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The Naked Eye (1998 film)
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Wikipedia article
'The Naked Eye' is a 1998 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a novel by Fernando G. Delgado. It stars Laura Morante, Miguel ngel Garca and Jos Coronado. The film is an erotic psychodrama, an exploration of female sexual desire. It premiered at the 48th Berlin International Film Festival in 1998 where it was nominated for the Golden Bear.
Aranda objects to labeling of his film as an "erotic film", instead he defines it as "psycho-erotic": "[The heroine,] Begoa's ambition is transparency. (...) She wants to enjoy life in its widest expression, and looks for clarity through sex."
Plot
Begoa is a thirty something consultant who has rebelled against her upper-middle-class background and has overdone it with sex ever since her youth. On recommendation of her psychoanalyst, she keeps a video diary of her encounters using a palm-sized video gadget called "The Owl".
On Christmas Eve, reluctantly, Begoa goes to have dinner with her dysfunctional family: her stern mother, her married brother and her younger sister. Soon, Begoa, the familys black sheep, clashes with her relatives. She leaves abruptly in disharmony, only her sister seems sympathetic towards her. The same night in a bar, Begoa is befriended by Daniel, a solitary handsome man in his late teens. The attractive and self assure Begoa draws his attention, but when her on and off ex-boyfriend Elio, and adventurous biker, shows up at the bar, an argument ensures between Elio and Daniel.
The next morning Begoa wakes up in her bed with Daniel next to her. Drunk as she was, she does not remember what had happened. They had sex, he tells her, and it was wild. Young, rich and without any real occupation, Daniel starts to pursue Begoa relentlessly, but, although she is flattered, she ignores him. He is far from her only love interest. Besides Daniel and Elio, there is Ramn, Begoas coworker and sometimes lover. She is tired of him and rebuffs his advances coldly. Only Ignacio, an older painter, seems to hold her interest. Old enough to be her father, Begoa has been Ignacios lover for many years. Although Daniel has followed her to Ignacios house, he is not deterred in his interest for Begoa.
When New Year s Day comes, Begoa goes to a party and gets reunited with her friends of younger days. The host is Santiago, Begoas high School boyfriend. He is now married with twins and Begoa wonders how her life could have been that of a traditional wife and mother. At the party, there is also Marian, Begoa's friend, who is married to a much younger man, but is having trouble getting pregnant. On her request, Begoa helps Marian to collect from her husband the sperm she needs for an artificial insemination.
Begoa's spirit of adventure makes her accept the challenge of Elio, her friend and sometimes lover, to go into a rough section of Madrid pretending to be a prostitute. However, once there she is brutally raped by the local pimp, a beefy tall man in drag. After that terrible experience, Begoa looks for a more respectable life. Once again causing a commotion with her family, Begoa marries Daniel and has a child with him. Nevertheless, unsatisfied, one day, she decides to return to the seedy neighborhood where she was raped, looking for more.
Cast
* Laura Morante as Begoa
* Jos Coronado as Elio
* Miguel ngel Garca as Daniel
* Ana Obregn as Marian
* Juanjo Puigcorb as Ramn
* Miguel Bos as Santiago
* Blanca Apilnez as Isabel
* Sancho Gracia as Ignacio
DVD release
'The Naked Eye' has been release on DVD only in region 2. It was released in Spain, but it is currently out of print. It was also released in Italy.
References
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