Últimas tardes con Teresa.

Últimas tardes con Teresa (Gonzalo Herralde, 1984) takes place a summer in the late 50s, in Barcelona.

I did not like Últimas tardes con Teresa. It is a slow film and I did not like the long shots depicting Manolo's (Ángel Alcázar) life.

Besides, I do not like this kind of stories of "Bad boy meets good girl".

The great difference between Teresa (Maribel Martín), the rich girl, and Maruja (Patricia Adriani) can be seen, for example, in costumes. Teresa wears elegant dresses while Maruja wears an uniform. As Teresa is a student who has left-wing views in the Francois Spain, she lends her customes. Maybe she does that only to feel better with herself or to convince herself that she is not only a bourgueois.

I think Manolo's character is incomprehensible, but this may be because of the Ángel Alcázar's interpretation. When the film finishes I do not really know what happened and which the characters' motivations and impulsions were.

The only thing I liked about this film was the nostalgic soundtrack.

Blog

Blog (Elena Trapé, 2010) is a film about a group of classmates. They are insecure about their bodies, studies, boys.. In short, they are teenagers. They make a decission: To get pregnant at the same time.

The most of the film appears like recorded by the girls themselves, there are a lot of abrupt camera movements. This increases the feeling of being witness of something real, and not a film. In my opinion, this is also because in this way we get the impression that these girls maybe do not really know what effects can their plan has.

I liked the interpretations very much, I think they are very natural. Specially, in the confessions they do to their webcams.

Sex and Lucía

Lucía y el sexo (Julio Medem, 2001) is a compilation of crossed stories. Gradually, Lucía (Paz Vega), Elena (Nawja Nimri) and Belén (Elena Anaya) realize they are connected by a man, Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa).

There are several characteristics of Medem's cinema that make him a director that I really like. I do not think of his films as a perfect example of good cinema, but I like him because he has a very personal style and I like the kind of stories he chooses.

- The irregular use of time is one of these typical characteristics of Medem's films. Sex and Lucía does not have a chronological order. The action of the film takes place in very different moments of the complete story. The information is given little by little. 

- The use of light in the film is extreme, we get very illuminated or very dark shots.

- Recurrent themes: strange connections between characters, the tricks of fate and love..

The thing I liked least about the film was the scene when Lorenzo and Elena's daughter is attacked by the dog. The only way in which we realize she has died is in the following scene, when the girl swims in the sea. This is a kind of return to the place their parents where together.

The beginning of Lucía and Lorenzo's relationship. Their complicity is the same as the one Ana and Otto had in Los Amantes del Círculo Polar (Julio Medem, 1998)