El Amante Bilingüe
| El Amante Bilingüe | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Vicente Aranda |
| Produced by | Andrés Vicente Gómez |
| Written by | Vicente Aranda |
| Starring |
Imanol Arias Ornella Muti Loles León Javier Bardem |
| Music by | José Nieto |
| Cinematography | Juan Amorós |
| Edited by | Teresa Font |
| Distributed by | Lola Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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113 minutes |
| Country | Spain Italy |
| Language | Spanish Catalan |
| Budget | P163,969,792 |
The Bilingual Lover (Spanish: El Amante Bilingüe) is a 1993 Spanish film, written and directed by Vicente Aranda and 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 in the 1980s, El Amante Bilingüe takes an ironic approach to Catalonian linguistic policies, nationalism and eroticism with a pattern of double identity that was based on elements from the author's life.
Juan Marés (an anagram of the author's name) is a Catalan man from a humble background, the son of a frustrated zarzuela seamstress and an illusionist known as Fu-Ching. He grew up in Barcelona during the 1950s, dreaming of leaving his poverty behind. In December 1970, he meets his future wife at a photographic exhibit, when he involves himself with a group organizing a four-day hunger strike to protest the verdict of the 1969 show trials in Burgos. There he meets Norma Valenti, the only daughter of a wealthy family of traditional and conservative Catalan background. In spite of economic, social and cultural differences between them, Juan and Norma get married.
Norma works for the department of linguistics of the Generalitat regional government, 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 surfaces. The beautiful Norma is proud and cold, with dark sexual tendencies. She has a special attraction for low-class men, so-called “xarnegos”. Norma also has a shoe fetish; she makes the men she sleeps with support a shoe with their erection. Returning home earlier than expected, Juan finds his wife having sex with a xarnego shoe shiner. Her infidelity revealed, Norma leaves her husband.
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Wikipedia