1990 ‘Las edades de Lulú’ Directed by Bigas Luna
Fifteen-year-old Lulu has never known any affection from her family. But when she goes to a rock concert with Pablo, a friend of the family, he introduces Lulu to her first sexual experience. Years later, Pablo and Lulu have married; Pablo has created a sheltered, private world for Lulu, into which nothing intrudes. However, Lulu tires of her cloistered existence, and begins hanging out in shady bars, looking for vicarious thrills and danger.
As Idades de Lulú, Les vies de Loulou, Lulú, Lulu, L'età di Lulù, As Idades de Lulu
Rewatched this for the first time in about under two decades....hmmmm this hasn't aged well at all.
Either this is extreme sexualised cinema which is portrayed as "Powerful and explicit" and "one of the most sensual and erotically-charged cinematic experiences ever created" on the DVD sleeve, if you believe Tartan....
Yes it really says that. I mean that is a lot of pretty and big words to explain the plot of the film, which is
A disturbing story of a man who grooms a 15 year old girl....
Just... eewwwwwww. Cineastes provocateurs gonna provoc, I guess, but ew.
Digs deep into pansexual Eurocore, but for a movie that's ostensibly about a woman's awakening to her own transgressive sexual autonomy, it sure does pander to a male audience's fantasies. Lulu's quest for kink is okay as long as it's being molded and directed by her husband's guidance, a man who takes pleasure in it and can manipulate her toward the things that get him off (and who has a pretty shaky grasp of the concept of 'consent')... but when she dumps him and strikes out on her own, she gets in over her head and puts herself into a life-threatening situation that he has to rescue her from. You…
Future Oscar-winning Best Supporting Actor Javier Bardem made his screen debut in this Bigas Luna flesh-fest, a film that would undoubtedly bring elderly AmericanAcademy members out in a cold sweat if they ever saw it!
He has a small part - pun intended! - towards the end of the film, the culmination of an uncompromising study of female sexuality exploring carnal desires most directors would shy away from.
Not Luna though; he’s never too bashful to explore the dark side of eroticism and he certainly pushes the envelope here.
Prepare to have some kind of reaction to what’s shown on screen, whether it be good or bad: it certainly won’t be indifferent..
I bought the Spanish DVD of THE AGES OF LULU many years ago, having seen some of Bigas Luna's films and finding him to be an interesting director. I was shocked how explicit it is - probably the most pornographic film I've seen that isn't actually pornography. I could see why it hadn't been released in the UK, typically more prudish than the continent.
The film was eventually released in the UK as well, but naturally it was cut... though oddly not the explicit sex, AFAIK an increasingly chilled BBFC let all that pass, but a shot from the opening credits showing an infant Lulu having talcum powder applied to her private parts, a shot which to any sane mind…
Una película que acaba siendo muy turbia, y con un Javier Bardem, súper cerdo.
PD: Ese final es horrible.
No sé cómo es la novela original, pero me cuesta creer que una mujer de izquierdas como Almudena Grandes pudiera escribir la historia tan mal lograda en varios sentidos como la que dio origen a este filme.
No se me malinterprete. La película tiene cierto interés, desde su fotografía y dirección hasta ciertos aspectos del guión, pero en un afán ambicioso se acaba convirtiendo en un pastiche de culebrón erótico bastante aburrido a veces que no va a ningún lado. Sin embargo, puedo tragar con una película erradamente pretenciosa, mi problema con ella es otro.
Tal vez sea homófoba, tal vez sea transfoba -tal vez-, pero lo que es sin lugar a dudas es machista. Lulú es un monigote en…
The least impressive work from Bigas Luna that I’ve seen. Not nearly as visually inventive as his Iberian Passion Trilogy, and full of cheap thrills (bush shaving scene, incest love triangle) that make Anguish play like a Fincher film in comparison. Despite all this, I’m still Bigas Luna pilled.
La bajada a los infiernos de Lulú perdiéndose en la escalada del morbo y con un Oscar Ladoire, un Fernando Guillén y Javier Bardem en modo turbio a tope y con un final muy degenerado.
