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Torremolinos 73
Spain/Denmark 2003
produced by Tomás Cimadevilla, Mohamed Khashoggi, Bo Ehrhardt (co), Lars Bredo Rahbek (co), Pablo Berger (associate), Yuko Harami (associate) for Telespan, Nimbus Film, Estudios Picasso, Mama Films
directed by Pablo Berger
starring Javier Cámara, Candela Pena, Juan Diego, Fernando Tejero, Mads Mikkelsen, Malena Alterio, Ramón Barea, Tom Jacobsen, Mari-Anne Jespersen, Bjarne Henriksen, Nuria González, Mariví Bilbao, Germán Montaner, Jaime Blanch, Máximo Valverde, Sixten Tobias Kai Nielsen, Jons Pappila, Thomas Bo Larsen, Baard Owe, Mariano Pena, Ana Wagener, Carmen Segarra, Carmen Machi, Carmen Belloch, Diego París, Ruth Lewin, Lucio Romero, Miguel Alcíbar, Juan Manuel Cotelo, Cándida Tena, Tina Sáinz
written by Pablo berger, music by Nacho Mastretta
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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1973: Alfredo (Javier Camára) is a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman,
but business is lousy, so bad in fact that his boss, publisher Don Carlos
(Juan Diego) eventually disbands the door-to-door salesmen-branch of his
business altogether - but he offers his salespeople an alternative:
produce homemade porn for the Scandinavian market - which doesn't have
anything to do with selling encyclopedias of course, but porn is a growing
business ...
Reluctantly, Alfredo and his wife Carmen (Candela Pena) agree since she
has just lost her job as well, they are constantly short on money ... and
porn pays well. When Swedish expert Erik (Tom Jacobsen), a former Ingmar
Bergman-assistant, teaches Alfredo how to use the camera though, Alfred o
starts to show a genuine interest into filmmaking ...
Alfredo's and Carmen's first films are your typical little porn
pictures, with the typical silly plots and some kinky outfits, but they
sell extremely well in Scandinavia, and all of a sudden they are swimming
in money. Then though Carmen wants a child but it turns out that Alfredo
has zero spermcount, and adoption is out of the question since the
authorities would never allow a porn couple to adopt. And when one day
Carmen bumps into one of her Scandinavian fans, she completely freaks out
...
At the same time, Alfredo grows tired of making the same film over and
over again, and he starts reading up on Ingmar Bergman and watches his
films ... and eventually he writes a Bergmanesque screenplay and offers it
to Don Carlos. Against all odds, Don Carlos is totally interested and
wants to produce the film, with Carmen in the female lead and Alfredo as
director.
So over a few weeks in winter, Alfredo, Carmen and Don Carlos hook up
with a Danish fillmcrew - they don't understand a word Alfredo's saying
but they are professionals and know the meanings of the words action
and cut - in a virtually deserted Torremolinos, to film Alfredo's
little movie in black and white and in mock Bergman-style, with blond
Scandinavian actor Magnus (Mads Mikkelsen), who has learned all of his
lines phonetically, playing a character resembling the Death in The
Seventh Seal.
The filming goes reasonably well until the final scene, when Don Carlos
insists on a few changes, the main change being that the scene is done
hardcore, with Magnus and Carmen fucking for real ... Alfredo is of course
very much opposed to this - but surprisingly, Carmen wants to do it
because she sees it as her last chance to get pregnant. Reluctantly,
Alfredo gives in ...
The film, which was eventually called Torremolinos 73, bombed in
Spain - but it was a great success in Scandinavia. Also, it was Alfredo's
only film as a director. Nowadays he's filming weddings and birthday
parties, but still he sees himself more as an artist than a craftsman.
Alfedo and Carmen have a little daughter now, Marisol - and just like
Magnus she is blonde ...
A fun mix of comedy and melodram that doesn't try too hard to be either
- and works for exactly this reason. The humour in the film is rather
subtle and the actors play it straight for the most part, the drama is
rather toned down, and the Ingmar Bergman-references (and there are many)
are not as in-your-face as to be annoying. In all, an extremely
entertaining but not silly film.
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