JAMON, JAMON

Spain, 1992, 95 minutes, Colour.
Penelope Cruz, Stefania Sandrelli, Anna Galiena, Juan Diego, Javier Bardem, Jordi Molla.
Directed by Bigas Luna.

Bigas Luna was a prominent Spanish director, noted for his satiric perspectives on Spain and the Spanish way of life. This film was well received, a comedy about a small town in the desert area of Spain, with a factory for producing underwear and for producing ham and delivering it around the countryside.

The film is a star vehicle for the very young Penelope Cruz as well as the young Javier Bardem (they were to appear in Vicki Christina Barcelona in 2007 and were then married). She is a young woman who works in the factory, is pregnant to the son of the factory owner who does not want him to marry this woman who is beneath him. Bardem delivers ham and practises bullfighting with his friend. When the owner of the factory hires him to seduce the young woman, she falls in love with him and then decides that she wants her son to marry the young woman.

The film is a touch melodramatic in its drawing of the characters and in its emotional conflicts, culminating in a fight with legs of ham.
The title of the film refers to ham but also means (a dish of a woman).

1. The films of the director, Spanish sensibility, satiric perspective? Melodramas – with the touch of over-the-top?

2. The title, the focus on ham, the ham industry, the pigs and their slaughter, the delivery of the, ham, putting a suppositum into the pig and its running on the road in the traffic, drawing the attention of Sylvia, the fight with the ham bones? The alternate meaning, “a dish of a woman”?

3. The Spanish locations, desert countryside, the small town, the factories, homes? The musical score?

4. The town, the factory and making underpants, for the international market, Conchita and her style, dominance, interviews with potential models, her brittle relationship with her husband, her pampering her son, her not wanting him to marry Sylvia, looking at the video, choosing Raul, paying him to seduce Sylvia, her protectiveness of her son? The infatuation with Raul, the affair with him, his reluctance?

5. Sylvia, young, working in the factory, the bond with her mother, her mother’s past, prostitution, home, the past with Conchita’s, the present with his son going to the brothel?

6. Sylvia, pregnant, in love with Juan Luis, his love for her, prepared to defy his mother, his mother’s discovery, his facing up to her? The proposal, Sylvia and her wanting to marry? Her mother supporting her? Sylvia and her being a mother figure with the two men and her breasts?

7. Raul and his friend, the opening and the practice for bullfighting? His posing for the underwear, the criteria for big men? The later poster with him? His friend, seeing the stray bull, stripping, the bullfighting practice, their escape, asking Sylvia for clothes?

8. Sylvia attracted to Raul? His being attracted to her? His dilemma?

9. The build-up to the confrontation, the fight with the hams? Raul victorious? Conchita disappointed? A happy ending for Sylvia and Raul?

10. The director and his satire on Spanish characters, relationships, work, the macho attitudes?