Huevos de oro (1993)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Bigas Luna

Writers:

Cuca Canals (writer)
Bigas Luna (writer)

Release Date:

18 February 1994 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Benito González works construction in Melilla and dreams big - of building the tallest building in Benidorm...

Plot Keywords:

Construction | Love | Tragic | Bitterness | Dance

Awards:

4 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Javier Bardem	...	Benito González
Maria de Medeiros	...	Marta (La mujer, 45 kilos)
Maribel Verdú	...	Claudia (La amante, 52 kilos)
Elisa Tovati	...	Rita (El primer amor, 47 kilos)
Raquel Bianca	...	Ana (La comehombres, ? kilos)
Alessandro Gassman	...	El amigo de Melilla
Benicio Del Toro	...	El amigo de Miami
Francesco Dominedò	...	El Mosca (as Francesco Mª Dominedo)
Albert Vidal	...	El suegro
Ángel de Andrés López	...	Gil - el de los garbanzos
Alicia Moro	...	La hija de Gil
Enric Cusí	...	El hombre de confianza
Francisco Casares	...	El productor (as Paco Casares)
María Martín	...	La mujer del productor
Thomas Lusht	...	El cachas americano

Also Known As:

Golden Balls
Macho
Uova d'oro (Italy)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Spain | Italy | France

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Singapore:(Banned) | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Italy:VM18 | South Korea:18 (cut) | Spain:18

Filming Locations:

Benidorm, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

Company:

Antena 3 Televisión

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Two Girls and a Guy (1997)

Soundtrack:

Didi

A filmic essay on vulgarity? Or what?

With some films it is really hard to tell for whom they were made. Huevos de oro seems to aim at the well educated Spanish middle class. There must be many inside jokes in this movie which you will not understand if you are an outsider. This can be pretty annoying.

Symbols and references to art and popular culture abound, the movie alludes to the work of Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel and the Surrealists in general, a certain infatuation with bidet baths seems to point to Duchamp's ready mades. What's more, the main character has also a knack for karaoke tapes with songs of Julio Iglesias. But why all this is mixed together in a rather pretty but also gratuitous way simply eludes me. I can only guess that it all serves to highlight the vital, impetuous, boorish vulgarity of the main character who the director seems to admire and despise at the same time. How all the really pretty women run after him (the main character, I mean) is slightly disconcerting.

The movie has three parts. It starts in the Spanish enclave of Melilla in Africa, where Benito, the main character, does his military service, apparently in the corps of engineers. Then it moves on to the resort town of Benidorm in Spanin where Benito just wants to build the highest skyscraper of the place and become a vulgarized Howard Roark. For the last part a defeated Benito moves to Miami, Florida, presumably in order to start a „new life". But the change of places is not really explained satisfactorily. It is also somehow irritating that there is no character development and that the movie descends into a soap opera modus without being convincingly ironic. It must be said that Javier Bardem acquits himself very well playing the young stud who grows limp and deflated.

I purchased this movie because I am interested in townscapes. And Benidorm is a kind of a special place, townscapewise. In this aspect Huevos de oro satisfied me only partially. In Jess Franco's She Killed In Ecstasy (1970) this specific location was used in a more rewarding way.