NikkoFranco I might be new to IMDb but as a lifelong cinema lover, I feel compelled to write my comments some two decades later. Paz Vega is the dame of Spanish art films like this one. Why should anybody be bothered by nudity I can't fathom , as it is done in a really , funny bordering on hilarious manner. As I understand Spanish, I feel lucky not to be dependent on the subtitles as some translations seemed edited to me. It is a heady film that feels like a lot of thinking has to be done by the viewer while having too much of that good wine, enjoying the sunset and reading a script upside down. Marvelous.

secondtake Sex and Lucia (2001)A fascinating, moving, beautiful, sexy movie. Yes, it's about sex, and there are lots of sex scenes, some of them surprisingly graphic. But it's not about sex at all, in a way —or at least the bigger point is about recovery, and finding love, and the power of goodness. This makes it all sound sappy or sensational, and some people might find it so. But I think it is extremely serious and probing. And if this territory is not completely new, it's suddenly fresh and intriguing.And confusing. If there is one stumbling block for many it has to be the deliberately convoluted plot, and the convoluted way the plot is told through several time periods and with interchanging roles, or what seem to be people whose positions alter in each others' brains.Or not! What I mean is, I think it kind of makes sense, maybe perfect sense, if you study it. The key to it all, both the characters and what happens to them, is a writer and his book(s). Because one of the main characters is also the writer's most devoted (and obsessed) reader, the fictional elements become true, or at least get blurred with the truth, and so what the viewer sees (poor depraved viewer at this point) is partial and suggestive and puzzling.Which is exactly why the movie is so good. You have to let go of the facts a little and hang onto the mood, and to the characters (and the actors) who are quite real and palpable. In fact, one of the things that makes this so significant is the high level of acting—the author and the three main women that come through his world over six or seven years. The emotional intensity, from joy (and ecstasy) to horror (and grief) is quite intense.There is a lingering feeling of awkwardness to the production of the movie. It's not just that it's a hair low budget—this is part of the feel of it, and it's quite beautiful overall—but that it uses certain editing quirks and filming styles (like blown out highlights in some scenes) to create effect. Sometimes this is helpful for keeping track of different points in the shifting narrative. Sometimes you are too aware of it. At least the first time.I've seen this only once, and I can imagine watching it again someday. It might well grow on you, getting a little clarity but also revisiting the emotional dips and peaks a second time. One small heads up for people who might need to know—there is a rather too-long section near the start with lots of frank and varied sex, and it drags a bit (and is too self-indulgent for the plot), but then the rest of the movie largely avoids it (not completely!). So if this is a turn-off, get through that part and see what turns up next. The movie never expands outside its small group of characters or its limited range of sets and locations, but it inhabits these places with increasing interest. Director/writer Julio Medem has succeeded at something here. See what it is.

Desertman84 Sex and Lucia is a Spanish drama film written and directed by Julio Médem, and starring Paz Vega and Tristán Ulloa. As suggested by the title, there is a great deal of passionate sexual content surrounding the love story of Lucía and Lorenzo as the plot dissolves into a very lyrical eroticism. The movie features a highly non-linear story line with repeated surreal references to the ocean and beach. Lucia (Vega) is a young Madrid waitress who is devastated to hear of the death of her old flame Lorenzo (Ulloa). Hoping to flee her troubles, she seeks out a beautiful island paradise her dead lover often talked about. There she meets and befriends Carlos and Elena, who are also refugees of personal tragedies. Unbeknownst to all of them, the three each have a connection to Lorenzo. Years previously, Elena had a spontaneous fling with Lorenzo on the same island on the beach. Nine months later, she bore his daughter, Luna, but unable to raise a child on her own, she enlisted the help of a nurse, Belen. In attempting to reconnect with the child he never knew, Lorenzo had a passionate affair with Belen, one which caused her to neglect Luna, with tragic results. As Lucia slowly learns these details, she recalls the book Lorenzo was writing just before his death, and soon the lines between fact and fiction begin to slip away.Not every movie that is billed as 'erotic' deserves that distinction, but Sex And Lucia certainly does. It's the kind of intelligent, thoughtful film about sex and love that Hollywood just can't make as it presents a bizarre, alternately joyful and gloomy take on sexual fantasies and complications.

lastliberal Sure, this is the film where Paz Vega bares all and gives us many skintastic moments, but it is much more than that. It is also Elena Anaya's hottest picture. OK, now that we got the fact that two incredibly beautiful women give us the performances of their lives out of the way, let's focus on why this is a really good film, and not just a peep show.It's a surreal, non linear story of a writer who commits suicide, or does he?; of a sexual encounter that results in a child; of an enter-twining of a new love with the old life; of a story with real life. It is beautiful, romantic, and haunting with Oscar-nominee Alberto Iglesias' (The Kite Runner, The Constant Gardener) score.Paz Vega (Spanglish), Tristán Ulloa, Najwa Nimri (Before Night Falls), and Elena Anaya (appears in the elusive Alatriste) give super performances in this film.It is the best performance I have seen from Paz Vega.