Room in Rome

Julio Medem's "Room in Rome" is the tale of a Spanish lesbian who, one night in Rome, picks up a Russian girl who has never been with a woman before. At first the girl is nervous and after some foreplay in the lesbian's hotel room, she gets cold feet and sneaks away while the other girl is sleeping. But she has forgotten her mobile phone. She returns to the hotel room and knocks on the door. The other girl answers the door naked just as a waiter comes to deliver food to the room next door. She doesn't cover herself up but tells the waiter they may want some food later. And so begins a night of games, fantasies, laughter, love-making and the baring of souls as well as bodies.

Medem has created a film of rare beauty, intoxicating romanticism and scorching eroticism. The girls spend almost the entire film nude, the camera slowly panning over their warmly lit skin and lingering in loving close-up on the passion-lit faces. To a soundtrack of lush pop music and opera and amidst the classical paintings that cover the walls and comment on the action, the girls engage in games of fabricated identity, only gradually pealing off the layers of fantasy to reveal the often tragic secrets that have made them who they are.

It is perhaps ironic that a film about a relationship between two women should be one that drew me into its story more deeply than any romantic film I can remember, and yet I could identify with both and fell in love with both. What makes the film so powerful is not the sex, erotic as that is, but the by turns playful and compassionate interactions between the women. This is an open spontaneous encounter between two people which necessarily changes them, and it is one which captures the rich joy of life.

The film has the classical beauty of a film by Bertolucci or Visconti, but unlike their best films, which tend to look at the darker side of life, "Room in Rome" is ultimately, in spite of some powerful moments of angst, a feel-good movie.

The only previous Medem film I've seen was "Sex and Lucia" (2001) which is another favourite which also featured a supporting role by Elena Anaya, who plays the lesbian in this film. I look forward to catching up with more of the work of this talented Spanish filmmaker.

Room in Rome is the story of a short-lived physical and emotional liaison between two women in a hotel room in the last night of summer. It would be a night of intense discovery, a tour de force between two ways of seeing life, love and sex.

The story is inspired in the Chilean movie En la Cama, which at its turn was inspired by the American film Before the Sunrise. However, the setting and dialogs have been reworked and reinvented by Medem, as the story happens in Rome and the couple has the same sex.

Julio's Medem's well known mastery and filming sensibility are seen everywhere in this movie.

The use of the lighting and framing of the images are precious, elegant, warm and welcoming, very artistically composed with a great use of chiaroscuro and decoration. The room, which is the main set in which the movie happens, is not overwhelmingly present or a close asphyxiating place, but a very open fluid ethereal container where the story happens. Medem positions and moves the camera so the viewer feels is in the room, not watching the room. The spacial perspective is, therefore, very different. This is necessary as otherwise the movie would have felt oppressive and theatrical not a real and cinematic.

There is something magic about the way Medem has used the paintings in the room as well s the decoration of the ceilings, the three spaces of the room (dormitory, bathroom and balcony) and the decorative elements in it, not only to offer different facets of the personality of the characters, or show different phases in their relationship, but to incorporate those little visual elements into the story, like the little angels on the ceiling, the Venus on the bedside table, etc. This is very Medem, who always uses the surroundings as part of the story not as a mere decorative item. This movie reminded me of Medem's Chaotic Anna, in the way he incorporates art into life, and gives art a meaning that is never decorative or purely aesthetic.

The movie could have been claustrophobic and theatrical, but it is instead fresh and cinematic. The story, despite happening in the room, goes well beyond the room through the conversations of the characters and their use of the Internet to show pieces of their present and identities.

Medem also shows a wonderful direction of the actors, which is reduced to the two leading actresses and four very secondary roles. The bed scenes are very erotic, definitely hot, still tastefully filmed.

The two main actress are great in their role, especially Elena Anaya as the honest and emotionally fragile Spaniard lesbian Alba. She believes her role, and gives all what she has, showing a great acting registry from comedy to tragedy, from sweetness to cockiness. Natasha Yarovenko is not as good, but still believable as the mysterious athletic sincere and strong hetero Russian beauty, shocked by her own attraction towards Alba. There seems to be certain intimacy between the camera and the actresses, an understanding and acceptance that makes the story believable. Moreover, the two actress have a great chemistry on camera and, that is extremely important in a movie like this.

The main problem, to me, with the movie is going over the top in the drawing of the characters, so they seem somewhat removed from the viewer, not always believable. 1/ Do the characters need to have perfect bodies for the story be more believable? I mean, the two actresses have wow bodies, especially Yarovenko, so you feel that it is pure logic that they felt attracted to each other. What about having the same story with two actresses that feel attracted to each other but look more normal and less gorgeous? Said in other words, characters for which the physic attraction is not that so obvious, still equally strong. Otherwise, you are stereotyping lesbians and bi-curious as gorgeous girls only attracted to super-dudder gals. 2/ Do the characters need to have such a high professional profile to be more interesting? I don't think so. A normal person can have a great story to tell, immense depth in her soul, be very hot and attractive, and still be an office worker, for example. Finally, despite he music being very beautify, it is also very repetitive and you end resenting it.

To be honest, when I heard that Medem wanted to film a movie like this, I thought that it was just out of character. But, after watching it, I think he has adopted the story and made it completely his. A story that I thought would not interest me at all, and, on the contrary, I enjoyed immensely.

When I first watched this movie, I wasn't going to give it a negative thought to it. It was very mind soothing, very sexual, very erotic, it was very interesting to see. When you spending a night in a very exotic locale, you just want to let it loose. You have two young ladies who happen to room together for the night. They spent their times naked, talking about things they do, who they met, what their professions are. Despite their differences, they build a common bond which a memory that will last for a lifetime. The shower scene is classic. Closeness is always going to be a factor here. Now I have be working at a hotel, anything goes from closed doors. No inhibitions were shown, insecurities were not visible there. Rome is romantic for anyone who want to get away, so as the old saying goes "When in Rome, anything goes". This movie is not your typical late-night choice, and it is for late night viewing only! 4 out of 5 stars!

Habitación en Roma (2010) was released in the U.S. with the title Room in Rome. The film was written and directed by Julio Medem.

The movie stars Elena Anaya as Alba, a Spanish woman who meets a Russian woman, Natasha Yarovenko (Natasha) in a bar in Rome, and brings her back to her hotel room. The plot of the movie consists of the time the two women spend together overnight in the room.

It was hard for me to decide whether this film was soft core porn with a plot attached, or a serious work of art with lots of nudity. Elena Anaya is extremely beautiful, and Natasha Yarovenko is impossibly beautiful, so it would be hypocritical to complain about the nudity per se. However, for a review like this, it's important to help other people know what type of film they should expect when they walk into the theater or push "play" for the DVD. Arguments could be made for both points of view about whether this is a "serious" film.

Alba and Natasha do have some serious discussions, and what starts out as superficial banter becomes more soul-searching as the night progresses. Whether the two women are changed forever by the encounter is something each viewer will have to decide.

We saw this film at the Cinema Theatre as part of the first-rate ImageOut: Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. The presenter mentioned that, given the almost complete lack of clothes worn by either actor, Room in Rome was the festival film least likely to be nominated for Best Costume Design at the Academy Awards. (True, but in this case, less is more.)

When I first saw this in my local movie store, my first thought was "this is just going to be softcore." When I watched it, I was intrigued by it. I mean, yes, it is heavily sexual, but it feels like less of a adult film, and more of just an exploration of the human mind when going through sexual encounters. Overall, very, very good.