Stars: Francesca Neri, Oscar Ladoire, Maria Barranco, Fernando Guillen, Javier Bardem, Rosana Pastor

Director: Bigas Luna

Summary: An exploration of sexual obsession and perversion that sees a young woman pushed to the very limits of sexual desire when she marries the man who took her virginity who has returned from overseas. Soon their passion takes on a dangerous new angle.

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The Ages of Luluis a gruelling sexual odyssey from Spanish director Bigas Luna, made immediately prior to his popular trilogy Jamón, jamón(1992), Golden Balls(1993) and The Tit and the Moon(1994). Starting as the somewhat queasy story of the young Lulu's affair with the manipulative Pablo (Oscar Ladoire), the movie takes a much darker turn once they are wed. It is conventional cinematic wisdom that there's no such thing as sex after marriage, but here Lulu's husband incomprehensibly leads her into blindfolded incest, then is heartbroken when she reacts with disgust.

Soon Lulu (superbly played by Francesca Neri from ingénueto hardened 30-something), is paying gay men for group sex, eventually becoming an unwilling attraction in a commercial sado-machochistic orgy. The closest most UK audiences will have come to this before is in Ken Russell's The Devils(1971) and Crimes of Passion(1984), and it is surely one of the most gut-churningly nightmarish scenes ever passed for home viewing. While Ages of Lulumay function as a reactionary warning against the wilder shores of sex, Luna's intention remains unsatisfyingly enigmatic, since the script is under-written and psychologically unconvincing. The end result is pretentious, repellent pornography which degrades human beings of any sexual persuasion.

On the DVD:The Ages of Luluis transferred at an anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 and image quality is very good, though in some scenes very slightly soft. The film can be watched with or without English subtitles, and the sound is unremarkable stereo. The main extras are a seven-page essay on Bigas Luna and five pages detailing the now restored 110 seconds of cuts made to the 1998 video release. The main title still contains 65 seconds of alternate footage to the cinema original for legal reasons. Also included are filmographies of Lunas and Oscar Ladoire, two trailers plus trailers for six other films. --Gary S Dalkin

Aspect Ratio:	Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	Spanish
Region:	Region 0
Special Features:	Star And Director Filmographies, Scene Selection, Billy Chainsaw Film Notes, Ages Of Lulu At The BBFC, Tartan Video Trailer Reel
Subtitles:	English
Year:	1990
Release Date:	December 16, 2002
Runtime:	99 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	T V D 3405
Keywords:	Adult, Subtitled, General, Wide, Screen, Lulu, Ages, Spanish, Drama
Genre:	Drama