Um Quarto em Roma

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.

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.

The film, first of all, has a superb music. Then it is filmed in a unique manner, intimate, full of intensity, the camera penetrates slowly into the core of the soul of the two female characters, two young women who fall in love with each other during a night in a hotel room in Rome. The two actresses, Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenko, shows not only their physical beauty, but a small part of the beauty of the human soul. It's a love story, very sensitive, it is not soft-porn. The most intense moment of the film is when Alba and Natacha are singing the Italian song "Volare" in the bathroom. Although all the action takes place only in that hotel room, the movie is not boring at all, can be seen with pleasure, and 2nd and 3rd time.

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.)

For those who live or have actually traveled to Italy; imagine you are walking towards the Rome Hilton (which was a very elegant and plush establishment, as I recall from so many years ago), or the Waldorf Estoria, for those not familiar with the aforementioned Italian high end hotel. You walk up to what appears to be a beautifully built and lavish edifice that echoes of history and prestige and as the doorman opens the door separating the outside from the inside, you realize as you take those first few steps that you've just walked into the lobby of a Motel 8, or any of those "budget inns" that while functional and serve their purpose, are a far cry from what you might have expected by looking at the exterior. That experience would be the best way to describe this film.

Everything from the title to the setting, to the cinematography and the two main characters, bespeaks of a grandeur to come. However, its never delivered, or even left at the door and what we are relegated to is not unlike the menu of a hotel lobby vending machine. All the staples are there; the clichéd and contrived desperation you might find in a first year film student's production; where they are so anxious to get their "message" across, even if there is no actual message. The dull and frequently over dramatized allusion of a passion that simply isn't convincing, as well as the dialogue that makes attempts at "art house" depth, but is actually closer to a 1970s Giallo b-grade script; where the characters hang on every sentence as if promising a clue of what's to come, but their empty words only end up being a painful and constant buildup to that which never does.

Now I didn't walk into this expecting it to be a soft-core sex film, nor was that what I was looking for. Which is fine, because its actually closer to feather-core and based on the remaining content of the film which simply put, consists of two fit and attractive women who remain predominately naked throughout the picture and unconvincingly attempt to make us believe in their increasing affection for one another, perhaps the former option would have been more successful for all parties involved.

The film tries. It tries to create a depth to two women who are essentially having little more than an overnight fling. It tries to deliver eroticism and sensuality. It tries to be something that (as one previous commenter mentions) "panders to an American audience," but it also tries to provide for those who might be looking for more high-end "accommodation." It tries and tries, but in the end when that hand is extended with its palm up and waiting, all I could manage to think was, "for THAT kind of service I could have done without the bags."

A Room in Rome is about as deep and interesting as hotel closet and left me feeling as satisfied as if I'd just checked into one.