Rating: Unrated
Genre: Drama , Romance , Art House & International
Directed By: Xavier Villaverde
Written By: Ana Maroto
On DVD: Apr 15, 2013
Runtime: 1 hr. 45 min.
Bruno, a struggling student, loves his girlfriend Carla but discovers a new side to himself when he meets a street dancer named Rai. A new generation navigates sexual fluidity, torn affections, and open relationships in a steamy love triangle.
Bruno là một sinh viên đang có vấn đề, yêu bạn gái của mình là Carla nhưng lại khám phá ra một phương diện khác của bản thân mình khi anh gặp một anh chàng khiêu vũ trên đường phố tên là Rai. Một sự phát khởi mới đã mang đến sự uyển chuyển về tính dục, những xúc cảm giằng xé và những mối quan hệ phóng khoáng trong một chuyện tình tay ba nóng bỏng.
| Sex of Angels | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Xavier Villaverde |
| Produced by | Pancho Casal, Jordi Mendieta, Bob Costa, and Leonel Vieira |
| Written by | Ana Maroto |
| Starring | Álvaro Cervantes Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey Llorenç González Sonia Méndez Marc Pociello Marc García Coté Julieta Marocco Ricard Farré Lluisa Castell |
| Music by | Eduardo Molinero |
| Cinematography | Sergi Gallardo |
| Edited by | Guillermo Represa |
| Distributed by | IFC Midnight |
Release dates
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Running time
| 106 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish (Castilian), Catalan |
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MQFF REVIEW: The Sex of the Angels (2012, Dir. Xavier Villaverde)
Has there ever been a threesome movie that hasn't nervously shuffled around the guy on guy thing?** From my experience, there's always something that gets in the way. Whether it's down to terminally unrequited love (Threesome), unresolved sexual repression (Y tu mamá también), or just plain excruciating boredom (A Home at the End of the World) the guys generally get, um, no end of the stick. That's one of the aspects that is so refreshing about Xavier Villaverde's The Sex of the Angels (El sexo de los ángeles), it's a real balls-in real free for all.
The other refreshing things are Álvaro Cervantes, Llorenç González and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey... refreshingly hot.
I hate to paint myself as someone who is quite this shallow but... hot, hot, hot.
Hot enough that I've really had to hold back from throwing an extra star at this film. It's not that the film deserves it, just that it is so good looking (and by that I mean filled with good lookers) that it is hard to restrain myself.
Ahem... Let me try to qualify all this. Threesome films were one of the few sources of mainstream quasi-queer content in the 80s and 90s. Their almost-socially-acceptable representation of homosexuality always promised a lot but never really delivered. The anticipation that it might kept me on the lookout though. Years of anticipation, very little payoff. On top of that, I don't think it was ever healthy to expect that much out of Stephen Baldwin.
I guess, on some subconscious level, this is why I connected to Villaverde's film more strongly that it probably deserves. It is reasonably formulaic (hot couple meet handsomely aloof stranger, one falls in love, they break up, get back together, rinse and repeat, climax with all in action) but it actually follows through. The Sex of the Angels stands by its convictions. That is pretty rare in the sub-genre.
And the actors are hot.
When I say hot, I mean Jake Gyllenhaal and Liv Tyler are going to star in the remake and they still aren't going to come up to the mark. The third guy will still be played by Álvaro Cervantes (I will personally pay for his English lessons if he needs them because I'm pretty sure that until Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum have a love child, he's the only one who could play the role and by the time he grows up Liv and Jake will be past it).
Do you need to know what it is about? Details, details... Bruno (González) is rescued from an open air mugging by street dancer, Rai (Cervantes), which causes him to miss out on meeting up with his long time girlfriend Carla (Bergès-Frisbey). The pair bond, and then "bond", which puts a certain amount of stress on Bruno's relationship with Carla but they eventually arrive at an agreement. Not that it lasts all that long, soon Bruno is getting a taste of his own medicine and the real drama begins.
All the while this is going on, her workmates are enthralled and frustrated by the shenanigans, not only because half of them are after Rai themselves, but because Carla's emotional rollercoaster is impacting on their small scale magazine operation. Their interest in the ups and downs of the expanded relationship reflect the audiences; it is not hard to prompt interest in the jealousies and power plays of a relationship if the participants are engaging enough and Bruno, Carla and especially Rai, certainly are that. If there is a weak link in the threesome it is Bergès-Frisbey's performance as Carla. Her portrayal of what for the majority of the film is the wounded woman is trying at times. It not entirely down to her though, she is really the only one of the three who is given anything substantial to do in terms of on screen soul searching and the part is a little underwritten. Once she enters wholeheartedly into the relationship, most of those issues are ironed out.
On the action front, the guy on guy scenes still pull short shrift though González and Cervantes more than make up for this in their touching and very believable intimacy. Actually, the intimacy is fantastic across the board and this, and the numerous well-observed character moments, lift the film above its predictable plotting.
As The Sex of the Angels approaches its finale, worries about how things will be tied up fuel anticipation but also a slight dread (the film veers dangerously close to the ending of Segunda piel, the Javier Bardem/Jordi Molla flick that neatly tidies things up with a couple of random deaths) but thankfully Villaverde takes his film somewhere new and the exuberant closing credits sequence should have everyone smiling as they leave the cinema.
So yeah, it is kind of the film I've been waiting for for a while.
MICHAEL SCOTT
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