Taglines: A dish of a woman.
Jamón Jamón movie storyline. Silvia (Penélope Cruz), a beautiful girl, sews underwear at an underwear factory owned by José Luis’ family and prepares omelettes (tortillas de patatas) for extra income. After missing two periods, Silvia reveals to José that she is pregnant, expecting him to react negatively.
However, to Silvia’s surprise and delight, José Luis expresses his love for her and desire for her to go through with the pregnancy. He romantically picks up the ring from a soda can he finds on the ground and places it on her finger and tells her they will get married. Despite the apparent monetary worthlessness of this item, Silvia cherishes it and all that it symbolises.
José Luis has a difficult time explaining to his overbearing and conniving mother that he is in love with Silvia and intends to marry her. His mother, Conchita, does not approve and when her husband refuses to help her by intervening, she takes matters into her own hands. She hires Raúl, an underwear model who works for the family business, to seduce Silvia, hoping this will destroy the relationship and prevent the marriage.
In spite of several aggressive attempts by Raúl to seduce Silvia, she remains committed to marry José Luis. Raúl however, becomes genuinely infatuated with Silvia while Conchita’s lust for Raúl leads her to offer him anything he wants if only he has sex with her. Raúl’s choice is a Yamaha FZR600 motorbike so, despite his apparent lack of interest in Conchita, he becomes her lover.
Meanwhile, José Luis’s inability to come to a decision about whether to marry Silvia without his mother’s approval leads to Silvia’s deciding she wants a “real man”, one who has gumption. She begins to take interest in Raúl. Conchita does not approve of this relationship either because she wants Raúl for herself. Silvia, in the meantime, starts responding to Raúl’s advances. This enrages José Luis, who nearly rapes Silvia and swears to kill Raúl.
The film ends with a fight to the death between José and Raúl. José Luis catches Raúl having sex with Conchita and engages in duel with legs of ham for weapons. José Luis is eventually killed by Raúl. Just as the couple grieve over José Luis, Silvia and José Luis’s father arrive, followed by Silvia’s mother. The films ends with a peculiar grieving scene, which reiterates the recurring themes of primal instincts, infidelity, and destruction.
Jamón Jamón (Spanish pronunciation: [xaˈmon xaˈmon]; English: Ham, Ham) is a 1992 Spanish comedy/drama film directed by Bigas Luna and starring Javier Bardem, Jordi Mollà and Penélope Cruz in her debut film. It centers on a young woman named Silvia played by Cruz. The film is an allegory for Spain itself and the director engages in word play and pun. It rhapsodises on the juxtaposition of old and new in Spain and many other emotional contrasts such as erotic desire and food.
Film Review for Jamón Jamón
“Jamon Jamon” is the funniest sexy movie, or the sexiest comedy, since “Like Water For Chocolate.” The movie is an outrageous throwback to the days when directors took crazy chances, counting on their audience to keep up with them. It comes from Spain, land of Luis Bunuel and Pedro Almodovar, and is in their wicked anarchic spirit; it sees sex as a short cut to the ridiculous in human nature.
The movie, which won the Silver Lion at the 1993 Venice Film Festival, takes place in a steamy little provincial town, where the richest family owns the underwear factory. The most famous local landmark is a billboard of a bull with a pair of cajones you can see for miles. Jose Luis, the son of the underwear people, falls in love with Silvia, the pneumatic and sensuous daughter of Carmen, who runs the local bordello.
Jose’s rich mother, Conchita, horrified that her son might marry the daughter of a prostitute, decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires Raul, who works in the local ham factory, to seduce Silvia away from Jose Luis. Raul is chosen because he is also the model for the family’s underwear ads, and looks promising in briefs.
The plot thickens. Conchita, the rich woman, grows so distracted by Raul that she begins an affair with him, if affair is the word for events so carnal they suggest years of marital deprivation. Meanwhile, it turns out that the young suitor Jose Luis is better known to Silvia’s mother than he should be. “If you marry my daughter,” Carmen tells him, “I don’t want to see you around here anymore!” Jose Luis begs for one last visit upstairs with Carmen. The logic here is unassailable: Since Silvia is ostensibly a virgin, it is only proper that Jose Luis meet his needs in a discreet manner. If that means continuing as the client of his future mother-in-law, well, business is business.
There is more. There is much more. I do not know how to even begin describing the scene with the garlic and the pig. Or how to explain why and how Raul and his friend decide to go bullfighting in the nude at midnight. Nor can I adequately describe what happens to the cajones on the billboard, except to suggest that John Wayne Bobbitt should probably not see this film.
“Jamon Jamon,” a title that translates as “Ham Ham,” is a movie that combines lurid melodrama with vast improbabilities, sexy soap opera with heartfelt romance, and cheerful satire with heedless raunch. As is only proper, it stars actors of considerable physical appeal, most particularly Penelope Cruz as Silvia, Anna Galiena as Carmen, and Stefania Sandrelli (from Bertolucci’s “The Conformist”) as Conchita. Javier Bardem, as Raul, is well cast as the town stud.
“Jamon Jamon” is a kind of movie I have a great fondness for. It is frankly outrageous, it has the courage to offend, it is not afraid of sex, and it goes over the top in almost every scene. It takes a certain kind of moviegoer, I suppose, to enjoy a film like this; of course it’s in bad taste, of course it’s vulgar, of course it flies in the face of all that is seemly, and, of course, that is the idea.
Jamón Jamón (1992)
Directed by: Bigas Luna
Starring: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Jordi Mollà, Stefania Sandrelli, Anna Galiena, Juan Diego, Tomás Penco, Armando del Río, Diana Sassen, Chema Mazo
Screenplay by: Cuca Canals, Bigas Luna, Quim Monzó
Production Design by: Gloria Martí-Palanqués, Pep Oliver
Cinematography by: José Luis Alcaine
Film Editing by: Teresa Font
Costume Design by: Neus Olivella
Set Decoration by: Julio Esteban, Pedro Gaspar
Art Direction by: Noemí Campano, Chu Uroz
Music by: Nicola Piovani
Distributed by: United States Academy Entertainment Inc.
Release Date: September 2, 1992
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