En La Cama (In Bed) (2005)
Chilean Beauty Blanca Lewin in a story of many layers of Intimacy. Beautiful & Honest. Two strangers hook up for a one night stand and share more than a bed.
Two strangers check into a Santiago motel for anonymous sex, then make the dangerous mistake of talking—and discover that naked bodies are easier to handle than naked truths.
Matías Bize’s 2005 Chilean chamber drama opens in a tangle of skin, sheets and breath, with Daniela and Bruno already going at it before we know who they are—and, amusingly, before they know each other’s names. They met only hours earlier at a party, carried the flirtation through a bar and booked this gaudy little room expecting uncomplicated pleasure. Once the first rush subsides, however, neither seems eager to leave. They smoke, tease, watch television, fool around again and begin trading fragments of their lives, initially with the breezy dishonesty of people who assume they will never meet twice. Gradually, the chat becomes more pointed and the lies harder to maintain. Bruno claims that the woman calling his mobile is an ex, speaks of postgraduate study in Belgium and tries to present himself as a free...
man with a future already mapped out. Daniela admits that she is about to marry a boyfriend whose temper frightens her, yet treats the wedding as an appointment she cannot—or will not—cancel. Attraction starts curdling into jealousy, tenderness and irritation as each detects the other’s evasions. What began as a sweaty one-night stand develops the emotional compression of an entire relationship: introductions, jokes, confessions, arguments, sulking, reconciliation and the dawning suspicion that this stranger may understand something their regular partners do not. Bize does not pretend all their talk is profound; some of it is silly, self-conscious or plainly annoying, just as real pillow talk often is. That messiness is part of the film’s nerve. Shot chronologically after months of rehearsal, the performances seem to tire, soften and expose themselves alongside the characters. The two-camera digital photography prowls around them, catching limbs, glances and awkward silences rather than polishing the encounter into perfume-ad eroticism. By the final stretch, the sex is no longer the daring part. The real danger is how much Daniela and Bruno have revealed, how briefly they can imagine another life, and what daylight will demand from them.
This is unmistakably a product of mid-2000s urban Chile: mobile phones interrupt intimacy, middle-class ambitions point overseas, and the motel functions as a private loophole in a socially conventional world. It was shot in Santiago, inside an actual motel room loaned to the production, and virtually the entire film remains there. Scenic sightseeing is therefore off the menu; the “landscape” consists of lurid décor, mirrors, bathroom tiles, crumpled bedding and two increasingly readable faces. That confinement creates the vibe—a little theatrical, sometimes funny, often tense and finally rather melancholy. Think of a dirtier, more claustrophobic cousin to Before Sunrise, except the couple have skipped the romantic walk and gone straight to fucking, lying and wondering whether honesty with a stranger counts more than loyalty at home. The room feels protective at first, then intimate, then too small to contain everything being said.
Blanca Lewin is the film’s knockout asset, and not merely because Daniela spends a generous amount of screen time naked or barely dressed. Lewin has an earthy, grown-woman sensuality: expressive eyes, an inviting smile and a body filmed with frank admiration, but she never lets Daniela become decorative motel-room eye candy. She can switch from playful seductress to wary fiancée, sharp interrogator and bruised romantic without announcing the change. The sex scenes are steamy, sweaty and convincing, with substantial nudity and plenty of close physical contact, though the intercourse is simulated rather than pornographically explicit. Lewin’s real striptease is emotional; by the time Daniela’s confidence begins to crack, her bare skin is almost the least revealing thing in the room.
A young man and woman have a sensual, one-night stand in a motel room where they confide in each other about their troubled lives. What begins as a one night stand, ends up going into an Intimacy which is far deeper than sex, as they end up confiding into each other things and secrets that one an only share with a total stranger, knowing fully well that you will never see each other again.
The Sex between them is Great… but what’s even more Beautiful in this Spanish film is the realization that we all carry things within our selves that we cannot express… and when we do get to… it’s a totally different kind of Intimacy, which is somehow a lot more precious than Sex.
The entire film is shot in a bed, and once in a bathtub, both of them naked most of the time, but the real fun is to see them getting naked with their minds and inner selves.
Sign in to comment
The same account you use to watch films.