Another Movie Guide

Sex and Lucia (Luca y el Sexo)

Made in: Spain

Language: Spanish

Synopsis: Luca (Paz Vega) is a free-spirited waitress who’s trying to get over a bad breakup with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristn Ulloa), who’s a writer. When she hears that Lorenzo’s been in a car accident, she assumes he’s been killed.

Devastated, Luca takes a trip to the remote island off the Spanish mainland where she and Lorenzo used to go. While coming to terms with her loss and life, she meets Elena (Najwa Nimri), who runs a lodging house for visitors (kind of like a bed & breakfast).

The story then takes us back six years prior, and we learn about the intertwined histories of Luca, Lorenzo, and Elena, and the emotional entanglements that result. And while working on his latest novel, Lorenzo discovers that he’s the father of an illegitimate child.

As he later becomes intrigued with the child’s alluring nanny, Beln (Elena Anaya), Lorenzo’s real-life complications find themselves into his work and we’re treated to a complicated and often confusing tale of sex, romance, love triangles, jealousy…and cooking.

Remarks: At its core, Sex and Lucia is actually a pretty intriguing story with the blending of time, characters’ lives, fiction, and reality done in very creative ways. As it was with Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Los Amantes del Crculo Polar), Julio Medem once again makes a compelling drama about seriously dysfunctional people.

The coincidental, and seemingly impossible connections between characters, made me think of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive at times. But as confusing as it is, this mobius strip of a film somehow logically works itself out in the end. From a technical standpoint, the cinematography is great and the bright, stylized way that many of the exteriors are filmed g (more…)

I love telenovelas. There have been some fantastic ones that are like watching amazing movies, extended over a couple of months. There are a lot of stereotypes that telenovelas are unrealistic and overdramatic, and while it is true that there are a lot of them that are, they’re not all like that.

There are some amazing telenovelas that have captured the hearts of millions around the world, so much so that even Hollywood is taking notice. Yes, Hollywood is only noticing now in 2008, yet telenovelas have been around for more than 50 years.

El Clon was an amazing telenovela from Brazil that talked of the story of love between a Muslim girl from Morroco and a Brazilian man from Rio. Gitanas was about gypsies who traveled from Spain to Mexico. Betty La Fea, remade into Ugly Betty, was the story about a normal yet unattractive girl who finds love in the most unexpected person and place. Luz Maria was the best told historic telenovela ever, and it was from the Land of the Incas, Peru, and it did wonders in retaining the magic of the ancestors of Peru.

Telenovelas help us deal with our own troubles in life. When you’re surviving your own traumatic moments, watching a telenovela gives you hope for the future. It helps you connect to your inner being, and helps you to reconnect with that teenager that still lives inside of you that believes that true love is out there and waiting for you, and me, and for all of us. It reconnects us to the values and importance of family relations, and for those of us who feel lonely, it reminds us that we’re not.

Contributor to Telenovela Garden and Kapuso Starz TV Blog.