Easy Sex, Sad Movies
(Sexo Fácil, Películas tristes)
Alejo Flah / Spain / 2014 / 90 min
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With Ernesto Alterio, Quim Gutiérrez, Marta Etura, Julieta Cardinali
Conventional rom-com elements are given an imaginative twist in this sprightly meta-movie in the vein of STRANGER THAN FICTION and ADAPTATION. Spanish producers hire Argentinian screenwriter Pablo (because “he won’t charge us in Euros”) to write a romantic comedy set in Madrid. Pablo (Alterio) supplies all the expected genre ingredients — meet-cute, best friends, shared preference (gin-and-tonic) — but complications set in as he becomes increasingly aware of the contrast with his own deteriorating marriage, and his real and fictional worlds begin to bleed into each other. Will Pablo’s movie have a happy ending? Will Pablo?
Gene Siskel Film Center
About the Director
Alejo Flah has a solid trajectory as a screenwriter on titles such as 7th Floor (Séptimo), starring Ricardo Darín and Belén Rueda, the TV series Vientos de Agua directed by Juan José Campanella for HBO and the celebrated short film which he also directed, Vivir de Negro, produced by Carlos Saura, Alejo Flah now makes his feature length directorial debut with Easy Sex, Sad Movies, for which he also penned the script.
The script formed part of the laboratory organized by the Sun- dance Institute, as well as the éQuinoxe Germany in Norway, as part of the Media program, and has also been selected for the Coproduction Forum of the San Sebastian Film Festival. TVE also joins the list of collaborators. Distributed in Spain by Filmax and in Argentina by Disney.
Notes on Film
All of us have wondered, at one time or another, why real life isn’t like the movies, especially when it comes to love stories. Why have we never had that oh-so-romantic kiss in the rain? How come nobody’s ever declared their undying love for us on New Year’s Eve? Why don’t conflicts resolve themselves as easily as they do on the big screen? And why isn’t their a stirring soundtrack going on in the background as we mooch around the city pondering all these questions?
Easy Sex, Sad Movies is a romantic comedy that dissects these notions, that puts up that barrier between real life and fiction and then rips it right back down. Flitting between a writer’s reality in Buenos Aires and his own fictional love story in Madrid, we see the romantic comedy deconstructed into its fundamental elements. Those scenes which are so recognizable in the genre and the viewer’s acceptance of these conventions are the starting point for this script and the premise of this original new comedy.
Alejo Flah