The Amantes - Movie Review Example

Amantes is a story about intense passion and intense female sexuality entangled in an unconventional and complicated love triangle. Unlike the usual male domination on women and sex, this movie depicts the female domination on man and sexual intercourse. Unlike normal society's image of woman as submissive helpless creatures always yielding to male's desires and demands, this movie is a story of reversed roles. In this movie, one male is the object of two female's passions and often confused, submitting to the desires of his female counterparts. This is a story about a young man, Paco (Jorge Sanz) who is leaving his military job for a steady one so that he can marry his fiance Trini( Maribel Verd). Trini is not only beautiful but also possess decent amounts of money to enable her to settle down with her fiance. However, she wants her fiance to find a decent job before they both can marry. She recommends her fiance to take an apartment on rent from a widow named Luisa (Victoria Abril)("Amantes") Apparently, Luisa appears to be a harmless, pretty widow who supports herself with the income she earns from the rents. However, Luisa is more than that. She has not only killed her own husband, about which she tells Paco later, but also is involved in swindles with the underworld mafia. ( Mrquez) She soon seduces Paco by her beauty and sensual manners. Paco, whose fiance has refused to indulge in sexual intercourse before their marriage, desperately and quickly gives into Luisa's seductive manners. On the other hand, Paco's abortive searches for a job hasten his decision to yield to Luisa's offer. And this way, Paco not only starts sharing her house but also her bed. On the other hand, Trini starts to sense change in the behavior of Paco. Paco doesn't seem to be interested in meeting her anymore and doesn't contact her for many days. For Paco, the world has suddenly changed. From a world that appeared hopeless, gloomy, bleak and dry, suddenly has started offering him with new, exciting and erotic surprises everyday. And Luisa's passion, experience, domination during sex adds to the spices of these sexual encounters. Luisa is not only experienced, she is passionate and possessive making Paco feel extremely wanted and valuable. Trini who is desperate to win her lover back asks a commander's wife for her advice. She tells her that the only way to bring him back is to offer him what Luisa had offered and what she had refused to-her body. Determined to win Paco back, she visits him at Luisa's house and offers herself to him as soon as Luisa leaves her place leaving behind her belongings so that widow does come to know what has happened behind her back. Paco surprised and happy by Trini's offer initially, returns to Trini and together they both visit her mother's house in a nearby village. However, the offer doesn't seem to have lasting effects on Paco's heart and soon he starts missing Luisa's passion, experience, care and love. Confused and trapped in the love of two women, Paco decides to live a dual love life, satisfying them both sexually and emotionally. However, Luisa's own double life complicates things further. She owns money to underworld members who would kill her and her lover in case she refuses or is unable to pay back their money. They suggest her to exploit Trini and use her savings to pay them back. Luisa informs Paco of the threats and suggests him that he marries Trini, steals her money and then runs away with her. Though Paco doesn't feels that he loves Trini as much as before, he doesn't still wants to betray and exploit her this way. But still, with much persuasion, Luisa is able to convince Paco to follow her plan. ("Amantes") According to the plan, Paco proposes Trini and they both leave Madrid for a small city Aranda del Duero where they are to get married. Luisa, follows them as she doubts Paco's intentions and determination to go with her plan. One night at the hotel, while Trini is asleep, Paco steals her money and give them to Luisa. However, unlike the plan, Paco refuses to run away with her and returns to Trini to confess to her of his cheating. Too late as Trini discovers the whole plan before he returns and is stricken with pain of betrayal and doomed love. On his arrival at the hotel room, Paco finds Trini with his razor. Though he is able to stop her from cutting her wrist, on time, she continues to beg him to kill her as she cannot live with this pain anymore. Later, outside the catherdal, she begs him again and this time Paco kills her. Then he runs to the train to stop Luisa from returning to her place. Pressing his blood-soaked hands against the window, she realises that he has followed her plan, has killed Trini and has returned to her. Happily, they both run away only to caught after three days after which they never saw each other again. This is a story that glaringly speaks of the destructive powers and capacity of untamed and uncontrolled passion. While passion is needed for success in any venture, uncontrolled passion thwarts and destroys the very goal one aims for. This movie shows the dark side of desire and love. Though love is a beautiful emotion, however mixed with extreme passion, intense sex and underworld-leads to an destructive and tragic end. However, one of factors that makes this movie a huge success is its rare and unconventional depiction of women. Usually, women are shown as sex toys in the movies, however here Paco, a male becomes the object of sexual satisfaction of two women. The two women, Luisa and Trini are involved in an aggressive struggle to win the heart of man. Both these women are very aggressive and ambitious and may just do anything to win a man, even give up their bodies and kill each other. Unlike the usual steretypical image of women as humans of mild temperament, here both women are highly passionate ,aggressive and determined to win Paco for themselves. Thus, Paco is not only the object of their affection, but also a trophy to win and to prove one woman's superiority over the other. And it is the male here who is confused , bewildered and indecisive as to which woman to opt for. But Vicenta Aranda, the director makes sure he doesn't forgets to depict the softer side of women. These both women are loyal, sincere, vulnerable, sensual and simply beautiful. In fact it is their dependence arising from extreme loyalty and sensitivities, that make them so aggressive and passionate that they can go to any extreme-ones gives up her virginity and other plans and succeeds in killing her rival. One novelty in the movie was the explicity of sexual scenes and above all, the female domination in such scenes. One scene that blatantly shows this, is one in which Lusia penetrates in Paco 's anus with the help of a hankerchief and withdraws it at the point he is about to reach his orgasm. This leaves Paco helpless and desperately wanting her to satisfy him. This scene give immense power to the message of female sexuality. It fills the missing void that results from usual love triangles. This is what the director, Aranda Vicenta has to say about the scene: told the actors that I felt something was lacking and that we needed something more explicit, a novelty. I opened a kind of contest and each one gave different options. Jorge Sanz came out with the idea of the handkerchief. The production was successful team collaboration. From the beginning at the preparation of the film, there was a spirit of team collaboration, something very positive that made our work fun. I don't know why, but we all knew we were making a film that was going to be important.("Amantes") Set in the background of 1950s, the time when Spain was going through transitions and social changes. It resulted in a polarised Spain with one end holding tight to old traditions and Christain values and the other giving up all in the name of freedom, sexual independence and liberal thinking. Trini is the symbol of " old" Spain who still beliefs in Christain values of maintaining virginity before marriage, frugal living , complete devotion and loyalty to one's partner etc. On the other hand, Luisa symbolises the new industrial age of Spain. She is a free spirit, independent and selfish. She purely lives her life on her demands and pursues her desires. She has even killed her husband, and feels no remorse for that. She doesn't even mind supporting herself with money earned through illegal means and feels no guilt for scheming for another murder, only to win her love. This all shows the dark side of industralisation. . However, both females are strong, determined and holding tight to one's values. The murder of Trini indicates the death of Christain values and murder of old Spain by the new one.("Amantes") And rather then two becomes slaves to one male, they both forces Paco to give into their seduction and to kill one on the suggestion of another. And although its Paco who kills Trini eventually, but only on the request of Trini herself. This shows that she is one who follows her own mind and heart, whether that was right or wrong is debatable, but it shows that she was only a slave of her own thoughts and feelings. This shows the power of women and reveals the weakness of men. Thus this movie, besides having themes of love ,sex , passion and underworld, brings forth a new unconventional image of women - strong and sinster. It defies the old stereotypcial images of women as morally upright, mild, helpless, submissive and sexually unexpressive and undemanding. Another Spanish movie that gives an unusual picture of women and their roles is " Jamon, Jamon" first released in 1992. It won a number of awards in Spain. The movie revolves around sex, food and weird use of animal images. The movie is about is set up in a small provincial town with a landmark billboard that shows a bull with a pair of cajones on it, probably a mocking statement on exaggerated masculinity in our societies. The story is about a girl named Silvia ( the role played by Penelope Cruz) who is proposed by her boyfriend Jose Luis(Juan Diego) for marriage as soon as divulges to him about her pregancy. Jose Luis's family is the richest family in town and own an underwear factory. On the other hand Silvia , a worker at one of their stores , is the daughter of Carmen who owns the local brothrel.(Ebert) When Carmen hears the news, she is happy. However when Jose Luis 's mother Concita discovers about this engagement, she is enraged and determined to free her son from this arrangement that doesnt seem appropriate according to their class and status. Concita , then, hires Raul to seduce Silvia and divert her attention from her son to him. Raul works in a local ham factory and also models underwears made at Concita's factory. Concita believes that he is attractive enough as he looks good in their underwear modelling and will be able to tempt Silvia away from Jose. Raul's role is again is a mockery of general masculinity. He is all muscles and no brains. (Berardinelli)(Kempley) The twist comes up when Concita herself gets involved with Raul and steamy affair starts. On the other hand, Jose Luis is not a very sincere lover. He has been a frequent client of his fiancee's mother. However, her mother warns him that any serious commitment with her daughter will bring their relationship to an end. He still begs her for one last night of sexual pleasure, to which she agrees. The way these two mothers plays a rather unconventional roles, an aberration from the usual image of mothers-a woman of high character and embodiment of all good values and decency. Usually, the mothers are symbols of self-sacfrice, sacfricing everything for their children. However, here mothers play a different role. They give their own sexual needs, a priority over values and their children and feel no shame in pursuing indecent ways in satisfying their needs. We see further mockery of male's prowess as Raul and his friend, both naked, decides to a bullfight in the middle of the night. (Ebert) This movie is filled with sexual intercousre between Concita and Raul, Jose Luis and Carmen and to the end, even Silvia makes love to Jose's father. In the end, the whole plan falls into pieces and Concita ends up with Raul , Jose with Carmen and Silvia with Jose luis's father. Thus the entire movie revolves around ham, garlic, omelets, ridiculous masculinity, bold femininity and swapping partners. Though it is a sexual comedy filled with scenes of extreme eroticism and ridiculous absurdity. The use of food items further adds to the uselessness of the movie. And though the movie has no serious message to convey, it does makes strong mockery of masculinity and sends out strong messages of female sexuality. Bibliography: 1) "Amantes." Wikipedia. 15 Apr 2007 . 2) Marquez, Manuel. "Lovers (1991) of Vicenta Aranda." ElCrition 15 April 2007 . 3) Berardinelli , James. "Jamon,Jamon." Reelviews 15 April 2007 . 4) Ebert, Roger. "Jamon,Jamon." Suntimes 11 Feburary 1994 15 April 2007 . 5) Kempley, Rita. "Jamon,Jamon(NR)." Washington Post 23 October 1993 15 April 2007 . Read More