Sex and Lucia (2001)
"Lucía y el sexo" (original title)

Various lives converge on an isolated island, all connected by an author whose novel has become inextricably entwined with his own life.

Director:

Julio Medem

Writer:

Julio Medem

Stars:

Paz Vega, Tristán Ulloa, Najwa Nimri

9 wins & 17 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Paz Vega	...	Lucía
Tristán Ulloa	...	Lorenzo
Najwa Nimri	...	Elena
Daniel Freire	...	Carlos / Antonio
Elena Anaya	...	Belén
Silvia Llanos	...	Luna
Diana Suárez	...	Madre de Belén
Javier Cámara	...	Pepe
Juan Fernández	...	Jefe
Charo Zapardiel	...	Comadrona
María Álvarez	...	Enfermera (as María Alvarez)
Javier Coromina	...	Camarero Chiringuito (as Javier Corominas)
Arsenio León	...	Futbolista
Alesandra Alvarez	...	Luna 1 año
David Bulnes	...	Actor porno

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

island | love | novel | writer | waitress | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexual content and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [es] trailer, clips, info, music (Spanish) Palm Pictures [us]

Country:

Spain France

Language:

Spanish English

Release Date:

24 August 2001 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Sex and Lucia

Filming Locations:

Formentera, Balearic Islands, Spain

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$47,591 (USA) (12 July 2002)

Gross:

$1,490,177 (USA) (25 October 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alicia Produce, Canal+ España, Sociedad General de Cine (SOGECINE) S.A.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie is divided in two chapters: "Lucía" and "El Sexo" which gives its title to the movie.

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Quotes

Carlos: This really isn't an island.
Lucía: It isn't?
Carlos: It's a giant lid. A floating piece of earth. Like a raft.
Lucía: But it isn't moving.
Carlos: People get dizzy here during high tide. And no one knows why.
Lucía: Except you.
Carlos: I've dived underneath the whole island. It's totally hollow. Thousands of caves, but nothing else. Not a single rock connects it to the sea floor.

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Crazy Credits

Credits scroll in the opposite direction.

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Connections

Referenced in Cuestión de sexo: Gonzalo y el sexo (2008)

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Soundtracks

"Give Me the Seventies"
Performed by Carlos Jean (as Jean)
(Carlos Jean (as Carlos Jean Arriaga))
(c) Warner Chappell Music Spain, S.A. / Pizza Pop, S.L.
Por cortesía de Subterfuge Records, S.L.

User Reviews

Meta-story and story

This is one of the better structured movies ever put to screen. It's as complex as Lynch's Lost Highway, but that only adds to the experience. A non-linear structure (in time and space) is applied and Lucia y el Sexo blurs the line between reality and imagination.

Basically, it's like Mulholland Drive: Most of what we see is a dream, imagination. Only a relatively small part did really happen. But this goes one step further: What part is in the eye of the beholder here, because little clues are given so the mystery format is only used to keep us entertained at a basic level.

A writer is the center here. Some parts of his life are probably true (trouble at home, sickness), others are ambiguous, others are certainly imagined. He is in the meta-story, but also places himself in threads in the other stories that come from his imagination. His imagination is formed by applying smaller and larger events (meeting a person at a party, seeing someone in front of the house) in his personal life to his fantasies. His erotic fantasies explain the title, as sex is one of the characters of the story. One of the story lines is again about his script read on the island by one of his imagined characters. Writing the story and telling the story is done simultaneously. As he becomes sick, the characters become helpless in the story. Overall it helps a lot if you keep imagining that you're watching imagined characters being manipulated by the writer. This combines meta-story and story, real with imagination, weaving several threads in a complicated web of story lines. In the end, it is made clear that the story doesn't end but starts again halfway, giving further evidence that viewers can use their imagination at random on this and create their own story out of it.

The meta-story is interesting, but by mixing it with the story itself we see the real story as what it is, a writing trick with imagined characters. That unfortunately diminishes the emotions a movie tries to convey. We're merely watching how a movie is structured, with the imagined story not having the usual dramatic impact.

It's remarkable that so many people are offended about the sex scenes, as it's already in the title. Do they also complain about the presence of aliens in Alien? I found the sex scenes to be made with some honesty; and at least they didn't even shy away of male nudity.