Bigas Luna has become a key figure in Spanish cinema. Jam’n, Jam’n, his first film to receive wide distribution was perhaps the most popular film screened to date a the Irish Film Centre. Golden Balls forms the second part of a trilogy which began with Jam’n, Jam’n and ends with the forthcoming The Nipple and the Moon.
With no pretensions to subtely, Golden Balls is the tale of an oversexed construction worker (Bardem) who marries a rich mans daughter in an attempt to better himself. Dreaming of sports-cars, Rolexes and women galore, his ambitions come to an abrupt end when a car smash leaves him partly paralysed and his wife, exasperated by his philandering shenanagins, finally does the sensible thing and throws him out. Undeterred, he picks up a floozy in a nightclub, and heads for America. It’s arguable that the secondary to the abundant sex scenes, but if bawdy testosterone-driven cinema is your cup of tea, then you won’t be disapointed.