One can rely on Vicente Aranda to fill his movies with a lot of sex. "El amante bilingue" will not disappoint those fans of the director that relish his films because of that aspect. Chronologically, this came after "Amantes", and before "La pasion turca". It was not the first time Mr. Aranda brought a Juan Marse's novel to the screen; "Si te dicen que cai" came first, which, in our humble opinion was much better than this one.
The film is basically a love story gone wrong. Joan Mares obsession for the lovely and luscious Norma Valenti takes epic proportions because he cannot let go of her. After he is injured by some skin heads, he uses his scars to pursue his life as a street musician. He devices a plan to get to Norma and she never catches on to his deceit, except she realizes that as Juan Faneca his performance in bed is exactly what she had experienced with Joan Mares because she concludes they were taught sex by the same prostitute.
Imanol Arias, an actor that was a staple in Spanish films during the years this project went into production, was not used in many important projects after his earlier successes. As a matter of fact, Mr. Arias did much better work for the director in the two "El Lute" films. Ornella Muti, the gorgeous Italian actress, plays the voluptuous Norma with her usual panache. Loles Leon has some good moments as Joan's neighbor and love interest trying to immerse herself in speaking the Catalan language well. Javier Bardem has a small role as the shoe shining hunk that amuses Norma. Maribel Verdu is also seen in a cameo.
The film is basically a love story gone wrong. Joan Mares obsession for the lovely and luscious Norma Valenti takes epic proportions because he cannot let go of her. After he is injured by some skin heads, he uses his scars to pursue his life as a street musician. He devices a plan to get to Norma and she never catches on to his deceit, except she realizes that as Juan Faneca his performance in bed is exactly what she had experienced with Joan Mares because she concludes they were taught sex by the same prostitute.
Imanol Arias, an actor that was a staple in Spanish films during the years this project went into production, was not used in many important projects after his earlier successes. As a matter of fact, Mr. Arias did much better work for the director in the two "El Lute" films. Ornella Muti, the gorgeous Italian actress, plays the voluptuous Norma with her usual panache. Loles Leon has some good moments as Joan's neighbor and love interest trying to immerse herself in speaking the Catalan language well. Javier Bardem has a small role as the shoe shining hunk that amuses Norma. Maribel Verdu is also seen in a cameo.