanish actress Aitana Sanchez-Gijon. Both of them keep us wondering all the way. The only solid earthy figure is Romane Bohringer, being as Anna Magnani-like as possible, a young earth mother, but still an earth mother. There is lots of passion, it's all over the place. Sometimes it is real, sometimes it is fantasy. One never knows for sure about some of it. When Martinez is telling his stories, his quiet, introspective but commanding presence effects us as much as it does his audiences in the film. Romane gets a bit carried away by the myth of the chambermaid and wishes to become the chambermaid, wishes to be sprayed in champagne. The chambermaid was not listed amongst the survivors of the Titanic, so this creates a story steeped in tragedy. People like tragic passion best, because it is unattainable by definition, and can never disappoint. Or can it? Perhaps things are not entirely as they seem in more ways than one in this story. This film shows clearly how love and sensuality thrive in the hothouse of ambivalence and ambiguity: does someone really exist? Do they feel love too? Is the love simulated? Can any passion be trusted? Ultimately, it comes down to this: is reality even real?

Another viewing of this film recently simply left me where I was before: there is something about Bigas Luna which escapes me, or just simply irritates me. Whereas any viewing of Aitana Sánchez-Gijón evidently has its pluses, inasfar as anything else related to the story being told, I think I would rather make do with the pages of Didier Decoin.Having already waded through the insufferable `Las Edades de Lulú' (qv), `La Teta y La Luna' (definitely no qv), the trivial and frivolous `Bámbola' (qv), and the overstated and over-coloured `Volavérunt' (qv), I think I can only be glad that, thus far, I have missed out on `Jamón, Jamón' or `Los Huevos de Oro', among others, without being unfortunate enough to have missed out on anything. But the irritating thing is that Bigas Luna is a genius. Maybe not in the sense of getting the best acting interpretations – he doesn't – but certainly in all other techniques involved in making a film, especially in scene-setting for yesteryear and even longer ago. This is evidently apparent in `La Femme de Chambre du Titanic' and `Volavérunt', in which the Italian Franca Squarciapino is clearly one of the best specialists in the matter: the period costumes are superb in both films. I see on IMDb that she had plenty of schooling back in the 1980s with operatic productions.So I patiently sit here awaiting the next Bigas Luna – more or less anticipating what it will be, because I am definitely in no rush for it, and will not even be sorry if it goes by without my catching on. But if it does turn up, you can be sure I shall be watching: there is something fascinating about a man whose films do not exactly end up being very appetising fare but which show such remarkable cinematographic talent.

I love this film; it dares to let the audience be soaked in wonderfully melodramatic and lustfully vulgar scenes. Feelings and drama make the film rattle, and when, in addition to this, the humor is so frequent, this film can't fail. It is erotic, wonderful, lovely. Ace.

Forget James Cameron's over-done shallow film based on the same genre, this is the film that you should see. The story told is very moving and is one of the year's best films.