The August Virgin

I went to watch the movie the first night it opened in Athens and I was not disappointed. It has a very specific social context, the social world of thirty something Madrilenos who seem very easygoing and direct in their affective relationships, something that a traditionalist Catholic or practicing Muslim might find strange or unfamiliar. They are steeped in the hedonistic mentality of our times although they do not lack warmth or emotional depth. I have visited Madrid once and had a very good time therefore I had an additional motive to like the movie and I have to admit that I was very moved when I saw the heroine staring for sometime before the lady of Elche( Dama d' Elche), a striking Celtiberian sculpture, that I had also admired when visiting the Archeological museum of Madrid. Everybody seems approachable and easygoing and one wonders if the movie seeks to portray a 68 utopia in the present. There are some memorable scenes such as a an impromptu theatrical on the road or an alternative therapy session which display elements of life that high culture now and in the past views with disdain or at least condescension although they are chunks of the lived experience of many people. I advice you to watch this movie unless you are socially conservative and your sensibility might be offended by what a certain section of the public considers as the degeneration and laxisme of modern metropolitan life. Otherwise this experiment in sociability and soulsearching has its charms.