El Amante Bilingüe
Encyclopedia
The Bilingual Lover is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda
adapted from a novel by Juan Marsé
. It stars Imanol Arias
, Ornella Muti
and Loles León
. The film is a grotesque drama with some elements of comedy. Set in Barcelona
, El Amante Bilingüe takes an ironic approach to Catalonian linguistic policies, nationalism and eroticism with a pattern of double identity.
singer and an illusionist known as Fu-Ching, the magician. He grew up in Barcelona
during the 50s, dreaming of leaving his poverty behind. During his youth in the 70s, he meets his future wife. He was in a photograph exhibit, when just coincidence involved him with a group who was organizing a hunger strike for four days. There, he meets Norma Valenti, the only daughter of a wealthy family of traditional Catalan
background. In spite of big economical, social and cultural differences between them, Juan and Norma get married.
Norma works for the department of linguistics
of Catalonia
while Juan or Joan, his Catalan
name, is overwhelmed by the social position acquired through the marriage. There is little use in Marés’ new life for his skills as ventriloquist or accordion
player. After five years, the marriage starts to fall apart, when Norma’s real character comes to the surface. The beautiful Norma is a proud, cold woman with dark sexual tendencies. She has a special attraction for low class men who are “charnego
s” ( people who are not Catalan
). Norma also has a particular fetish with shoes, the men she sleeps with have to hold a shoe with the sole force of their erection. Juan returns home one evening, earlier than expected. He finds his unfaithful wife having sex with a shoe shiner charnego. Face with proof of her infidelity, Norma, tired of her husband, just leaves him for good.
Juan keeps the apartment, he used to share with his wife, but without her support, he is reduced to scratch a living from the streets playing the accordion and begging for money in las Ramblas. While performing on the streets, he is caught in the middle of a confrontation between a pro- Catalan
language group and a Spanish right wing extremist. Juan plays the anthem of Catalonia
which make him a target of the extremist who throw at him a Molotov cocktail
burning him.
Horribly disfigured in the explosion, Juan Marés falls deeper into indigence and schizophrenic hallucinations. His personality is transformed by his misfortune. He is obsessed with the happiness he has lost and with the memory of his wife. He encounters Norma a couple of times, first while he is performing on the streets but she does not recognize him in his new painful condition. Marés talks to her again during the carnival in Barcelona
, under the disguise of the invisible man, only at the end of their small talk, he gives her a clue about his identity. Another day he calls her up at work pretending to need help in the translation of many words from Spanish
to Catalan
.
His hallucinations increase and a new identity starts to take shape in his mind : the emphatically non Catalan Juan Faneca. Faneca has a strong, deep Murcian accent, a pencil mustache, sharp sideburns and eye patch. He is a charnego from Murcia
and childhood friend of Marés, coming back to Barcelona after years living as a worker in Germany
.
Juan Marés, now under the disguise of Juan Faneca, tries first his new identity with his lonely neighbor, Griselda, whom he seduces starting an affair. Later with the excuse of looking for Juan Marés, Faneca gets closer to Norma and his dream is fulfilled. They have a one night stand. By then the seductiveness of the happier personality of Juan Faneca has completely taken over Marés, who is no more. A future with Griselda awaits now Faneca.
in the 1980s for his cinematographic adaptation of literary works. He fell a close affinity with novelist, Juan Marsé, just few years apart in age; they shared similar experiences in their childhood in their native city, Barcelona
. Aranda had previously adapted two of Marsé’s novels to the big screen: La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
and If They Tell You I Fell
. In 1992, Vicente Aranda became interested in making a third adaptation from a novel written by Juan Marse. Vicente Aranda recalled, “ Juan Marse sent me the manuscript of the novel El Amante Bilingüe and I liked it. Andres Vicente Gómez, the producer, was not very eager to take this project, he considered it too regional, very Catalan, in spite of it all, we made the film”. Producer Vicente Andres Gomez says that he and Marse thought that Mario Camús was the most appropriate director to make the film.
The film had a budget of 164 million pesetas and was a co production with Italy. Shot in Barcelona
, the movie premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival
, where it was well received. El Amante Bilingüe was released in Spain
on April 1 1993.
Imanol Arias
was launched to star status in Spain
by his work with Vicente Aranda in El Lute, a film that was a critical and commercial success. Arias came to see his role in El Amante Bilingüe as a turning point in his career, a triumph after two years of relative inactivity. There are similarities between his own life and that of his character. He had a first failed marriage with a rich woman and came from modest background. The role in El Amante Bilingüe was an exciting challenge for him, having to play a character with dual personalities and different registers.
El Amante Bilingüe was co-produced with Italian investors and the role of Norma was given to Ornella Muti
, an Italian actress famous for her beauty. Ornella Muti first gained attention in the English speaking world as the princess in Flash Gordon
(1980). Here, she plays the suggestive role of a wealthy woman with unusual sexual fantasies. Vicente Aranda recalled “ I was very pleased with Ornella, she made as much as she could to adjust to the requirements of the film, but she is extremely beautiful and perhaps another actress, less attractive would have suited better the dark tone of the film”.
In supporting roles are: Javier Bardem
, one of Spain’s best known actors, here in one of his first roles and Loles León
, who plays a comic character. She has worked for Pedro Almodóvar
in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
and for Vicente Aranda in La Pasión Turca
(1994) and Libertarias
(1996).
linguistic policies, exacerbated by social and class differences. The film is a painful reflection on the human desire to be another person.
The film is clearly marked by its geographical context. The normalization of the Catalan language
and the reestablishment of Catalan
as a strong national identity in the context of Spain
as a nation. Despite its support from the government of Catalonia
, the films frames catalinazation comically, associating popular Catalan
culture with racism- anti immigrant sentiment, and the rescue of self identity excluding others.
The film portrays Norma, the woman who is the intellectual driven force behind the Catalonian government policies of linguistic change, as a spoiled, sexually obsessive, cold snob. While Juan Marés disfiguration marked his alignment with the culture most associated with his perfidious wife with whom he wants to get back sexually once more.
The film does not escape the overblown qualities, thin characterization, and inherent simplistic sexual politics of the novel. However, it skillfully points out the layer construction of a second identity, Juan Faneca. The man with the black cloak, wide brimmed hat, wounded scalp and eye patch stand for some of the grotesqueness of a masculine self-image nonstructural notion of sexual predominance and based on outmoded forms of seduction.
What started as a grotesque and unbelievable adventure gradually develops into an ironic criticism of the dual, social and linguistic policies of Catalonia
. The film is a dark reflection about personal identity. Aranda
’s ability to make the viewer feel like an "other" while treating the same topic in his film is a work of mastery
Vicente Aranda
became well known as a film director skillful in handling erotic scenes. In El Amante Bilingüe, the director self parodies his famous erotic screen scenes, in a take in which Faneca and Norma end up turning and levitating as expression of sexual ecstasy.
“ The film suffered for the lack of enthusiasm from the producer of which I was aware and tried to resolved. The producer of the film, Andres Vicente Gómez explained, “El Amante Bilingüe was liked neither by the public nor the novelist or even by the actors who made it, I did not like it either. I also think, Aranda was not very happy with the film, nevertheless we went on to make another movie together”.
Vicente Aranda
explained:“ I think I did not exaggerate enough. I should have used a cruder brush. I am not defending above all my own mistakes. I would have been more satisfied with the film if I would have employed an uglier and more extreme style. It was a mistake to center the plot of the film in dialectic between two languages that were so close Catalan and Spanish. I stated often that the dialectic should have established between English
and Spanish
which would have make the film more universal. The plot could have remained the same, just changing the scenery from Barcelona
to Los Angeles
or New York
and instead of a charnego some other type of foreigner, the rest working the same.
and the Phantom of the Opera
, but with more subtle quotations of those film through the use of the right photography in an expressionist style, but that idea had to be sacrificed to photograph Ornella Muti
, beautifully. Nevertheless he remembers “ My intention was to make a contemporary film, but with Ramón del Valle-Inclán
on mind and I almost made it. I should have taken things more to the extreme, but I have a tendency to moderation.
In its baroque and twisted elements, El Amante Bilingue is similar to the adaptations Vicente Aranda made of two of Juan Marse’s novels : La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro and Si Te Dicen Que Cai. In its pattern of double identities, El Amante Bilingue, resembles two Aranda’s films : Cambio de Sexo
and La Pasión Turca
. In Cambio de Sexo
, a young man with sexual identity problems is driven for his desire to become a woman. In La Pasión Turca
, a housewife with a placid life, leaves her former identity behind in pursue of a new one in the arms of her Turkish lover.
with English
subtitles. The extras include: press conference at the Montreal Film Festival, making of and cast and crew galleries.
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
adapted from a novel by Juan Marsé
Juan Marsé
Juan Marsé is a Spanish novelist, journalist and screenwriter, born in Barcelona on January 8, 1933 as Juan Faneca Roca.His mother died in childbirth, and he was soon adopted by the Marsé family. At age 14 he started to publish some of his writings in Insula magazine and in a cinema magazine while...
. It stars Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias born Manuel María Arias Domínguez , is a Spanish actor and one off film director.Imanol Arias began his career with a travelling theatre group in Spain performing in the Basque Country of northern Spain. He debuted on TV in 1976 and his first film was in "Cecilia " of 'Humberto Solas'...
, Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
and Loles León
Loles León
María Dolores León Rodríguez is a Spanish actress.She went to Madrid to start a career as an actress. She met Pedro Almodóvar during La Movida Madrileña. He offered her the roles she played in Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios and ¡Átame!...
. The film is a grotesque drama with some elements of comedy. Set in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, El Amante Bilingüe takes an ironic approach to Catalonian linguistic policies, nationalism and eroticism with a pattern of double identity.
Plot
Juan Marés is a man from a humble background, the son of a frustrated zarzuelaZarzuela
Zarzuela is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance...
singer and an illusionist known as Fu-Ching, the magician. He grew up in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
during the 50s, dreaming of leaving his poverty behind. During his youth in the 70s, he meets his future wife. He was in a photograph exhibit, when just coincidence involved him with a group who was organizing a hunger strike for four days. There, he meets Norma Valenti, the only daughter of a wealthy family of traditional Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
background. In spite of big economical, social and cultural differences between them, Juan and Norma get married.
Norma works for the department of linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
while Juan or Joan, his Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
name, is overwhelmed by the social position acquired through the marriage. There is little use in Marés’ new life for his skills as ventriloquist or accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
player. After five years, the marriage starts to fall apart, when Norma’s real character comes to the surface. The beautiful Norma is a proud, cold woman with dark sexual tendencies. She has a special attraction for low class men who are “charnego
Charnego
Xarnego is a pejorative or descriptive term used primarily in the 1950s-70s in the Catalonia region of Spain to denote a person who had immigrated to Catalonia from other parts of Spain, often Andalusia, but who did not speak or learn Catalan, the primary language spoken in the region and one of...
s” ( people who are not Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
). Norma also has a particular fetish with shoes, the men she sleeps with have to hold a shoe with the sole force of their erection. Juan returns home one evening, earlier than expected. He finds his unfaithful wife having sex with a shoe shiner charnego. Face with proof of her infidelity, Norma, tired of her husband, just leaves him for good.
Juan keeps the apartment, he used to share with his wife, but without her support, he is reduced to scratch a living from the streets playing the accordion and begging for money in las Ramblas. While performing on the streets, he is caught in the middle of a confrontation between a pro- Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
language group and a Spanish right wing extremist. Juan plays the anthem of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
which make him a target of the extremist who throw at him a Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
burning him.
Horribly disfigured in the explosion, Juan Marés falls deeper into indigence and schizophrenic hallucinations. His personality is transformed by his misfortune. He is obsessed with the happiness he has lost and with the memory of his wife. He encounters Norma a couple of times, first while he is performing on the streets but she does not recognize him in his new painful condition. Marés talks to her again during the carnival in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, under the disguise of the invisible man, only at the end of their small talk, he gives her a clue about his identity. Another day he calls her up at work pretending to need help in the translation of many words from Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
to Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
.
His hallucinations increase and a new identity starts to take shape in his mind : the emphatically non Catalan Juan Faneca. Faneca has a strong, deep Murcian accent, a pencil mustache, sharp sideburns and eye patch. He is a charnego from Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
and childhood friend of Marés, coming back to Barcelona after years living as a worker in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Juan Marés, now under the disguise of Juan Faneca, tries first his new identity with his lonely neighbor, Griselda, whom he seduces starting an affair. Later with the excuse of looking for Juan Marés, Faneca gets closer to Norma and his dream is fulfilled. They have a one night stand. By then the seductiveness of the happier personality of Juan Faneca has completely taken over Marés, who is no more. A future with Griselda awaits now Faneca.
Production
Spanish director, Vicente Aranda, became well known in SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in the 1980s for his cinematographic adaptation of literary works. He fell a close affinity with novelist, Juan Marsé, just few years apart in age; they shared similar experiences in their childhood in their native city, Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. Aranda had previously adapted two of Marsé’s novels to the big screen: La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro
The Girl with the Golden Panties is a 1980 Spanish Film directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril and Lautaro Murúa. The film was based upon a novel by Catalonian author Juan Marsé. La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro explores the changing nature of a former fascist, a reflection of Spain...
and If They Tell You I Fell
If They Tell You I Fell
If They Tell You I Fell is a 1989 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, starring Jorge Sanz and Victoria Abril. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Catalan author Juan Marsé. Set mostly in the old quarter of 1940's Barcelona, the film centers in a young rag...
. In 1992, Vicente Aranda became interested in making a third adaptation from a novel written by Juan Marse. Vicente Aranda recalled, “ Juan Marse sent me the manuscript of the novel El Amante Bilingüe and I liked it. Andres Vicente Gómez, the producer, was not very eager to take this project, he considered it too regional, very Catalan, in spite of it all, we made the film”. Producer Vicente Andres Gomez says that he and Marse thought that Mario Camús was the most appropriate director to make the film.
The film had a budget of 164 million pesetas and was a co production with Italy. Shot in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, the movie premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
, where it was well received. El Amante Bilingüe was released in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
on April 1 1993.
Cast
- Imanol AriasImanol AriasImanol Arias born Manuel María Arias Domínguez , is a Spanish actor and one off film director.Imanol Arias began his career with a travelling theatre group in Spain performing in the Basque Country of northern Spain. He debuted on TV in 1976 and his first film was in "Cecilia " of 'Humberto Solas'...
as Joan Marés/Juan Faneca - Ornella MutiOrnella MutiOrnella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
as Norma Valenti - Loles LeónLoles LeónMaría Dolores León Rodríguez is a Spanish actress.She went to Madrid to start a career as an actress. She met Pedro Almodóvar during La Movida Madrileña. He offered her the roles she played in Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios and ¡Átame!...
as Griselda - Javier BardemJavier BardemJavier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as sociopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has also garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los...
as Shoeshiner - Joan Lluis Bozzo as Valls Verdú
- Blanca Apilánez as Carmen
Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias
Imanol Arias born Manuel María Arias Domínguez , is a Spanish actor and one off film director.Imanol Arias began his career with a travelling theatre group in Spain performing in the Basque Country of northern Spain. He debuted on TV in 1976 and his first film was in "Cecilia " of 'Humberto Solas'...
was launched to star status in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
by his work with Vicente Aranda in El Lute, a film that was a critical and commercial success. Arias came to see his role in El Amante Bilingüe as a turning point in his career, a triumph after two years of relative inactivity. There are similarities between his own life and that of his character. He had a first failed marriage with a rich woman and came from modest background. The role in El Amante Bilingüe was an exciting challenge for him, having to play a character with dual personalities and different registers.
El Amante Bilingüe was co-produced with Italian investors and the role of Norma was given to Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
, an Italian actress famous for her beauty. Ornella Muti first gained attention in the English speaking world as the princess in Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
(1980). Here, she plays the suggestive role of a wealthy woman with unusual sexual fantasies. Vicente Aranda recalled “ I was very pleased with Ornella, she made as much as she could to adjust to the requirements of the film, but she is extremely beautiful and perhaps another actress, less attractive would have suited better the dark tone of the film”.
In supporting roles are: Javier Bardem
Javier Bardem
Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. In 2007 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as sociopathic assassin Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men, and has also garnered critical acclaim for roles in films such as Jamón, jamón, Carne trémula, Boca a boca, Los...
, one of Spain’s best known actors, here in one of his first roles and Loles León
Loles León
María Dolores León Rodríguez is a Spanish actress.She went to Madrid to start a career as an actress. She met Pedro Almodóvar during La Movida Madrileña. He offered her the roles she played in Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios and ¡Átame!...
, who plays a comic character. She has worked for Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Almodóvar is arguably the most successful and internationally known Spanish filmmaker of his generation. His films, marked by complex narratives, employ the codes of melodrama and use elements of pop culture, popular...
in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a 1990 Spanish film written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, a dark romantic comedy starring Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril. The plot follows a recently released psychiatric patient who kidnaps an actress in order to make her fall in love with him...
and for Vicente Aranda in La Pasión Turca
La Pasión Turca
The Turkish Passion is a 1994 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a popular novel by Antonio Gala. It stars Ana Belén and Georges Corraface. The film is an erotic drama, an exploration of female sexual desire. Highly controversial, La Pasion Turca continues Spanish...
(1994) and Libertarias
Libertarias
Libertarias is a Spanish historical drama made in 1996. It was written and directed by Vicente Aranda.In 1936, Maria , a young nun is recruited by Pilar , a militant feminist, into an anarchist militia following the onset of the Spanish Civil War...
(1996).
Analysis
El Amante Bilingüe is a ruthless and ferocious satire on the CataloniaCatalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
linguistic policies, exacerbated by social and class differences. The film is a painful reflection on the human desire to be another person.
The film is clearly marked by its geographical context. The normalization of the Catalan language
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
and the reestablishment of Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
as a strong national identity in the context of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
as a nation. Despite its support from the government of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, the films frames catalinazation comically, associating popular Catalan
Catalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
culture with racism- anti immigrant sentiment, and the rescue of self identity excluding others.
The film portrays Norma, the woman who is the intellectual driven force behind the Catalonian government policies of linguistic change, as a spoiled, sexually obsessive, cold snob. While Juan Marés disfiguration marked his alignment with the culture most associated with his perfidious wife with whom he wants to get back sexually once more.
The film does not escape the overblown qualities, thin characterization, and inherent simplistic sexual politics of the novel. However, it skillfully points out the layer construction of a second identity, Juan Faneca. The man with the black cloak, wide brimmed hat, wounded scalp and eye patch stand for some of the grotesqueness of a masculine self-image nonstructural notion of sexual predominance and based on outmoded forms of seduction.
What started as a grotesque and unbelievable adventure gradually develops into an ironic criticism of the dual, social and linguistic policies of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. The film is a dark reflection about personal identity. Aranda
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
’s ability to make the viewer feel like an "other" while treating the same topic in his film is a work of mastery
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
became well known as a film director skillful in handling erotic scenes. In El Amante Bilingüe, the director self parodies his famous erotic screen scenes, in a take in which Faneca and Norma end up turning and levitating as expression of sexual ecstasy.
Reception
El Amante Bilingüe did not enjoy commercial or critical success. According to Vicente ArandaVicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
“ The film suffered for the lack of enthusiasm from the producer of which I was aware and tried to resolved. The producer of the film, Andres Vicente Gómez explained, “El Amante Bilingüe was liked neither by the public nor the novelist or even by the actors who made it, I did not like it either. I also think, Aranda was not very happy with the film, nevertheless we went on to make another movie together”.
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda
Vicente Aranda , is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and producer.Due to his refined and personal style, he is one of the most renowned Spanish filmmakers. He started as a founded member of the Barcelona School of Film and became known for bringing contemporary Spanish novels to life on the...
explained:“ I think I did not exaggerate enough. I should have used a cruder brush. I am not defending above all my own mistakes. I would have been more satisfied with the film if I would have employed an uglier and more extreme style. It was a mistake to center the plot of the film in dialectic between two languages that were so close Catalan and Spanish. I stated often that the dialectic should have established between English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
which would have make the film more universal. The plot could have remained the same, just changing the scenery from Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
or New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and instead of a charnego some other type of foreigner, the rest working the same.
El Amante Bilingüe & other Films
Vicente Aranda often encodes his films with literary references rather than cinematographic ones. He explained: "For once I wanted to make cinematographic references to the Invisible ManThe Invisible Man
The Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...
and the Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
, but with more subtle quotations of those film through the use of the right photography in an expressionist style, but that idea had to be sacrificed to photograph Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti
Ornella Muti is an Italian actress. She was born in Rome as Francesca Romana Rivelli, to a Neapolitan father and Russian mother. Her maternal grandparents immigrated from Leningrad , Russia, to Estonia...
, beautifully. Nevertheless he remembers “ My intention was to make a contemporary film, but with Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Ramón del Valle-Inclán
Ramón María del Valle-Inclán y de la Peña , Spanish dramatist, novelist and member of the Spanish Generation of 98, is considered perhaps the most noteworthy and certainly the most radical dramatist working to subvert the traditionalism of the Spanish...
on mind and I almost made it. I should have taken things more to the extreme, but I have a tendency to moderation.
In its baroque and twisted elements, El Amante Bilingue is similar to the adaptations Vicente Aranda made of two of Juan Marse’s novels : La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro and Si Te Dicen Que Cai. In its pattern of double identities, El Amante Bilingue, resembles two Aranda’s films : Cambio de Sexo
Cambio de Sexo
Sex Change is a 1976 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril. The film dramatizes the story of a young effeminate boy, who moves to the city to explore his desire to become a woman.-Synopsis :...
and La Pasión Turca
La Pasión Turca
The Turkish Passion is a 1994 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a popular novel by Antonio Gala. It stars Ana Belén and Georges Corraface. The film is an erotic drama, an exploration of female sexual desire. Highly controversial, La Pasion Turca continues Spanish...
. In Cambio de Sexo
Cambio de Sexo
Sex Change is a 1976 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda. It stars Victoria Abril. The film dramatizes the story of a young effeminate boy, who moves to the city to explore his desire to become a woman.-Synopsis :...
, a young man with sexual identity problems is driven for his desire to become a woman. In La Pasión Turca
La Pasión Turca
The Turkish Passion is a 1994 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda adapted from a popular novel by Antonio Gala. It stars Ana Belén and Georges Corraface. The film is an erotic drama, an exploration of female sexual desire. Highly controversial, La Pasion Turca continues Spanish...
, a housewife with a placid life, leaves her former identity behind in pursue of a new one in the arms of her Turkish lover.
Awards and nominations
- Nominated to one Goya AwardsGoya AwardsThe Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards....
: Best Adapted Screenplay (Vicente Aranda) (1994)
Home media release
El Amante Bilingüe is available in Region 2 DVD. The film is in SpanishSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
with English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
subtitles. The extras include: press conference at the Montreal Film Festival, making of and cast and crew galleries.