User Reviews

A literary contest organized by a group of nuns, attracts some Spanish writers, with inflated "egos", including a woman who writes poems completely naked, a blind man with strange sex fantasies and an alcoholic man who used to write quite well.

The film, directed by an old Spanish cinema director depicts the derelict, skeletal Spanish literary world.

The film includes some surrealistic, ironic & extravagant gags.

The young woman writer wins the award an escapes from the blind and jealous writer (her couple, who wished the prize), in order to go to a big party.

The metaphors and images are pure old fashioned Spain.

I was in Barcelona for the preview at the BCN Film Fest and I was very surprised. Accustomed to current Spanish comedies, I found something different in this film. It mixes comedy and drama with ease, and makes you laugh while it talks about various questions, intimate and universal.

It is based on a novel by Aramburu (the one from "Patria") that I think was cut short; this filmic adaptation goes a little further. Like other films by Chávarri ("Bicycles are for summer", "Las cosas del querer") it shows, with naive transparency, the human side of the characters, and this is possible thanks to a cast full of great names, especially Sergi López. But it's a choral film: Marta Nieto, Lastra, Roberto Enríquez, Vicky Peña, Campra, Climent, Gabaldón, Álvaro Subiés, García Millán, Elena Seijo, Celso Bugallo and Isabel Garrido.

The plot, as simple as it is, has a good rhythm (the editing is by Teresa Font, Almodóvar's favourite). The photography is by Kiko de la Rica ("Blancanieves", "Lucía y el sexo", "La comunidad"). Costume design is Mar Fraga's, and she does a great job.