''The Ages of Lulu'' ( es, Las edades de Lulú) is a 1990

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

erotic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by

Bigas Luna José Juan Bigas Luna (19 March 1946 – 5 April 2013) was a Spanish film director, designer and artist. His films are typically characterised by a strong emphasis on the erotic, often related to food, something for which he admitted a strong pa ...

and starring

Francesca Neri Francesca Neri (born 10 February 1964) is an Italian actress. Biography Neri was born in Trento, Italy. She has twice received the Silver Ribbon Award for Best Actress from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, for ''Pensavo foss ...

, Óscar Ladoire,

María Barranco María de los Remedios Barranco García (born 11 June 1961) better known as María Barranco is a Spanish actress, who has won two Goya Awards for Best Supporting Actress. Biography María de los Remedios Barranco García was born on 11 June ...

and

Javier Bardem Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (; born 1 March 1969) is a Spanish actor. Known for his roles in blockbusters and foreign films, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as the psychopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in ...

. It is based on the novel of the same name by Almudena Grandes. The film is about the title character's life and sexual awakening in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, which leads to her involvement in increasingly dangerous sexual experimentation.

Plot

The fifteen-year-old Lulú is seduced by Pablo, her brother Marcelo's best friend, who then leaves to work in the United States. Lulú is sustained for years by the belief that Pablo will come back into her life. When he returns he proposes to her and they are married. Pablo and Lulú have a passionate relationship, developing a taste for sexual games. On one nocturnal expedition they join up with a transgender prostitute called Ely who becomes their friend. The couple have a daughter, Ines. Pablo convinces Lulú to participate blindfolded in a threesome; when Lulú discovers that the third person was Marcelo, her brother, she leaves Pablo in disgust, taking their daughter with her. However, her own desire to play increasingly dangerous sex games now comes to consume her. After becoming aroused watching a gay porn movie, she seeks out

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

men and pays them to join in orgies, or watch them having sex. Unable to pay enough to satisfy her desires, she meets a pimp called Remy who runs a secret S&M club. Ely tries to warn Lulú that Remy is dangerous, but Lulú ignores her, so Ely goes to warn Pablo. Remy tells Lulú to go to a club, where she is tied up by Jimmy, a gay man she had previously paid for sex. She is forced to endure violent sex while gagged and bound. Ely tells Pablo that Lulú is in danger. She goes to the club to rescue her, but is attacked by Jimmy and killed when her head hits a metal bar. Pablo calls the police, who arrest Jimmy and the others. Lulú and Pablo are reunited.

Cast

Production

The film is an adaptation of the international best-selling novel with the same name written by Almudena Grandes.

Ángela Molina Ángela Molina Tejedor (born 5 October 1955) is a Spanish actress. Aside from her performances in Spanish films, she has starred in multiple international productions, particularly in a number of Italian films and television series. Family Mol ...

, who was originally cast in the lead role, withdrew when she learned how explicit the sex scenes were to be.

has a small, uncredited role as a corrupt

man, one of his first roles on screen. Neri is dubbed into

by another actress. In an interview, Bigas Luna recalled the episode when Francesca Neri, due to script requirements, was forced to shave her pubes and burst into tears before shooting one of the film's most scabrous scenes. He had to go and cheer her up and Neri, says Bigas Luna, "opened her bathrobe and shot her sex in my eyes and said to me, crying: 'Bigas, I'm sick, I look ugly, hideous'".

Cuts in UK version

The film was cut in the UK by two minutes and 55 seconds by the

BBFC The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of fi ...

. These cuts include an S&M orgy at a gay club being shortened, a man sexually touching Lulu and a sex scene; these scenes were restored for the 2002 DVD release. In addition to these cuts an opening scene in which Lulu is

baptised Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost inv ...

as a baby was cut as the child's genitalia is exposed to camera; this shot is considered to be in breach of the

Protection of Children Act 1978 The Protection of Children Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that criminalized indecent photographs of children. The Act applies in England and Wales. Similar provision for Scotland is contained in the Civic Government ...

. The 2002 UK DVD required 1:15 cuts for baptism scene; a new title sequence was used instead.

Reception

''The Ages of Lulu'' was listed on Film4's 50 Sexiest Film Moments.

won the

Goya Award The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain. The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sci ...

as Best Supporting Actress for her role as a

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignmen ...

prostitute.

Home Media

''The Ages of Lulu'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

by Umbrella Entertainment in December 2011. The DVD is compatible with region code 4.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ages Of Lulu, The 1990s Spanish-language films Spanish erotic drama films 1990 films 1990 LGBT-related films 1990s erotic drama films Madrid in fiction Incest in film Spanish LGBT-related films Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Goya Award-winning performance Films directed by Bigas Luna Films about trans women LGBT-related drama films 1990 drama films Films based on Spanish novels 1990s Spanish films