JAMÓN JAMÓN Movie Review

Ham Ham

Stop the presses! It's a movie about sex and food! OK, so it's not the first time. But writer/director Bigas Luna's 1992 Spanish comedy is so gleefully, joyously vulgar that it is a breakthrough of sorts; it allows a generation of refined art house attendees to guiltlessly let their hair down a bit even while learning about the class structure of modern Spain. Stefania Sandrelli is Conchita, a harridan of a mother who's dead set against her son José's possible marriage to Silvia, daughter of the town prostitute, Carmen. Conchita's solution is to find a hunk to take Silvia's mind—and body—off of her son. This she does, but Conchita finds him irresistible as well. And so it goes, with the pairings becoming ever more inclusive, and the sex becoming ever more energetic. The universe of Jamón, Jamón (literally “ham, ham,” a tasty title that fully bridges the gap between food and sex when explained in the film), where it seems completely natural that the family business is manufacturing underwear, is such a surrealistic, self-contained, isolated rural universe that it's like being in a soft-core Dogpatch. Luna goes well past being offensive early on, never looks back, and wisely and successfully occupies himself with the serious business of being funny. With Anna Galiena, Jordi Molla, Javier Bardem, and the spectacular Penelope Cruz as Silvia. Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival.

NEXT STOP … Like Water for Chocolate, The Story of Boys and Girls, Tampopo

1993 95m/C SP Penelope Cruz, Anna Galiena, Javier Bardem, Stefania Sandrelli, Juan Diego, Jordi Molla; D: Bigas Luna; W: Bigas Luna, Cuca Canals; C: Jose Luis Alcaine; M: Nicola Piovani. VHS, LV