# Lola (1985)

### reviewed by
Tristan White

This is a film of very poor standard, not what I had come to expect of a director as talented as Bigas Luna.

Lola is the story of a girl (Angela Molina) who leaves Mario, her abusive alcoholic partner, and moves to Barcelona, where she meets French businessman Robert (Patrick Bauchau). They have a child (although it is not clear until later on who the father actually is), and appear to be very happy. That is, until Mario arrives four years later to track her down, claiming parentage of the child (Ana, the only likeable character in the film). Lola, who still has feelings for Mario (she misses the violence of the sex that they had) is torn between deciding to dump Robert or to return to Mario.

Unfortunately, the continuity in the film is rather poor, as is the acting. Whilst using a dubbing artist to dub young Ana is standard practice in Spanish cinema, why the director had to resort to using dubbing artists for Jeanine (Robert's ex-wife) and Lola's elderly neighbour is beyond me. The story is also rather poor, and a lot more could have been made from it. None of the characters in the film is at all likeable, with the exception of perhaps the little girl. The casting as a whole is rather poor: Robert could have been likeable -- here being the victim -- if it were not for his droning nasal voice.

I was surprised that this film was so poor, considering the originality of his earlier films (Bilbao and Caniche, for example), and the brilliance of his later films (La teta y la luna, Jamón Jamón, amongst others). Bigas must have been going through a poor patch.

    ENDS

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