For Diego, death has become the ultimate aphrodisiac. Angel thinks of himself as daring, but he faints at the sight of blood and when he admits to Diego that he's a virgin, Diego suggests he may be homosexual. Fortunately for Eva, everything goes wrong. While stalking away from him, Eva slips and cuts her cheek and, true to form, Angel passes out. When Angel tries to turn himself in to the police the next day, Eva contemptuously relates what happened and refuses to press charges.
Movies are all they can measure themselves against because they've left ordinary life so far behind.
The plot zips along without waiting for us to catch up, but there's also a becalmed quality to the film, a perfect match for the tone of dark voluptuousness. Angel's mother, a member of the fanatical right-wing religious group Opus Dei, shows her devotion by tying a sharp metal garter around her leg to drive out impure thoughts, complaining all the while about the money she has to spend on nylons. Maria builds a shrine to Diego. And in one scene, we see a statue of Jesus with wooden rays of light emanating from its head that look like picas stuck in a bull. In a movie that celebrates hedonistic pleasure, the heroes have to be the ones who give themselves over most fully to their fantasies.