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Julio Medem further blurs the boundaries between the mainstream and the erotic with this charged encounter between two women sharing a one-night stand in a hotel room, spies Simon Kinnear.

Basque auteur Julio Medem blurred the boundaries between mainstream cinema and erotica with the frank Sex and Lucia. Room in Rome – a remake of Chilean movie En la cama – pares things down further, detailing the charged, candid encounter between two women – Spaniard Alba (Elena Anaya), Russian Natasha (Natasha Yarovenko) – sharing a one-night fling in Alba’s hotel room.

More than soft-core titillation, the film plays like Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise stripped (literally) to its essence, as the women share stories and reveal their feelings.  For the engaged Natasha, it’s a last chance to play; the more emotional Alba simply wants to experience a moment of perfect intimacy.  Sex punctuates proceedings as markers of changing mood and character, and the actresses respond to Medem’s experiment with naturalism in every sense.

Like Rear Window, Medem’s camera never leaves the hotel, but the clever use of Alba’s laptop and the room’s paintings are a constant reminder of the wider world. All the more reason, then, to savour the here and now … and as such Room in Rome is a welcome divertissement from cinema’s customary bustle.

 

Simon Kinnear on 27th September 2010
View all 3 of Simon Kinnear's reviews