Presented in collaboration with: the Ministerio de Educacion and the Spanish Tourist Office in Los Angeles

A duel to the death with cured hams … golden Rolexes and hard-boiled balls … Roman legions and mother’s milk … the films of legendary Spanish director Bigas Luna literally overflow with symbolist and surrealist images, drawn from his seemingly inexhaustible passion for sex, food and his native Catalunya. Everything is oversized in Luna’s universe, from women’s breasts to male egos; one of his great gifts as a filmmaker is to be able to satirize Spanish culture without deflating any of its mysteries.

Born in Barcelona in 1946, Luna studied painting and design in college, and founded his own avant garde design company soon after graduation. Luna turned to filmmaking in 1976 with TATUAJE, but it was his second feature, BILBAO (1978), that first brought him international attention. The disturbing first-person narrative of an emotionally-crippled voyeur, BILBAO also reverberated with political implications: the title refers to both a prostitute’s name and the industrial capital of the Basque region, long a center of resistance to Castilian control. The success of JAMON JAMON (1990), starring modern Spain’s greatest actor Javier Bardem in his breakthrough performance, brought Luna long-overdue recognition in the U.S. and began what he describes as his "Iberian Trilogy" along with HUEVOS DE ORO (1992) also starring Bardem, and LA TETA I LA LLUNA (1995).

Please join us for a 3 night tribute to this brilliant and iconoclastic director!!

Friday, May 20 – 7:30 PM

Double Feature:

JAMON JAMON, 1990, 100 min. Bigas Luna’s breakthrough film stars Spain’s greatest modern actor, Javier Bardem (THE SEA INSIDE) in his first major role, as "the Brando of Los Monegros," bullfighter and ham delivery-boy. Penelope Cruz (VANILLA SKY) co-stars as Bardem’s love interest in her breakout performance as well. An erotic parable of modern Spain, "coast and interior, computers and jamones," set in a desolate, dreamlike landscape of burger joints and whorehouses. "I wanted to fascinate others with what fascinates me." – Bigas Luna.

BILBAO, 1978, 90 min. With Angel Jove, Maria Martin, Isabel Pisano. A crucial film in post-Franco cinema, BILBAO charts the sexual fantasties of Leo, an emasculated voyeur obsessed with kidnapping a prostitute. Bigas Luna employs his trademark close-ups to create a carnal world of fish-heads, body parts and electric razors, underscored by Lotte Lenya’s haunting song "Bilbao." A nightmarish urban vision as powerful in its way as Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER. Discussion in between film with director Bigas Luna.

>> Both films also playing at the Aero on May 22

Saturday, May 21 – 7:00 PM

Double Feature:

GOLDEN BALLS (HUEVOS DE ORO), 1993, 90 min. Arguably Bigas Luna’s greatest masterpiece and one of the funniest, sexiest and most disturbing portraits of the new Spain put on film. Benito (Javier Bardem, at his carnal best) believes that because he has (literally) two huevos, he deserves two of everything else: Rolexes, cars, women, whatever. Co-starring the stunning Maribel Verdu (Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN) and Maria de Medeiros (PULP FICTION). Luna’s caustic satire of kitsch and the new rich has something to offend everyone.

POODLE (CANICHE), 1979, 90 min. Bigas Luna’s most scandalous and controversial film – it’s only been shown a handful of times in the U.S. where it was greeted with outrage by shocked audiences – CANICHE is also one of his finest portraits of obsession, frailty and the human heart of darkness. Bernardo (Angel Jove) and Eloisa (Consol Tura) are a brother and sister holed up in a decaying Gothic mansion surrounded by swirling organ music, where their frustrated incestuous desires for each other are redirected towards … dogs. Luna shatters every taboo in the book with this very sick and darkly humorous portrait of "animal passions" run riot. He also creates a sense of dread and suspense mixed with wicked perversity that would make Hitchcock and Bava proud. [Animal lovers beware: Although no animals were harmed in the making of the film, there are images you may find profoundly disturbing!]

>> Both films also playing at the Aero on May 20.

Sunday, May 22 – 5:00 PM

Los Angeles Premiere! SOUND OF THE SEA (SON DE MAR), 2001, 95 min. Bigas Luna’s most recent film finally receives it’s long-overdue L.A. premiere. The wonderful Leonor Watling (TALK TO HER) stars as a young woman who falls into a mad, obsessive erotic relationship with a literature professor (Jordi Molla, from LA BUENA ESTRELLA and SEGUNDA PIEL) when he moves to her seaside town. But soon after their marriage and the birth of their son, the professor vanishes and is assumed to be dead … or is he? Luna revisits his favorite theme of the overwhelming rush of desire that binds people together – and tears them asunder -- in this superb drama. For mature audiences only.

VOLAVERUNT, 1999, 90 min. Four of Spain’s finest actors – Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (THE CHAMBERMAID ON THE TITANIC), Penélope Cruz (VANILLA SKY), Jordi Mollà (LA BUENA ESTRELLA) and Jorge Perrugorría – light up this gorgeous, seductive historical mystery from the maestro Bigas Luna. Following the death of the beautiful Duchess of Alba (Sánchez-Gijón) in 1802, her former lovers, including the painter Goya (Perrugorría) and the Prime Minister, Godoy (Mollà), try to uncover the silken web of deceit, adultery and court intrigue that led to her murder. Cruz stars as the lovely Pepita, one of the Prime Minister’s mistresses – and a prime suspect in the Duchess’ death. Inspired by Goya’s infamous nude and clothed portraits of the Duchess of Alba, VOLAVERUNT shows Luna at his best – erotic, oversaturated, thoroughly unpredictable. Due to a schedule change, there will NOT be a discussion in between film with director Bigas Luna as was previously announced.