Nonureva Really Surprised!

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

ma-cortes A small Spanish town is dominated by two businesses , -an underwear factory and a brothel- both run by strong-minded women . In the factory works as an executive , Manuel (Jordi Mollá) , chief's (Juan Diego) son , and also his girlfriend Sylvia (Penélope Cruz was 16 years old when this movie was made) works on the shop floor making male underwear . The brothel's Carmen (Anna Galiena) and the Factory's Conchita (Stefania Sandrelli) clash when Carmen's daughter becomes pregnant by Manuel . When Sylvia falls pregnant , Jose Luis promises her that he will marry her , most likely against the wishes of his parents ; to be aware Conchita , she is appalled and seeks an extreme solution . As his mother to be opposed to this relationship to a young girl from a lower-class family , and she then hires stud Raul (Javier Bardem) , to seduce Sylvia , only to fall for him himself .Weird melodrama satirizing various aspects of the Spaniard characters , including machismo , ¨Toros and Toreo¨ , food and sex . The special film title ¨Jamón , Jamón¨ , that's why in Spanish, the word "jamón" means ''ham'', while a ''jamóna'' is a ''dish of a woman" . This is a decent film , being first part of Bigas Luna's "Iberian Trilogy" , it is stylishly photographed and smartly designed . Here Bigas Luna delivers his ordinary and erotic goods in cool sense of style , but including a lot of unkindly characters . Entertaining and modern picture filled with young roles and concerning a beautiful girl who wishes a better life and becomes involved with a passionate triangle . This stirring as well as erotic story is a touching retelling and moving tale about wishes , lies and disappointments , but including strong sex scenes with loads of nudism . This interesting flick results to be a moving tale about ambition , desire , luxury and poorness . As usual in Bigas Luna films , ¨Jamón , Jamon¨ explores the darkest depths of eroticism and Latinos stereotypical , including the Spanish machismo . So-so acting by a very young Penélope Cruz who becomes pregnant , she plays an obstinate girl whose naïve dreams are soon shattered by the ruthlessness and mediocre Jordi Mollá as Jose Luis , an executive at his parents underwear factory who wants to marry Sylvia . The best acting is given by Javier Bardém as a potential underwear model and would-be bullfighter , he represents perfectly the typical ¨Iberian macho¨ who attributes his sexual prowess to a steady diet of garlic and ham . Support cast is frankly extraordinary , such as as Stefania Sandrelli as Conchita , Jose Luis' mother , who is determined to break her son's engagement and Anna Galiena as a mature prostitute who runs a brothel . Furthermore , a colorful and evocative cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine who was first cinematographer to use fluorescent tube as "key" lightning and deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameramen . Alcaine frequently works with Pedro Almodóvar , Bigas Luna and Vicente Aranda , as he has photographed ¨The skin I live in¨ , The bad education¨ , ¨Volver¨ , ¨Women in the verge of a nervous breakdown¨, among others . And a sensitive musical score by Nicola Paviani , including an enjoyable leitmotif . The motion picture was compellingly directed by Bigas Luna , following his particular style , though is is full of nudism , intercourses and Softcore . He often uses in his films twisted events , erotic scenes and surrealist images , here including Goya/Luis Buñuel frames-alike . He was a Bon Vivant who along with his wife , produced wine , ham , and organic products ; they are well shown in his films . For 39 years, under General Francisco Franco's repressive regime , it was almost impossible for Spain to create a vibrant film industry and for talented film-makers to express themselves freely . However, after the death of the Generalissimo in 1975, there was a burst of creativity, with Pedro Almodóvar paving the way for directors such as Bigas Luna , who has died of cancer aged 67 . In 1990 the producer Andrés Vicente Gómez persuaded him to return to cinema and entrusted to him the direction of Las Edades De Lulú (The Ages of Lulu) , an erotic drama about a young woman exploring extreme sexual practices , this was a commercial hit . Without abandoning his dedication to painting and photography , reflected in numerous exhibitions , he began the well-known "Iberian Trilogy" with Jamón Jamón ("Ham, Ham", 1992) , Huevos de Oro ("Golden Balls", 1993) and La Teta y La Luna ("The Tit and the Moon", 1994) which explored the darkest depths of eroticism and stereotypical Spanish machismo . Jamón Jamón, which launched the careers of both Javier Bardem and the 16-year-old Penélope Cruz was a major international success and won the Silver Lion at Venice in 1992 . The latter introduced Penélope Cruz to audiences and launched Javier Bardem as the embodiment of the Spanish stud . "I owe my career to Bigas Luna" , Bardem said in 2001 . Cruz returned in ¨Volavérunt¨ (1999), a film about the relationship between Francisco Goya and the Duchess of Alba . His last film was ¨Di Di Hollywood¨ with Elsa Pataki that failed at box office until his recent death .

punishmentpark A fun yet seedy, colorful yet dark, over the top yet on some level touching romantic comedy by Bigas Luna, of whom I have only yet seen the fantastically depraved titles 'Caniche' and 'Bilbao'. And, even if this one is not as great, it is certainly good enough. Penélope Cruz alone made sure of that.The (soap opera like) story goes well into overdrive as it nears the end. Fortunately, Luna keeps the humour, the cinematic side of things and the stinging social satirical comments fully intact. Although, that final scene... it's wáy out there, I'll give it that!A good 7 out of 10.

rewind_mind Jamon Jamon... And yet another Spanish sex comedy. This one tries to satirize macho dominance, although at times one wonders if director Bigas Luna is just using the film as a card announcing that he's coming out of the closet, from the opening shots of Javier Bardem's rear and crotch. Too many elements seem familiar (pregnant unmarried girl, a disapproving mother, a love triangle that turns into a quadrangle that turns into a more complicated geometric figure), as if the story was coming out of the Manual for Writing Foreign Films That Get Played In the USA. Actually, despite the familiarity, this part is charming and captures your interest... if you are into romantic/erotic comedies. Many good jokes fly by. Some genuinely erotic moments happen. Then Bigas Luna tries to make it as offbeat as possible by displaying many scenes of cruelty towards animals, incessantly buzzing flies, a dream sequence, slow-motion shots, the occasional pretentious "repulsion" shot (e.g. a lizard crawling out of the eye socket of a doll), anti-erotic close-ups of lips during erotic scenes, and taking many psychodynamic twists that Freud would have been interested in. The deeper you get into the film, the more these scenes happen. Unfortunately, it is mostly badly done and pretentious. Some of it is due to low-budget limitations and lame editing. But some of it is just plain bad film-making and lazy writing. Please, everyone involved in Spanish-language "art" wannabe films, be you Spanish, Peruvian, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Venezuelan, or from any other applicable country: you do not qualify as an art film just because in the end you randomly kill off one of the main characters and lazily dodge writing a resolution to the complicated scenario you created! And no, it does not make it better if this happens in the middle of a desert! Stop killing off people in the desert! Most people don't live in a desert, much less live there, hence its name! Sand does not make art! Besides, the death is not even believable! Also, if your name is not John Woo or Brian DePalma, I'm sorry, you should not use slow-motion, because you don't know how to use it. As for the film's main satirical point, it seems that at one point Bigas Luna wanted to show women dominating men who pretended to be strong macho guys, but at the end if you re-examine it, it seems that Bigas Luna is really showing older people dominating younger people sexually, regardless of gender. If anything, at least the actors are game, particularly Bardem, Galiena, and Cruz, although Penelope Cruz fans should know that she doesn't look as pretty here as she does in other films. People who are just watching this for erotic value should quit half-way into the movie, as in "Betty Blue", as the latter part of the movie leaves an anti-erotic taste.In the end, all of the interesting scenes and ideas are ruined by misguided aspirations towards art. A shame.

bubblegumyums65 I'm not sure what to think about this movie. It was quite confusing at times. I'm not sure why the trucks kept being shown passing by. Was it to make the movie longer? Or was it transition between scenes? One thing good about this movie, was the good looking people. Penelope Cruz looked pretty because she was very natural looking, a bit whore-like, but she didn't look fake. Of all the foreign movies I've seen, all of the other actors were new to me. (spoilers?) When I rented this movie, I expected something a little more than what was shown. The ending really blew me off. The characters were just shown crying, then the movie ended. There was no "real" ending. I wanted to know what had happened to the rest of the characters. Another thing that confused me was the "bullfighting" scene. What was really the point of the nudity? And the fighting with the hams. That part was actually kind of funny though. I would recommend this movie to anyone who would like to see it, but just keep in mind that it is not that big of a deal