The Tit and the Moon

After the satiric machismo of Jamón, Jamón and Golden Balls, Bigas Luna here adopts a more reflective approach. Nine-year-old Tete (Duran) has a problem any older brother can relate to, for the family's new arrival has replaced him at his mother's breast. He must invoke the moon for a new tit to call his own - which is where the imposing May comes in as Gallic cabaret performer Estrellita. However, adolescent Miquel (Poveda) already has his eyes on Estrellita, while the lady herself seems sweet on her pétomane stage partner, Maurice (Darmon), never mind his impotence. The director sets up symbolic oppositions between the relative youth and sexual experience of the various males, and even the French, Spanish and Catalan speaking participants in the drama - the whole affair being unified by the image of the breast suckling one and all. A paean to a Mediterranean culture, perhaps? That's as may be, but the movie's fundamental problem is its failure to generate the sort of narrative drive that would forge its metaphorical patterns into compelling drama. It's a gentler, more likeable piece than its immediate predecessors, however, and Darmon's anguished romantic is genuinely touching, but somehow it's the shock value of dream-sequence lactation that still succours the strongest impression.