Rent Jamon Jamon (1992)

Bonkers sex farce with extra garlic - Jamon Jamon review by Kurtz

Early sighting of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem both up to their shapely necks in lust and dirty dealing. Cruz gets to run around in the rain and be ardently wooed by most of the men in the cast (no change there, then), whilst the director leaves little to the imagination in his portrayal of Bardem as the local stud (nude bullfighting, anyone??) Bed-hopping, jealous rage, oedipal moments, a parrot voyeur and a suicidal piglet, you name it, it’s all there. There are a number of surreally comic moments, e.g. a fight to the death with a leg of ham, but we’re well into melodrama territory even before the OTT final tableau.

Meat, Sex, and Class Warfare - Jamon Jamon review by griggs

Bigas Luna doesn’t so much tell a story as throw a leg of jamón at the screen and dare you to find the symbolism. Jamón Jamón is a tale of thwarted love and maternal manipulation, told through sweat, thighs, and surreal flourishes. It’s absurd in all the right places — not just bawdy for effect, but using erotic chaos as a way to smuggle in something sharper.

Everyone’s sleeping with everyone, but underneath the flesh parade is a jagged little class satire. Silvia is punished not for getting pregnant, but for daring to want a life beyond the factory floor. Javier Bardem’s Raúl, all brute charm and hollow machismo, is less a person than a product: body first, thoughts optional.

It’s a film full of sexual ambiguity, symbolic livestock, and the kind of nudity that feels more confrontational than titillating. Not quite the sum of its parts, but there’s plenty to chew on.