Taking on an erotic romance in hypnotic non-linear fashion, Sex and Lucia won many awards upon its release in 2001 for its complex storyline, deft juggling of narrative and beautiful cinematography; but it's most remembered, deservingly so, for the naked—emotionally and physically—performance of its stunning lead Paz Vega, who plays the titular Lucia and indeed engages in plenty of sex.
It starts, rather dramatically, in the middle. Lucia receives a tragic call from the police about her depressed novelist boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa), who'd left her a suicide note in their apartment. Abandoning all, Lucia travels to a mysterious island resort that Lorenzo always talked about but refused to take her to. The film then mixes this present with Lorenzo's past: his first meeting with Lucia, their sexually charged relationship, but also the daughter Lorenzo secretly has, a result of a moonlit tryst with a stranger in the ocean, many years prior.
There are two components that push this film into satisfying heights. One is the jumpy, fragmented narrative that blurs fantasy and reality, past and present, confusing to follow but rewarding to piece together. The other is director Julio Medem's decision to shoot the sexual playfulness of the characters in a truly sexually unchained and honest fashion. It's highly graphic—erect penis being stroked and all—but never sleazy, as each explicit sex scene is accompanied by a progression of the relationships.
Early in their relationship, Lucia asks Lorenzo, "Which do you prefer? Wild sex with a stranger? Or sex with someone you know, someone you love, but also wild?" He answers, "With you." And that is how their love was declared.
In most depictions of passionate love affairs, we are privy to their most intimate moments, but sex is often treated as a milestone rather than part of the building process. Here, we see the affection, growing comfort and eventual distancing through the sexual games they play, which are truly fun to watch for reasons that should be obvious.
In what reads like proto-LOST with an abundance of sex, these characters' lives somehow intersect in and out of the island. Be it through serendipity or the pseudo-magical pull of this exotic place, it doesn't matter; what's significant is that their lives are all turned upside down by their (sexual) interactions with each other, so they all escape to this island individually at their lowest points, not realizing that they would converge there to heal together.
Describing it as a romance is not doing it justice, obviously, as the film deals with hard subjects like loss and forgiveness, all of which are caused or tempered by lust—a common attribute humans share with each other that transcend whatever dark past one's hiding. It'd also discredit the mysterious plot that makes great use of weird coincidences, as well as the meta-story of Lorenzo's novel (which is partly based on truth as Lucia begins to discover) bleeding into the characters' lives and creating a confusion as to what's real and what's not, thus allowing Lorenzo to comment on the narrative of the film itself.
"The first advantage is at the end of the story. It doesn't finish, it falls in a hole. And the story starts again halfway."
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Nothing particularly special about the features, which are all carried over from the previous DVD release and presented in standard definition. There's the obligatory "making of" featurette, and then there are "bonus interviews," which are just the uncut raw footage of the same interviews from the making of. That's it for the videos.
Samples from the (admittedly elegant) soundtrack is included, but that doesn't satisfy much. Other than that, there's a stills gallery and a slideshow of cast biographies.
"Sex and Lucia" is on sale October 12, 2010 and is not rated. Drama. Written and directed by Julio Medem. Starring Daniel Freire, Elena Anaya, Javier Cámara, Najwa Nimri, Paz Vega, Silvia Llanos, Tristán Ulloa.
