One of the most popular Spanish comedies in the last decade.

THE PLOT

Madrid, 1973. Alfredo is a struggling encyclopedia salesman, his wife Carmen a hairdresser who longs for a baby. Alfredo's boss, Don Carlos, invites them to a conference at a resort hotel where he informs them that, due to falling sales, the company will now move into porn home-movie production for the Scandinavian market. They are given a brief course in erotic film-making by a visiting Dane.

REVIEWS

Excellent review in the prestigious magazine Sight and Sound:

"Like his main character, an unlikely Spanish everyman caught up in the porn business, Pablo Berger is a first-time director. But you'd never know it, so assured is Torremolinos 73 in its plotting and shooting. Billed as a black comedy, this unique Spanish-Danish co-production has an unerring sense of the 70s period. Interiors are steeped in dingy brown, with fluorescent lights buzzing in the background, while costumes and furniture are distressingly authentic." - more here

Great review on the BBC:

"As with Boogie Nights - which is undoubtedly an influence - Torremelinos 73 depicts a porno world where actors are naive innocents corrupted by those whose business it is to make the films. (...) Writer/director Berger's skilfully told story shifts in tone but always remains affectingly sweet and human. It's Deep Throat with a big, big heart." - more here

The New York Times:

"A joyous celebration of sex and filmmaking." - more here

ACTING

It stars the great actor Javier Camara, who also appeared in Talk to Her (2002, Almodovar) and Bad Education (2004, Almodovar).

He is also one of the main actors of the TV series 7 Vidas (7 lives), which is the most popular Spanish TV comedy series ever.

Here is what the New York Times writes about the acting in the films:

"Mr. Cámara, whom viewers will recognize as the nurse obsessed with a comatose patient in Pedro Almodóvar's film "Talk to Her," gives an exquisitely calibrated performance as a beleaguered Everyman who discovers himself behind the viewfinder of a movie camera, while Ms. Peña is equally perfect as the initially repressed, then irrepressible Carmen." - more here