A “lost” film in the filmography of Spain’s late Bigas Luna (1946–2013), LOLA is a 1986 erotic thriller that received very little attention and has largely vanished from sight.
Luna is best known for the 1987 horror film ANGUISH and 1992’s well received erotic comedy JAMON, JAMON, which provided the feature debut of Penélope Cruz, and essentially set the tone for the remainder of Luna’s filmography. LOLA came before those films, being an early effort by a director who was still finding his way.
Based on an actual incident, the film stars Angela Molina, one of Spain’s top actresses, and features Ariadna Gil, another well-established Spanish performer, in her debut role as Molina’s teen daughter. Molina plays Lola, a sexy garment worker in an abusive relationship with the gruff Mario, who’s partial to rough sex. Upon being seduced at a nightclub by the suave French businessman Roberto, Lola believes she’s found a way out of her dilemma.
Cut to four years later, with Lola and Roberto living together with a young daughter. All seems well until Mario collars Lola on the street one day, and takes to drunkenly crying and pounding on her front door. Lola does her best to keep him at bay but can’t deny the attraction she still feels for him.
Before long Lola and Mario are back to having the type of rough sex they were before she got together with Roberto. The latter is unaware of the affair, but grows increasingly suspicious. Lola, for her part, is driven to near-madness, knowing she should stay away from Mario but unable to tear herself away. And then things take a completely unexpected (and very dark) turn…
The film’s final third is quite discordant and confusing, going from an erotically tinged dramatic thriller to an avant-garde policier, complete with a time-tripping editing scheme that juxtaposes past and present, and grafts an impressionistic denouement onto what was up until then a fairly straightforward narrative.
It’s all extremely well lensed. Luna knew his way around a camera, and, as was his wont, crafted a crisp, good looking film with and a gaudy (and very eighties) lighting scheme. Equally impressive is the overall tone, which grows increasingly horrific; Luna’s previous feature was the American-made Dennis Hopper chiller REBORN (1981), and the scare-happy instinct clearly hadn’t deserted him (yet).
Angela Molina is quite strong in the title role, being tough, vulnerable and sexy–although the voyeuristic leg and crotch shots to which Luna subjects her are a bit much. Once again, this is very much the work of a nascent talent who hadn’t entirely found his footing, but it’s worth a look.
Vital Statistics
LOLA
Figaro Films
Director: Bigas Luna
Producer: Enrique Viciano
Screenplay: Luis Hercé, Enrique Viciano, Bigas Luna
Cinematography: Josep M. Civit
Editing: Ernest Blasi
Cast: Angela Molina, Patrick Bauchau, Féodor Atkine, Assumpta Serna, Carme Sansa, Pepa López, Constantino Romero, Angela Gutierrez, Marta Almirall, Pep Ballester, Marta Bori, Montserrat Calvo, Artur Costa, Mariano De La Cruz, Rosa Gavin, Ariadna Gil