Torremolinos 73 (2003)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

As Good As It Gets

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

An encyclopedia salesman gets a camera and convinces his wife to make pornographic films as a means to make a quick buck. However, the man has aspirations of becoming Ingmar Bergman and the woman desires a child. It's a mildly amusing Spanish comedy, well acted by Camera as the angst-ridden and insecure husband and Pena as his plain but naughty wife. The title comes from the film within the film that Camera makes, a pretentious opus inspired by Bergman's "The Seventh Seal." Although released in 2003, the setting is the 1970s and the cheesy 1970s porno flick look of the film is probably intentional on the part of director Berger.

I found this to be a captivating and entertaining movie - great pains were taken to reproduce that 70's look and feel and it is totally convincing. While seemingly limited in their ambitions, the main characters are nevertheless sympathetic and there are some quirky sidekicks whose characters are fleshed out enough to be entertaining as well - everyone from the landlady, the boss, to the friend who drives. I also found myself seriously enjoying the director's X-rated version of an Ingmar Bergman film over the actual film it self. The woman doesn't have much ambition aside from being "womanly" but it is based on a true incident and hey it was the 70's in Spain.

I think everyone is being a tad harsh on this film, there is no way they could have kept the pace of the first half of the film up it would have been exhausting.Seeing this film in a packed cinema @ cornerhouse certainly helped, seen Candela Pena in two films recently she shines in both.As for the second half of the film & the transition from comedy to drama the laughs didn't dry up they just were a bit more subtle i thought he bergman stuff especially carrying the sithe on the rollercoaster & playing chess on the pedolo was hilarious. An honourable debut for me it looked like the seventies, all brown & beige. The donkey bit was very funny, definitely not subtle.

the plot is not enough to justify a 90 minutes movie but for a 20 minutes television sketch. The actress Candela peña does it very good, but actor camara doesn't fits with the fisic-du-role for a porno star. The funny situations are better achieved than the dramatic ones.The first half you expect for a lot of possibilities the subject could be developed, but it never does. When the sign "the end" comes, you think that something is missing, it's not possible an ending like that, maybe the deadline are the only explanation for such a sudden end, when you're still waiting for something that justify the movie.The recreation of the seventies atmosphere is achieved, and the music helps to that goal. You can see it, if you want a light comedy without many pretensions.