Sex and Lucia

Sex and Lucia (Spanish: Lucía y el sexo; lit. Lucía and the Sex) is an award winning 2001 Spanish drama film, written and directed by Julio Médem, and starring Paz Vega and Tristán Ulloa. As suggested by the title, there is a great deal of passionate sexual content surrounding the love story of Lucia and Lorenzo as the plot dissolves into a very lyrical eroticism. The movie features a highly non-linear story line with repeated surreal references to the ocean and beach. The plot depicts the tragic stories that connect all of the film's characters. The film was shot on two separate locations along the Mediterranean coast in Spain and France.

Plot

The film begins with Lucía (Paz Vega) at work as a waitress, talking on the phone with her depressed boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa). Worried, she goes home to console him. Finding an empty apartment, Lucía frantically looks for him. She finally receives a phone call from the police and finds a suicide note, but she is so afraid of the bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst has happened to Lorenzo. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía decides to travel to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked about.

The plot breaks to six years earlier. Lorenzo is having casual sex in the ocean with a woman named Elena (Najwa Nimri). They part ways, expecting to never see each other again. She becomes pregnant with his baby, so she ventures off to find him.

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. She 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 Lucia and they move in together at Lorenzo's apartment.

The film then continues interweaving past and present, people in real life and the characters in Lorenzo's novel.

As the past plays out, we see Lorenzo repeatedly stalling for time on his new book with his editor while his relationship with Lucia deepens. Lorenzo learns that he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child at her school while meeting her babysitter Belén (Elena Anaya). Lorenzo uses his new encounters as content for his book. Belén flirts with Lorenzo and invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits the daughter, Luna (Silvia Llanos). Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to make love. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family dog kills her. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression. All the while, he writes about his new experiences with Belén. Lucía reads it, thinking it is fiction.

In the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos (Daniel Freire), and through him, Elena, who runs an inn on the island to cope with her grief. Lucía rents a room at the inn. As the past is revealed, the characters cope with its significance in the present and understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships.

Reception

The film soon became an international success, winning Vega a Goya Award for Best Female Newcomer. The cinematography is by Kiko de la Rica, and the score by Alberto Iglesias, who also won a Goya Award for his work.

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 71% based on 69 reviews.^[1]

References

External links

• Official website
• Sex and Lucia at the Internet Movie Database
• Sex and Lucia at AllRovi
• Sex and Lucia at Metacritic
• Sex and Lucia at Box Office Mojo