Lovers

A slow-paced, yet absorbing film teeming with white-hot eroticism, Lovers (winner of Spain's Goya Award for Best Picture and Director) is fashioned with stylistic and thematic shades reminiscent of Hitchcock meets film noir by way of melodrama. Based on a real-life incident involving seduction, betrayal and murder which occurred in Spain during the 1950s, the narrative begins as a young soldier -- Paco (Sanz) -- is released from military duty and prepares for a solid, working-class life etched in Catholic sensibilities with his pretty, virginal fiancee Trini (Verdu). Before the two can marry, however, Paco must secure steady employment. So, armed with a job prospect from a nearby factory and the address of a room-for-let, Paco agrees to temporarily move into the spare room of a cramped, smart Madrid apartment occupied by a comely, thirtyish widow -- Luisa (Abril). Soon, Paco's attentions toward work -- and especially the overly-chaste Trini -- are rapidly overwhelmed by the searing flames of passion when Luisa proceeds to seduce him (by assigning the same notorious reputation to scarves as Last Tango in Paris did to oleo), and the two plunge headlong into an intense love affair. But clouds of doom begin to gather as Louisa -- whose primary source of income is derived from engaging in swindles with gangsters -- is threatened with permanent disfigurement by her criminal cohorts when they discover that she has been skimming additional money for herself from their illegal profits, and the unexpected, aggressive rivalry from Trini who manages to temporarily lure Paco back to her side. Desperate, Luisa wastes no time in convincing a weak, besotted-with-lust Paco that he must marry Trini, bilk her out of the hard-earned savings she has accumulated for their marriage, then kill her so that he and Luisa can run away together. Hindered at times by lengthy takes and a somewhat sluggish denouement, the real strengths in Lovers are revealed through the powerful performances of Verdu and Abril (whose role earned her the Best Actress award at the 1991 Berlin Film Festival). Rather than submitting to the two-dimensional polarities of the femme fatale and the virgin redeemer, both actresses convey subtle complexities in the evolution of their characters which generates a credible mixture of sympathy and aversion, as well as an interesting, dual embodiment of the film's haunting theme of martyred love. Lovers is a must-see for those who like torrid action in a chilly theatre.