Reviews

Since I'm working on TV I can say without any doubt this is the worst tv movie I've ever seen. I know they had just 4 weeks to shot up the entire movie but I also know the script is cheap crap. I can't understand how a public television inverts money in such a stupid screenplay. And the saddest part is the two writers are well known professionals on catalonian TV. They might know what they were talking about. But they don't.

"Carícies" claims to be an adaptation of a famous catalan theatre play by Sergi Belbel. Once seen the film, and also read the play, I can't believe how much successful the film was. The critics loved it and I wonder why. Director Ventura Pons has found the phormula for instant success: filming an acclaimed play or book (as he did in "El perquè de tot plegat/ El porqué de las cosas", "Actrius"...). Motion pictures are suposed to be an art, not just a book or a famous play shot in 35 mm. In "Carícies", director Ventura Pons, uses the dialogues of the play almost word by word and his job consists on add music and a few continuity shots inserted among each scene. The plot (if there's is any) is very weak, as often occurs when adapting a character-based play. That's the case. And that's the problem. Pons is surrounded by few good actors but they seem undirected, and they act on their way. There is no sense of direction anywhere. No intentions, not a single idea on the screen. Ventura Pons is a smart producer but unoperative as a story-teller. "Carícies" has no soul, no blood. Just filmed words. And for me, this is not cinema.