The Ages of Lulú

Colour, 35mm
Spain, 1990, 94 min
Section: Tribute to Bigas Luna

Synopsis

At fifteen, Lulú’s loveless childhood is just ending. Perhaps because of this sex completely destroys her future life. On the way back from a rock concert she has her first sexual experience, yielding to the attractive Pablo, a young family friend whom she always longed for in vain. Like a perpetual child, she has cherished a picture of her ideal man inside herself. Ultimately he appears in Lulú’s life as her husband, and in the context of their unusual sexual relationship, he accepts her challenge to continue pretending to be children. He creates a world for her in which time has no value. One day, after Lulú’s pathological dependence on her partner is a fixed reality, her untenable life deals her an unexpected blow. Her marriage falls apart and Lulú, now thirty, is in a crisis escapable only by taking a step into a hell of dangerous desire. “It’s the one film of mine that people always talk about. And that’s a bit tricky because of its delicate subject, erotica. Much of what happens also takes place in the book (the best-seller of the same name by Almudena Grandes), and they’ve read it, but don’t dare to admit that they enjoyed it. The film wasn’t as successful as we expected because a lot of people didn’t dare go see it. On the other hand, the video sold like hotcakes. I understand why critics walked out on the film and I sympathise with many of them. I’m glad I made it; it was a very good and hard experience, a professional challenge, and I’d make it again,” asserts Bigas Luna.