Sex and Lucía

Lucía y el sexo
a film by Julio Medem

Lucía is a young waitress in a restaurant in the centre of Madrid. After the loss of her long-time boyfriend, a writer, she seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island. There, bathed in an atmosphere of fresh air and dazzling sun, Lucía begins to discover the dark corners of her past relationship, as if they were forbidden passages of a novel which the author now, from afar, allows her to read.

The film opens with Lucía at work, talking on the phone with her depressed boyfriend Lorenzo. Worried, she goes home to console him and finding an empty apartment, Lucía frantically searches for him. She then 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 story shifts to six years before, when Lorenzo and a woman named Elena, without even knowing each other's name, have a magnificent sexual encounter in the ocean one night under a full moon. They part ways, expecting never to see each other again but Elena conceives his child and gives birth to a daughter who is raised without a father.

Lorenzo talks with Pepe, 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 novel, she has been following him and has fallen desperately in love with him. A very surprised yet smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the beautiful, passionate Lucía and they begin their relationship, living together in Lorenzo's apartment.

The film then continues interweaving past and present, people in real life and the characters in Lorenzo's novel. In the past, we see Lorenzo repeatedly stalling for time on his new book with his editor while his relationship with Lucía deepens. Lorenzo learns from Pepe 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. Lorenzo uses his new encounters as content for his book. Belén flirts with Lorenzo and invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits the daughter, Luna. Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to make love. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family's dog attacks and kills the child. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression. As he writes about his new experiences with Belén, Lucía reads it, believing it to be fiction.

In the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos, and through him, Elena, who runs a guest house there whilst trying to come to terms with the grief of losing her daughter. Elena invites Lucía to rent a room at the guest house. As the past is gradually revealed, each has to cope with its devastating significance in the present and understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships.

Featuring a circular narrative with repeated visual metaphors, it is a complex, passionate and beautiful love story, told in the style of magical realism. Revolving around the hidden connections within relationships, the film explores the interplay of reality and imagination, cause and effect, and how our past and present lives unknowingly intersect.

Room in Rome

Habitación en Roma
a film by Julio Medem

In a hotel room in the centre of Rome two young women, who have just met, go on a physical journey which will touch their very souls. Before they leave to go back to their respective lands, Spanish Alba and Russian Natasha embark on an unforgettable one-night stand.

Alba and Natasha have just met at a club. As they walk together through the streets Alba invites Natasha to her hotel room for what seems merely a harmless sexual adventure crowning their last night in Rome. Natasha is at first reluctant and politely refuses the invitation, insisting that she is not a lesbian and that she likes men. Shocked by her own attraction towards Alba, yet intrigued by the idea of being seduced by her, Natasha feels excitement at this unexpected liaison. Gently, yet persistently, Alba encourages Natasha to allow herself to experience these feelings.

Guarded at first, they engage in games of fabricated identity, telling each other histories where the teller is actually the other character in the story, only gradually peeling off the layers of fantasy to reveal the often tragic secrets that have made them who they are. As the night progresses, through stories, memories and interaction with artworks in the room, the two experience a profound emotional connection, descending ever more into perilous depths of truth and honesty as their trust grows. As they reveal more about themselves their relationship also grows, becoming something far deeper and both women begin to realise they are falling in love.

As the new day dawns each has to confront the fact that they have agreed to part ways, to return to their previous lives in Russia and Spain. Natasha is shortly to marry her fiancé after a long engagement; Alba has been in a relationship for two years with her partner Edurne and her young daughter. Both women have now to decide where their hearts and commitments lie, and both know that the choice will be final, with no chance of going back.

For Natasha, the night has brought possibilities that she never thought existed but she knows that beyond the four walls of their room, their relationship must remain a secret, a memory. For Alba, their moments shared have been like nothing else she has ever experienced and even as it pains her deeply, she accepts she must let Natasha go. After delaying the moment of parting for as long as possible, when the time comes they attempt an unemotional goodbye. But is it possible in these final moments to find the courage to act upon one's feelings and to follow your heart? Alba is in little doubt that she can, but she knows that if they are to have a future together the decision must ultimately rest with Natasha.

A tender portrayal of love and sensuality, exploring different facets of the personalities of the characters, their openness to new experiences and willingness to confront and embrace their personal truths. The atmospheric camera work incorporates visual elements of the room's surroundings, decoration and artwork into the story, and the highly evocative soundtrack features an original score by Jocelyn Pook.

Vagabond

Sans toit ni loi
a film by Agnès Varda

An effecting and tragic story of a fiercely independent young drifter. Through her encounters with various people that she meets on her travels across an inhospitably wintry France, Mona Bergeron is revealed to be an enigmatic, complex and difficult character. The film observes several weeks in her life with a thoughtful, uncritical eye, producing a splintered portrait of a courageous woman who has chosen liberation from the conformity of a conventional society.

The film opens with the image of a frozen, contorted body of a young woman lying dead in a ditch. From the point of view of an unseen and unheard interviewer, we then meet the last men and women to have seen her and briefly known her – the people whose lives she had touched. Each gives an account of their meeting with Mona and their impressions of her, and in doing so they reveal much about themselves.

We see Mona at the roadside, avoiding the police and hitching rides. Along her journey she meets and takes up with other homeless drifters, a Tunisian vineyard worker, a family of goat farmers, an academic researching diseased plane trees, and a housekeeper who envies what she perceives to be a beautiful and passionate lifestyle. During one conversation Mona explains that at one time she worked as a secretary with skills in English and shorthand, but becoming unsettled with the way she was living, chose instead to wander the country, free from any responsibility, picking up what work she could to survive.

With each encounter Mona has with another person, whether they want to help her out of compassion or interest, or simply to use her for their own purposes, she takes from them what she can and when they have nothing more to offer she moves on, leaving each with just confused memories. Ironically, seeking independence and total freedom as a wanderer, forces her dependence on others and on the system she tries so desperately to reject.

The goat farmer is possibly the person who best understands Mona, initially seeing her as a kindred spirit although one who has clearly lost her way. After getting his master's degree in philosophy he chose to drop out of conventional society to create a sustainable back-to-the-land lifestyle with his wife, rearing goats and growing produce. Whilst he may share some of Mona's sentiments he is critical of her lack of direction and motivation. When she casually mentions that she would like to grow potatoes he offers her part of his land but it soon becomes evident that she has no interest in sharing his particular alternative lifestyle. "She blew in like the wind. No plans, no goals, no wishes, no wants. We suggested things to her. She didn't want to do a thing. By proving she's useless, she helps a system she rejects. It's not wandering, it's withering."

In knowing her fate from the beginning of the story, we can observe Mona's initial strengths, determination and courage; her progressive physical deterioration; the sheer fragility of her day-to-day existence; and finally that her survival has become reduced to "only a matter of time". Spending her last hours drenched to the skin, hungry and wrapped only in an old blanket in sub-zero temperatures, Mona crosses a field, trips on a pipeline and falling into the ditch from where she is unable to move, dies alone from exposure.

A subtle and disturbing portrait of alienation and lost direction, this award-winning, lyrical and resonant masterpiece from 1985 features starkly beautiful photography and a stunning central performance from Sandrine Bonnaire.