Lucía y el sexo

Plot synopsis:
Lucía (Paz Vega), a waitress, is talking on the phone with her depressed writer boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa) after they had a nasty argument, where, afterward, she walked out. Since he's been in a 'funk' for a while, she's worried and goes home to console him. Finding an empty apartment, Lucía is frantic. She receives a phone call from the police while finding a suicide note, and is so afraid of bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst. They call back, but she ignores the ringing phone, packs a bag, and flees. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía travels to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked of, but had recently been very negative about.
Six years earlier: Lorenzo is having casual sex in the ocean, on a bright moon-lit night, with a beautiful married woman he just met named Elena. They part ways, expecting to never see each other again. She discovers she is pregnant with his child, and attempts to find him, but, not knowing much about him, is unable to.
Later, as Lorenzo talks with his literary agent at a restaurant, discussing his writer's block, Lucía catches his attention as he gets up from his table to get cigarettes. She asks to speak to him and he joins her. She brazenly tells him that ever since she read his latest book, she has been following him and has fallen passionately in love with him. A smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the sexy, passionate Lucía and she moves into Lorenzo's apartment.
The film then interweaves the past and present, of the characters in the film, and the characters in Lorenzo's novel.
Lorenzo repeatedly stalls for time on his new book with his editor, while his relationship with Lucía deepens. About six years pass. Lorenzo learns he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child at her school, meeting her babysitter Belén. Belén tells Lorenzo her mother is a recently retired porn actress with a new hot boyfriend, and virtually seduces Lorenzo with chatter of sexual context and banter about her fantasies. Lorenzo uses these encounters and his fantasies about Belén and her mother as content for his book, and Lucía reads about it, thinking it fiction. Meanwhile, he does not disclose his fatherhood to Lucía or the child, nor even attempt to contact Elena.
Belén flirts with Lorenzo and eventually invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits his daughter, Luna. Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to have sex. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family dog, a large Rotweiler in 'protect mode' kills Luna. Belén is stunned. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression.
Lorenzo's writing turns dark, towards depraved sex and death. He anonymously contacts Elena, who has moved to the island to find solace and recall better days, and provides her a nice story about a beautiful child that loves to swim in the sea, to cheer her spirits. But his now guilt-ridden and uncommunicative relationship with Lucía begins to collapse.
Back in the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos, and through him, Elena, who runs an inn on the island. Lucía rents a room, and the women bond as friends, not knowing their intimate connection. But when Lucía mentions Lorenzo by name, and his past visit to the island long ago, Elena deduces the connection. Lucía sees a picture of Luna (looking remarkably like her father and remembering the name from Lorenzo's novel) and she makes the connection too.
Lorenzo's editor visits Lorenzo in the hospital, where he was taken after being in an 'accident', spending several weeks in recovery. When Lorenzo asks about Lucía, the editor tells Lorenzo he thinks Lucía thinks he is dead. Lorenzo guesses Lucía is on the island and has the editor take him there. After both women discover that Lorenzo isn't dead, the three characters cope with and finally understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships.

Tags: psychedelic, flashback

Review:
The title, I believe, refers to Lorenzo's past (The Sex and what happened as a result of it), and his present (Lucia).
I would have given this film a 10 if it hadn't been for the fact that the most pivotal scene is shot in an incredibly vague manner, which left me confused as to what had actually happened until much later in the movie, but it is a brilliant and heartfelt experience nonetheless..
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 by the sex scenes, as it's already in the title.
People who consider this film just an excuse for depicting sex scenes as the highlight of the movie are pretty much clueless.
It is movies like this one that remind us that European cinema can scale the emotional dilemmas and mountains of a story where other films look at a storyline in terms of physical developments.
That way you can try an make things turn out better ("If you give me time", says Lorenzo, Lucia's boyfriend.) 	A more mature and rounded work than the Director's earlier "Lovers of the Arctic Circle", Sex and Lucia combines wonderful acting, a great story, innovative cinema and spine-tingly beautiful photography.
Ik know there's a lot of sex in it and yes, there are a lot of suspicious coincidences, but I looked past that.For starters, I loved the story, it wasn't boring at all, despite what some may say.
If you watch it attentively and past merely what you see, you will notice the subtlety of the characters and story.Last of all i would like to say that the English title (Sex and Lucia) is an abomination to the original title (Lucia y el Sexo).
The sexual scenery functions not only as entrance to the story; I think Medem really wanted to depict something like 'the ultimate sex' both as experience and as ultimate, divine ideal, something like Goethes 'eternal feminine.' As something to strive for, it can deeply affect our lives by giving it the splendour we need to keep it worthwhile, even if we fail.
In that case, we might see that in the end our stories come true as well, be it by breaking in in the middle.The question I asked myself after watching the movie for the third time was: where exactly is this 'middle' of it?
Exactly that scene is not shown - it's the hole in the middle, through which the old reality passes into the new.For me, this movie is a small masterpiece, which shows how film and literature can work together, and how more powerful ideas about ourselves are then the circumstances we are put into.
I think that despite it's flaws, this film shows a great vibrancy and energy.People talk a lot about the sex scenes.
I was disappointed, as I'd enjoyed Medem's previous film Los Amantes del Circulo Polar, where the passionate love story seemed a lot more genuine and the tragic ending seemed to fit better with the theme of fate playing with people's lives than Lucia y el sexo's tragic-to-happy contortions.
Their whole love story seems artificial from the inception, it seems there was too much work on the symbolism of their relationship - the tormented writer and storyteller, the reader and savior (Lucia as a ray of sunshine) - rather than on the real intensity of feeling between two people.
Good acting, superb job of photography, optimistic way of portraying the human being, an excellent movie!Don´t be shocked with the sex scenes, there´s  much more story around.
As Luna's fate in this movie both infects and cleanses Salvador, taking him through his past and present.Medem also likes to use nature to symbolize stages and feelings in his character's lives.
That was functionable in the story as the characters saturate themselves in it, leading to problems, but somehow to me it also felt unbalanced.Julio Medem has really made a beautiful film with Lucia y el sexo.
Every time I watch a film by Julio Medem, the same thing happens to me, and that is that I feel weightless and it feels like time is slower and the images have a different color.
With this film, it was no exception; the moment the credits appeared and I left the theater my feet felt like I was floating over the ground.This spanish auteur, has showed us throughout time, that he is able to wake up even the most hidden feelings from us and play with them as the pieces of the puzzles that are his movies are set together like in "vacas", "la ardilla roja" and most greatly in "los amantes del circulo polar".
What call my attention the most is that, I have the feeling that Medem tried to get away from his past with this story but ended up coming back to it, which is a great thing in the sense that the poetry and melancholy that is always present in his movies, are also part of this one.The main question regarding the film is, What does "Lucia y el sexo" mean?, what is the correlation between what happens and the actual ritual of sex?
To get an idea, you have to let yourself go along the images and surely you might find the answer at the end.One more thing, who wouldn´t fall in love with someone like Lucia?
As opposed to what some people may think, I believe that all the sex scenes, although they are pretty explicit, are totally necessary in order to tell the story and to show the characters just as they are.
If you don't mind seeing some, you may say, awkward sex scenes, and you're looking for a really great plot, with great dialogs full of symbolisms, and also excellent photography, then you're just gonna love this one..
The plot reminds of certain films by Almodovàr, but unfortunately Julio Medem is not Almodovàr.The sex disappears after one third of the story.
There are too much gratuitous sex scenes and exposure of genitals, inclusive of penises, and although Paz Vega is a delicious woman, I do not like this type of appellative exaggeration in a film.
I understand that the title of this movie mainly refer to periods of time, "Lucia" in the present days, sharing her life with Lorenzo, and "Sex" the consequences of his intercourse with an unknown woman six years ago.
Sex and Lucia (2001)A fascinating, moving, beautiful, sexy movie.
Because one of the main characters is also the writer's most devoted (and obsessed) reader, the fictional elements become true, or at least get blurred with the truth, and so what the viewer sees (poor depraved viewer at this point) is partial and suggestive and puzzling.Which is exactly why the movie is so good.
One small heads up for people who might need to know—there is a rather too-long section near the start with lots of frank and varied sex, and it drags a bit (and is too self-indulgent for the plot), but then the rest of the movie largely avoids it (not completely!).
But since you are an author and pretty good at that, hence familiar with shifting characters inside a narrative that shifts as they move, you know you have to write deeper than you can immediately make sense of: so you write your novel the ordinary way, a melodrama about love that hurts, but with one caveat: there's a hole at the end that takes you right back to some part in the middle.
Lucia falls in the hole, and comes out the other end as fragments of what we presume is a whole story, a whole life read one way through.
If I were to describe this movie in one word I would say "not good."  If I were to use two words, I would say "bad."  This movie has beautiful women and many sex scenes.
Granted, the movie can be hard to follow because of the vast amounts of symbolism and somewhat confusing story line, but it becomes very clear by the half-way point.
The movie twisted and turned so much that I found myself carefully paying attention to every little detail only to realize that when the film ended absolutely nothing was accomplished.
In my opinion this movie is like most of the European movies, love it or hate it, I guess some people just don't like explicit sexuality no matter how is it presented, in this case they will not be impressed bye the "sincerity" of the movie, anyway I am not supporting the standardization of the movies and I guess people from Spain can love or hate this movie as much as we can do the same, they are not obliged just because they live in Spain to love and support every Spanish movie, I loved the movie and I recommend everyone who considers the story interesting to watch it and to make themselves a personal opinion..
But it's a great film in the tradition of David Lynch, and it can be compared to "Mulholland Dr.".The action is good, but it's Julio Medems visual style that stands out, how he uses the camera and light to tell so much of the story, and the cutting of the movie is amazing.In my eyes Julio Medem is much greater than Pedro Almodovar, much because of the visual style, but also his ability to tell complex stories, like all his movies are.9/10.
I liked Julio Medem's "Vacas" and "Los amantes del círculo polar" very much (I have not seen "La ardilla roja" but I've been told it's good), but this time I found his movie so ridiculously pretentious and boring that I could not believe my ears (because my eyes were more or less fascinated by the vistas.) Maybe if I were a foreign language spectator, I would not notice the actors' mumbling as I read the subtitles, but this film even needs subtitles for a Spanish-speaking person like me.
Lorenzo the male character is very disturbed and there comes a point that you begin to feel "who cares?" when watching his story unfold.
I say this because the film was starting on tv with some scenes that i could see the movie was going to have lots of explicit sex scenes.
It is a heady film that feels like a lot of thinking has to be done by the viewer while having too much of that good wine, enjoying the sunset and reading a script upside down.
Another complex element of the film is the fine line between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction, and that's something else that draws the viewer in - what really happens in the story and what doesn't?
Firstly,poster of film and the title is so true and so misconcepting that if you willing to watch that movie because of that two,I'm sorry for you.Main actors and actresses are really good and carry the film with the most realistic and emotional way.All of them.Although script is compelling,with symbolism and flashbacks,it is obvious that it is well-written and don't lose it's affect till the end.And the most dense and strong instinct of human,sexuality is one of the most strongest,natural and witty equipment of film.It also makes film more from inside of normal life.And it symbolizes the affection of people and bonding.In short,It is one of the greatest film of Spanish Cinema with unique patterns..
This movie cannot be explained in words.It has to to be watched in order to grasp the love portrayed by the actors.Wonderful acting by each character.The story has an appealing factor which keeps you glued to your screens.The first and the last scene are incredibly matched at the end.The story line is rigid and moves in a river like flow.The sex is hot and there is are no hurdles in expressing the true love that the characters have for each other.The movies leaves you satisfied in every way.From the intensive love making to the raging crying scenes, this movie delivers in each and every way.This movie shows the honest feelings that one person has for the other.
The island on which the movie is made is a sight on its own.The lives of the characters are beautifully merged into one story.At one point the movie becomes more than sex it grows a successful story.The sex scenes are an additional perk,the sexy Spanish chicks and the intense and gratuitous sex scenes are merely to support the story.In this movie beauty is all around the way it was intended.The love in this movie is indescribable.In my opinion this movie delivers from the lust of boobs to the lust of an incredible story..
If, as writer and director Julio Medem is reported to say, sex plays a role in this film just as much as main characters Lucia or Lorenzo do, this role would be that of a stooge of sorts, always predictable in its sometimes grotesquely superlative ubiquity.
Since it is always there, as the air they breathe, sex never seems to exert any decisive influence either on the plot or on the psychological development of the characters - it just feeds lines to them.I must admit, though, that -to the best of my recollection- never so many explicit sex scenes were shown in a film without letting it slip into the realm of dull hard-core.
Enjoy -like I did- its strange beauty, the magic of the image treatment -and the incredible landscapes of Formentera's island- , a bunch of young actors in rapture -pay attention about Najwa Nimri in "Elena" role-  , and be tolerant with Julio Medem, better director and visual creator than writer, and one -if not the best- of the most original Spanish filmmakers..
A major disappointment from Medem, Sex and Lucia is an overlong and annoying art house film with a plot as flimsy as cappuccino froth.
The story starts as Lucía (Paz Vega) comes home to find her boyfriend, Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa), missing and possibly dead, due to what seems like a suicide note left for her to find.
I watched Sex and Lucia ten years ago and liked it a lot.
This movie was quite captivating and at first seems completely confusing because you think " okay what did this have to do with sex and Lucía" and they way I look at it is that the sex seems like an attention grabber.
This is such a good film with good-looking actors, beautiful actresses, good acting, splendid scenes, wonderful music, adventurous themes, creative imagination, interesting plot and many many more!!!
I watched this because I liked another Julio Medem film, Lovers of the Arctic Circle, so much.
I still prefer "Lovers," but Sex and Lucia is a good film.
Honestly, by the end of the film, I'd gotten over trying to make perfect sense of the plot (I was kind of assuming that the American release was heavily edited, but in reality only a couple of minutes of full frontal nudity were cut) and just enjoyed it for its beautiful images (shot digitally, which I think has its place) and all the hot, hot sex.
Yesterday,I rented Sex and Lucía and it was the first Julio Medem's film I saw.But,when I finished seeing his extraordinary film,I decided to look for Medem's previous films.The film is perfect and it tells a totally human and honest story,at the same time it challenges the spectator.I did not see much films with a story so well constructed like the one which tells this film.The screenplay,written by the director,is full of surprises but it does not look for big twists.The movie shows us the different pieces of a puzzle and the spectator needs to construct the puzzle.Another great thing this film has is that the conclusion is not definitive.The spectator has to take out conclusions.The emotions are very natural but they never manipulate the spectator.Sex and Lucía is an extraordinary,beautiful and complex film which challenges the spectator.I recommend this film a lot..
Once again, linking up the out-of-sequence scenes is not for those more intent on finishing off their pop-corn or wondering whether the boyfriend/girlfriend is going to hold her/his hand before the film gets too far on.Bringing together Paz Vega, Elena Anaya and Javier Cámara so that they would be ready for `Hable con Ella' (qv) and adding Najwa Nimri after her excellent results in `Los Amantes del Círculo Polar', Medem throws into the mix Tristán Ulloa and conjures up a horrifyingly painful story of glorious love and frenzied sex.
"Sex and Lucia" shifts perspective sofrequently and abruptly that, although the plot isn't difficult to follow,I felt like I was watching a whole different deal each time.
When I see this movie at Toronto Film Festival, there was a lot of concern about exhibiting to an American public not ready for such EXPLICIT SEX SCENES.
This film is not for everyone - like most foreign films - and by it's title, you can assume that there's a good chance that there's quite a bit of sexual content in it, so I'm not sure why anyone would criticize it for that.Anyway, this is by far one of the better films I've seen recently, and it's not really about sex, but about the relationship Lucia has with her boyfriend and the crisis he is going through.
Big deal; Paz is still absolutely gorgeous, and don't think I am not in love with Najwa Nimri too!Again, enough about me.The sex is the overcoating of the movie, but the storyline and plot are great as well.
Still, while most French, Italian and Spanish "foreign" films that make their way onto the American video shelves are packed with sex but with very little story.
I haven't timed it, but I guess that I'm not really exaggerating if I say that 30 to 40 % of the movie was made up by gratuitous sex scenes.The movie brings us the story of Lucía and Lorenzo.
When you look at the movie's title the Sex is just as important as the Lucia.