Very well executed

Sadly Over-hyped

Awesome Movie

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Set in 1973 Spain , dealing with a marriage who takes advantage of an offer to make adult films . As Alfredo Lopez" (Javier Camera), is married to "Carmen" (Candela Peña) , hairdresser and faithful wife . When it starts to go wrong his job selling encyclopedias at home , then the head of sales , Don Carlos (Juan Diego) comes up with an idea for a new product line . The company will expand its catalogue to offer an "audiovisual encyclopedia of human reproduction" , essentially 8 millimeter films of couples making love . As they are presented with the opportunity to make money doing erotic films in Super 8, which is exported to Scandinavia in the form of a false encyclopedia about reproduction in the world . Carmen agrees mainly because she has recently lost her job in a local beauty parlour . The act turns him into an aspiring legit filmmaker and her into an international sex symbol . Being inspired by true events .A good script with comedy , drama and fine players as Javier Camera and Candela Peña . This entertaining as well as interesting Dramedy contains crazy events , nudism , sexual scenes , amusement and absurd situations . Sitting in a strange middle ground between the completely absurd and the stylish set pieces , including various nostalgic moments , paying tribute to music and films of the seventies . It is a crazy Spanish comedy with touches of drama that offers no intellectual stimulus whatsoever , though it has some fun and hilarious moments . Humor is sometimes cheesy and gross-out with numerous naughty and picaresque situations such as sex jokes , adultery , jealousy , and erotic scenes . It partially sets the tone of the times in the seventies when had been made lots of films about nudism or ¨Destape¨. In fact , this film belongs to a nostalgic sub-genre regarding the eroticism and nudism on the mass during the thunderous 70s such as ¨Dias De Cine¨ by David Serrano and ¨Los Años Desnudos (Clasificada S)¨ by Dunia Ayoso and Felix Sabroso . Behind this title hides a story based on real events, with its director Pablo Berger makes her special tribute to cinema , with references to Bergman , the Spanish comedies , even porn. But not only accomplishes that , shows that there are many ways to do comedy without falling into vulgarity. It is an acceptable production plenty of nudism and sexual scenes , but is saved by an intelligent as well as unpretentious script with several very funny scenes . All this is achieved by comedians like Javier Cámara and Candela Peña they are the perfect combination to get laughs and tears , at the same time .It stands out the nice acting from Javier Camera as a struggling encyclopedia salesman become porno actor and charming Candela Peña as his wife who really wants to have a child . The picture provides a passel of brief or cameo appearances such as Malena Alterio , Marivi Bilbao , Máximo Valverde , Jaime Blanch , Mariano Peña, Ana Wagener , Ramón Barea and special appearance by Carmen Machi . Evocative cinematography by Kiko De La Rica , one of the best Spanish cameramen who has photographed great titles as ¨Lucia Y el Sexo¨, ¨El Calentito¨ , ¨Witching and Bitching¨ , "A Sad Trumpet Ballad" ¨The Oxford crimes¨ , ¨Snow White¨ , among others . Lively as well as adequate musical score , plenty of wonderful songs , by Nacho Mastretta , a good professional who has composed soundtracks in a lot of famous movies such as ¨El Gran Vázquez¨ (2010) , ¨Va a Ser Nadie Es Perfecto¨ (2006) and ¨La Hija Del Cannibal¨ (2003) . The motion picture was well produced and compellingly directed by Pablo Berger , a very good Spanish movies director . A very worthy debut that demonstrated how with simple jobs can make a splendid film . The flick delivered a successful result and achieved various Goya Awards . Director Pablo Berger developed the project for some years before being able to shoot it . Pablo is a well recognized filmmaker both nationally and internationally , and in proof of it he won many prizes in several Festivals , as this his feature debut ¨Torremolinos 73¨ , as well as the excellent ¨Snow White¨ or ¨Blancanieves¨ . Rating : Above average , essential and indispensable watching for Spanish cinema fans .

Where to start with Torremolinos 73? The style is old-fashioned kindly farce with some very cheerful and silly sex-scenes. It might have strayed into Billy Wilder acidity like Kiss Me Stupid but prefers to be defiantly optimistic about human nature. I really rate this film for its gentle good-humour, its love for its characters and of movies in general. The director (Pablo Berger) has succeeded in satirising the early 1970s, its mindsets and quirks, from a distance of thirty years, which isn't too easy. And the references are exactly those that obsessed us all in the early 1970s. The first part lays out how an encyclopaedia salesman is finessed by his boss into making sex films with his wife under the pretence that they are for the "Copenhagen Scientific Research into Sexuality Institute" or some such. The inhibited, average-looking (which is the point) and very broke couple find the financial benefits much to their taste but she's not so keen in being recognised in public by strange foreign men. The wife Carmen (Candela Peña) also wants a baby but husband Alfredo (Javier Cámara) is firing blanks. Meanwhile Alfredo has discovered his inner auteur. There are some very funny sequences of titillation, Alfredo-style, with Carmen rather resigned to it all.. After he pens an epic script entitled Torremolinos 73 he and we are surprised when his boss goes ahead with the project, insisting however on an upgrade to 35mm and a support tech crew (from Scandinavia of course). Part two consists of the shooting of Alfredo's script (which steals from the plot of Durrenmatt's The Visit) at Torremolinos. The Scandinavian crew can't quite believe they're working on this project but young Magnus (Mads Mikkelsen with blond hair) is thrilled to be there and clearly even more thrilled to meet the wife (perhaps he's seen the "research" films in Scandinavia?) Alfredo's script of course can't help but pay homage to The Seventh Seal (chess and beaches), various bits of Fellini (dwarves yet), Antonioni (barren landscapes) and possibly even Jean Cocteau's Orphée (Carmen in her suit and flat hat resembles either Maria Casares as the Princess/Death or a young version of Helena Rubenstein – take your pick). (One of the pleasures of this film is the bizarre costuming for Carmen's "research" films and for the movie within a movie. Clearly this husband is not as buttoned down as he appears). For me the funniest bits are of Carmen and Magnus roaming the landscape for the cameras, she in her severe suit and shovel hat and he as Death in cloak and scythe. They play chess on a pedalo, run up and down beaches, take rides on the merry-go-round and eventually get to the climax of the film within a film. And Mads Mikkelsen is hilarious in the small but pivotal role of Magnus, delivering a sweet natured character who manages to keep a straight face and his dignity enveloped in cloaks, scythes and sex scenes. I've missed telling you the joke with the horse (too rude but very funny). There's a happy ending, of course. And a movie is born. Go see.

Pablo Berger, the director of "Torremolinos 73", takes us back to the Spain of the seventies when Franco was still around and where he sets the scene for this satire about the clandestine porno industry. Mr. Berger also wrote the screen play, that at times is mildly amusing by the situation he creates. If you haven't seen the movie, please stop reading here.We first see Alfredo trying to sell books door to door without much success. His boss calls his staff and informs a new revamping in the business. He is going to start a series of experimental films about sex education that will be marketed abroad. The employees are shocked, and only Alfredo and his wife Carmen, and another man, agree to participate. Carmen wants to have children, which seems not to come to her and Alfredo.Carmen becomes a favorite sight in the Scandinavian countries, and she is even as identified in a department store in Madrid by one of her fans. Since their Scandinavian instructors keep on quoting the great Ingmar Bergman, Alfredo decides to make his own film that parallels "The Seventh Seal". The shooting is in an empty hotel in Torremolinos where Alfredo and his crew are seen filming the movie in the artistic black and white, but suddenly Carlos, the money man, wants a bit of sex in the picture. Alfredo is shocked because since he is not participating, Carmen will have to perform with the leading man! Javier Camera, who was so good in "Talk to Her" plays Alfredo, the book peddler turned porno film director. Candela Peña makes a good suffering Carmen who is lured into the scheme because of necessity. Juan Diego is seen as Alfredo's boss.The film has a faded look that blends well with the period its trying to reproduce. The film has some funny moments.

the plot is not enough to justify a 90 minutes movie but for a 20 minutes television sketch. The actress Candela peña does it very good, but actor camara doesn't fits with the fisic-du-role for a porno star. The funny situations are better achieved than the dramatic ones.The first half you expect for a lot of possibilities the subject could be developed, but it never does. When the sign "the end" comes, you think that something is missing, it's not possible an ending like that, maybe the deadline are the only explanation for such a sudden end, when you're still waiting for something that justify the movie.The recreation of the seventies atmosphere is achieved, and the music helps to that goal. You can see it, if you want a light comedy without many pretensions.