The Bilingual Lover (1993)

Along with being one of the founders of the Barcelona School of Film, fiery eroticism and shining a light on just how ill-equipped certain individuals are when it comes to emotions related to sex and romance, one of the lasting legacies of Vicente Aranda is his talent for literary adaptations, with a massive chunk of his filmography consisting of adaptations of novels and short stories. Aranda's first venture in the horror genre, The Exquisite Cadaver (1969), was based off a short story by Spanish writer Gonzalo Suárez, while Aranda's most celebrated film by Euro horror aficionados, The Blood Splattered Bride (1972), was of course sourced from Sheridan Le Fanu's vampire classic Carmilla. Throughout the 80's, Aranda began adapting novels that had made big impacts within the public consciousnesses of Spain and one particular writer whom Aranda turned to more than any other throughout his career was Juan Marsé. Beginning with The Girl With the Golden Panties (1980), Aranda would adapt 3 more of Marsé's book including If They Tell You I Fell (1989) and Aranda's penultimate feature Lolita's Club (2007). For his third Marsé-based film, Aranda made a typically bold move. Riding high on the massive success of Amantes (1991), which won him a Goya award for best picture, Aranda chose to bring Marsé's novel El amante bilingüe to the screen, the end result being one of Aranda's most odd and uncommercial films.

Distraught over catching his wife Norma (Ornella Muti) frolicking with a shoe shiner, Juan Marés (Imanol Arias) troubles are just beginning as Norma leaves him immediately after. Years following their separation, Juan makes his living as a street musician, performing in disguise after being disfigured by a Molotov cocktail thrown by a fascist demonstrator. Even more miserable than before, Juan has still not gotten over Norma and is prone to visits in his dreams by an altar-ego, the suave Juan Faneca who urges Juan Marés to embrace this alternate personality to win Norma back. With his pining for Norma taking a toll on his already fragile metal health, Juan Marés decides to bring Juan Faneca to life by disguising himself in a desperate bid to get close to Norma.

A strange, strange film, El amante bilingüe, or The Bilingual Lover, certainty fits in with a good portion of Aranda's 90's output as much like Amantes and the films that would follow, particularly Intruso (1993) and The Turkish Passion (1994), The Bilingual Lover centers around love becoming obsession, yet the execution is miles apart from the other films. Essentially a tragicomic take on the concept of l'amour fou, Aranda's decision to tackle material that could have easily crossed over into psychological horror territory in a more comedic manor certainty makes for some peculiar and downright baffling viewing, yet it's exactly what gives the film its singular identity. The films style of humor is bizarre to the Nth degree, at times bordering on the surreal with Juan Faneca's communicating with Juan Marés through household appliances, water pipes and the toilet. Juan Marés' disfigurement also requires him to perform in various get-ups, his favorite being a costume resembling the Phantom of the Opera and at one point in the film Juan Marés disguises himself as the Invisible Man which recalls Aranda's surrealist masterpiece Fata Morgana (1965). Even with all its frivolity the film still pulls double duty and delivers on the dramatics and is quite psychologically ambiguous, especially as it relates to Juan Marés mental state. On the edge from the beginning, the film more or less see's him willingly be taken over by madness as a coping mechanism, not unlike Jacques Dutronc in Andrzej Zulawski's My Nights are More Beautiful Than YourDays (1989).

The subject of language, more specifically the differences between Spanish and Catalan which give the film its title is one of the films more curious aspects. Truthfully, the film would have worked just as well without it but its importance stresses just how personal a project the film must have been for Aranda, himself Catalan. The flashbacks early in the film detailing the beginning of Juan Marés' and Norma's relationship as well as the cause of Juan Marés' facial injuries are yet another example of the film recalling Aranda's more politically charged past work, with their anti-authoritarian stance and commentary on class differences. While both are again clear personal statements for Aranda, most unsuspecting viewers will more than likely find them bewildering just as most did when the film was initially released as reception to the film was the complete opposite of Amantes. Aranda would later claim that the producers weren't all that interested in the material and interestingly, he even expressed some regrets on putting so much importance on language, feeling it limited the films appeal. Nevertheless, to come off a success like Amantes with a film like The Bilingual Lover is testament to Aranda having been one of the leading mavericks of Spanish cinema. Its a film that begs the question, “Who was this made for?” and like so many films that spark that same question, is idiosyncratic and wholly original.