Sex and Lucia. One of the films that resonates most deeply with me. I’ve always loved Spanish films. Every time I watch one, it feels like it’s my kind of film. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Spanish film I didn’t like. Although I don’t remember every title, I remember almost all the ones I’ve seen, along with their plots.
“Lucia and Sex” is the most symbolic film I’ve ever watched. I could dissect it down to its symbols as if taking a jacket apart into pieces. But I don’t want to explain it in detail because, for me, this film and everything associated with it touches something deep within me, as if it awakens a purity that was buried beneath layers of glitz and glam, accumulated over time… And I don’t want to disturb this water, I want it to remain clear.
I’ll say only this – it’s a modern, “light” form of expressing the very same thing Dostoevsky wrote about in The Brothers Karamazov. Three crosses – cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Three stages of spiritual development. Three degrees of openness. Three brothers. Three women.
Simple. Primitive. Physiological. Lust.
Evolving. Deepening. Emotional. Passion.
Revealed. Elevated. Spiritual. Love.
Did Julio Medem really think we wouldn’t figure it out? Belén. Elena. Lucia. Lust. Passion. The Saint. Three approaches to life. Three manifestations of humanity. Three fates. Three outcomes. Dare for Lust. Suffering and pain for Passion. Redemption and reward for Love.
It’s impossible to understand without watching. This is an incredibly beautiful film. It’s a story within a story. It’s a tale with a continuation. It’s a fairy tale turned inside out – and by the end, it’s still unclear where the written story ends and reality begins: they are so intertwined that it’s impossible to separate them. An extraordinary film: it starts with an ellipsis and ends with an ellipsis. And within it, there are only ellipses.
And if you add the wonderful actors (some of the best Spanish actors) and the stunning cinematography, including the underwater shots, everything makes the film impossibly beautiful. The unimaginably beautiful music of Alberto Iglesias perfectly illustrates the mood.
Sex and Lucia.