Product Details

• Actors: Francesca Neri, Óscar Ladoire, María Barranco, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Rosana Pastor
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Spanish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Jef Films/Mvd
• DVD Release Date: August 15, 2003
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000C2IW1
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,955 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Ages of Lulu" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

The Ages of Lulu is a gruelling sexual odyssey from Spanish director Bigas Luna, made immediately prior to his popular trilogy Jamón, jamón (1992), Golden Balls (1993) and The Tit and the Moon (1994). Starting as the somewhat queasy story of the young Lulu's affair with the manipulative Pablo (Oscar Ladoire), the movie takes a much darker turn once they are wed. It is conventional cinematic wisdom that there's no such thing as sex after marriage, but here Lulu's husband incomprehensibly leads her into blindfolded incest, then is heartbroken when she reacts with disgust. Soon Lulu (superbly played by Francesca Neri from ingénue to hardened 30-something), is paying gay men for group sex, eventually becoming an unwilling attraction in a commercial sado-machochistic orgy. The closest most UK audiences will have come to this before is in Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) and Crimes of Passion (1984), and it is surely one of the most gut-churningly nightmarish scenes ever passed for home viewing. While Ages of Lulu may function as a reactionary warning against the wilder shores of sex, Luna's intention remains unsatisfyingly enigmatic, since the script is under-written and psychologically unconvincing. The end result is pretentious, repellent pornography which degrades human beings of any sexual persuasion. On the DVD: The Ages of Lulu is transferred at an anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 and image quality is very good, though in some scenes very slightly soft. The film can be watched with or without English subtitles, and the sound is unremarkable stereo. The main extras are a seven-page essay on Bigas Luna and five pages detailing the now restored 110 seconds of cuts made to the 1998 video release. The main title still contains 65 seconds of alternate footage to the cinema original for legal reasons. Also included are filmographies of Lunas and Oscar Ladoire, two trailers plus trailers for six other films.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars entertainment or endurance?, March 25, 2004

By 

Sable Unadorned - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ages of Lulu (DVD)

Love it or hate it...

This is a movie which generates extreme reactions. Lulu starts her sexual adventures in her early teens, marries a man who leads her down unusual sexual avenues and who finally gets her to have sex (unknowing and blindfold) with her brother. When she discovers this, she leaves him and launches into a sexual odyssey, involving sex with gay men which sees her end up as a (largely unwilling) exhibit in an S&M show.

So the question, as ever, is... is it art? Or is it just exploitation, and if so, is it sexy enough that we don't mind?

Some have criticised it for being too explicit. Others of my acquaintance have criticised it for not being graphic enough (particularly where the BDSM is concerned - `totally unrealistic' was a comment from one friend who knows about these things).

Viewed in one way, it could well be considered pretty gruelling: the process of watching Lulu's sexuality take over her entire persona and life can get a bit unsettling at times. More than one person has described it as a turn-off, a puritan warning of the consequences of sexual liberation masquerading as an erotic story. Whether or not that's true, Lulu's character comes across as fundamentally damaged rather than in control of her life, and that's uncomfortable. Safe, sane and consensual? Aught from three, I'm afraid...

Whatever, it still ends up as the kind of story one flicks through to get to the naughty bits, rather than one you stay with all the way through.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not As Advertised, February 22, 2009

By 

Allan M. Lees (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Ages Of Lulu (Las Edades de Lulú) [ Region Free Import - English Subtitles] (DVD)

I read the book several years ago and was intrigued by the writing. The author conveyed the emotional journey of her protagonist very skillfully and with much more depth than one expects in books of this genre. Frankly I couldn't believe it would be possible to turn the book into a watchable movie so I gambled a few dollars just to see.

I was expecting poor film making, but I wasn't expecting the atrocious bootleg quality DVD that arrived. The aspect ratio is 3:4 (old fashioned TV screen stuff) and there are no subtitles. The film quality is grainy and looks as if it was ripped off a very old VHS tape. In short, I've seen Russian bootleg DVDs whose quality was infinitely superior to this product. It's worth perhaps $1.50 at the very most, so long as you don't mind the migrane you'd get if you actually tried to watch it for more than three or four minutes before ejecting it from your system and throwing it into the trash.

4.0 out of 5 stars about Las Edades De lulu.........., June 2, 2006

By 

Ang Poon Kah (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Las Edades de Lulú (DVD)

This story is basically talking about how a woman's married life took a new turn in her life which endeded in a bad situation. A recommendation to those whom are interested in this genre of film. This company Manga films actually recorded this film in full which contains certain sexual footage of content not available from the original version from Jeff films or code 0 version DVD which comes from Tartan Video which give director their rights to show people how their full film looks like. A Recommendation to those whom are interested in this genre of film.

Las Edades de Lulú

Review by:


Dr, Prof (PhD) GPS Ang Poon Kah
TC Submission for 'this'/money government
TC Submission for modern world,our society.
International certificate for GPS(Professional) from RPS
Lou Ye - like this - Dir Ang Poon Kah for film summer palace.
Freeman Macg - like this - Dir Ang Poon Kah for Hurricane on the Bayou
Freeman Macg - 'like this' - Dir Ang Poon Kah for Mystery of the Nile
Richard Eyre - 'like this' - Dir Ang Poon Kah for notes on the scandal
Ron Howard - 'like this' - Dir Ang Poon Kah for film Da Vinci Code
'like this' - Dir Ang Poon Kah for Harry Potter, order of the Phoenix
better known in chinese meaning feng huang ming ling.