The Tit and the Moon

Once seen, never forgotten. This magical movie combines cinematic skill with great performances. Put your inhibitions on hold and enjoy this hugely entertaining story. Enormously entertaining , this movie transcends the unique cultural setting by its celebratory humanity.

La Teta i la Luna (The Breast and the Moon) describes the life of a 9-10 year old boy named Tete who is obsessed with breasts growing up in Catalunya. I love this movie because the characters are very honest and very human, like all the characters in Bigas Luna's movies (also director of Jamon, Jamon). Tete reminded me of how intriguing and exciting life can be at that age. Also being from Catalunya (North-east of Spain) it brought lots of memories to my mind. This movie shows how beautiful Catalunya is, nice people, nice life and specially lots of non-uptight people.

Nine-year-old Tete (Biel Duran) has a problem any older brother can relate to . The child cannot stand the idea of having a new brother and dreams about drinking milk from the breasts of his mother again . As the family's new arrival has replaced him at his mummy's (Laura Maña) breast . The boy asks and invokes the moon to bring him a tit only for him . Then , an imposing woman called Estrellita (Mathilda May) , a Gallic performer , comes in and he falls in love for her . However , his adolescent brother (Miguel Poveda) already his eyes on her . While the gorgeous lady herself seems sweet on her stage colleague Maurice (Gerard Darmon). The whole issue being unified by the scene of the tit suckling one and all .

Typical and stirring Bigas Luna picture filled with strange happenings , twisted events , erotic scenes and surrealist images . This attractive as well as erotic story is a passionate retelling and an ironical story about a dreamer kid in which his short age doesn't avoid to follow his impossible dream . Full of visual images , fetishism and wonderful scenes , but including bad taste and strong sex scenes with loads of female nudism . Third part of Bigas Luna's "Iberian Trilogy" also adding Jamón, Jamón and Golden eggs . The first installment ¨Jamon , Jamon¨¨ concerns on satiric machismo in which a ¨macho man¨ falls in love for a lower-class girl ; ¨Huevos De Oro¨ dealt with a mean young attempts to build the great phallic symbol of power , at whatever cost ; while ¨The tit and the moon¨ director Bigas Luna adopts a more reflective approach . It's more sympathetic , gentler piece than its immediate predecessors . Filmmaker Luna sets up symbolic opposition between sexual experience of the various males and their excessive youth . In the flick we find brief description about several Catalan habits such as : human castles , Bread with tomato , Barretinas , Sardana music , among others . This Spanish picture is an enjoyable tale with a thought-provoking characterizing about a few characters , compelling drama and colorful outdoors . It is an overblown as well as strange drama , including surrealist elements , being screen-written by the same filmmaker along with his usual screen-writer Cuca Canals . Director Bigas Luna also writes the script filmed in his usual formal and stylistic scholarship , without leaving a trace the brooding issues , in terms of dramatic and narrative excitement . However , the film's essential problem is its failure to generate the sort of pace drive that would forge its metaphoric patterns into interesting drama . The storyline relies heavily on the continued dreams of the starring , including a lot of sexual scenes , almost softcore , but it doesn't make boring , however the film is entertaining . In spite of , the movie results to be acceptable and compellingly realized . Bigas carries out a perfect imaginary , a willingness almost perfect of the elements of each shot , every sequence, every space . Good acting by quartet protagonist , all of them give fine performances , such as Biel Duran as likable child who must invoke the moon for a new tit to call his own ; Miguel Poveda as a sex-crazed teenager usually singing Andalucian songs and Gerard Darmon as anguished romantic performer , his interpretation is genuinely moving . And special mention to Mathilda May, she is marvelous and charming with her sweet and enjoyable countenance and appealing body . Sensitive as well as evocative musical score by Nicola Piovani who won Academy Award for ¨Life is beautiful¨. Furthermore , a colorful and evocative cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine who was first cinematographer to use fluorescent tube as "key" lightning and deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameraman . Alcaine frequently works with Pedro Almodóvar , Bigas Luna and Vicente Aranda , as he has photographed ¨The skin I live in¨ , The bad education¨ , ¨Volver¨ , ¨Women in the verge of a nervous breakdown¨, among others . Here he shows splendidly the impressive landscapes from Cataluña.

The motion picture was stunningly directed by Bigas Luna , but somehow it's the disturbing as well as shocking of dream-sequence lactation on the end that still succours the strongest and rarest impression. Luna follows his particular style , plenty of sex , food references and surrealist homages including some abstract dream sequences . Bigas Luna was born on March 19, 1946 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain as Josep Joan Bigas Luna . He was a Bon Vivant who along with his wife, produced wine, ham, and organic products ; they are well shown in his films . He was a writer and director, known for ¨Jamón, Jamón¨ (1992), ¨Huevos de Oro¨ or ¨Golden eggs¨ (1993) "The Chambermaid on the Titanic" , ¨Angustia¨ or ¨Anguish¨ (1987) , this ¨The tit and the moon¨ , ¨Volaverunt¨ , ¨Yo soy La Juani¨, ¨Di , Di Hollywwod¨ among others . He's also an expert on murky atmosphere such as proved in ¨Caniche¨ , ¨Tatuaje¨, ¨Bilbao¨ , ¨Anguish¨ and ¨Reborn¨. Luna discovered actors Ariadna Gil, Leonor Watling , Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz . He sadly died recently on April 6, 2013 in Tarragona, Catalonia . This film ¨La Teta Y La Luna¨ is stylishly photographed and smartly designed and here Bigas Luna delivers his ordinary and erotic goods with nice sense of style . The picture will appeal to Mathilda May fans and Bigas Luna buffs.

I recently saw Iñárritu's most recent experiment with cinematic narrative, so I pulled this out. I've been saving it for such an occasion, where I need something from a Spanish mind that is as direct as anything in Hollywood.

But it involves two things that Hollywod just cannot seem to do: pre-adolescent wonder about sex, and genuine magical realism. I don't like the term because it is at once too broad (like "surrealism" and "irony") and at the same time usually expressed too simply. Here, the magical worlds we shift in and out of are worlds driven by lactation: one of a boy's fantasy yearning a the second of the physics of what he encounters explained through that world. And there's a third which is shared only between us as adults and the filmmaker.

That adult magical world is populated by a French couple: a young dancer played by the desirable Mathilda May and her husband who performs with her. His stage skill is farting, and he bills himself as the man of fire, appearing in fire-painted leathers and with a motorcycle as prop, both for the stage show and the film proper.

There's a magical folding of course between the show they put on, the one confabulated by the boy, the one we see in the film, and one managed by the boys' dad. In this latter case, the boy strives to be the top of a penis constructed of men. It begins the film where the boy fails and ends with him fully erect, imagining May's breasts, suckling both her's and his mother's.

The French performing farter is loosely based on a real French performer: Joseph Pujol, billed as Le Pétomane. He was the most successful entertainer in late nineteenth century France.

This film isn't Spanish at all, instead from a land called Catalonia, a quite unique land that some would say is temporarily occupied by Spain. Its a rather wonderful place which includes Barcelona. The language is more impulsive than French, more languidly sensual than Italian and far more pleasing to the ear than Spanish. It borders on France and has been influenced linguistically at least by that proximity. But just as the Brazilains make fun of the Portuguese, so the Catalons make fun of the French. You have to know that to appreciated the lack of wholeness the French couple has, plus jokes like the French loaf for a penis.

Performing: the couple performs on stage; the little boy on top of the human phallus; the older teen on the woman (and singing to her); and certain nipples produce on call.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I enjoyed a lot watching this movie. It has a great direction, by the already know Bigas Luna, born in Spain. And it is precisely in Spain that the movie takes place, in Cataluña, to be more precise.

Luna explores once more the theme of an obcession, in this case the obcession of a young boy for the women's milk. There are some psychological concepts in this story such as the rejection complex that the elder son feels with the birth of his brother. In the movie this is what leads to the obcession of the young boy who suddenly sees all his mother's milk go to the recently born son. So he starts trying to find a breast who is able to feed him. He finds it in a woman recently arrived and from here on the movie is all around this.

This movie lives a lot on imagery, more than the story itself, the espectator captures certain moments (unforgettable moments) and certain symbols (the movie deserves a thourough analyses on almost everything that happens because it usually means something...). The surroundings, the landscapes, typical from the region as well as the surreal behaviors of the characters, also symbolic, and the excelent ambiguous soundtrack by Nicola Piovani transport us to another dimension, not parallel to the real world, but which intersects it from times to times... Worth living in that world, worth watching this movie, even though we may eventually and for moments get tired and a bit sick with the excessive obcession, which is perhaps taken beyond the limits...

I also enjoyed the performance of the protagonist... 8/10