jimpoz I've renewed my interest in Titanic over the past year or so and happened across this movie. I thought it was an OK movie after I saw it about two months ago but since then there's been an aspect that I can't get around.I can go for how the townspeople were entranced by Horty's stories. They knew him, after all. But once he took the performance on the road and was charging admission to complete strangers, things changed; the least of which is that since they didn't know Horty, I don't think they'd relate to him the way the townspeople in the tavern did.Imagine you were one of his audience members, seeing his show in the weeks following the disaster.To imagine yourself as a member of the audience at that time, imagine that it's November 2001 and you're going to the show of someone claiming to be a survivor of the World Trade Center. You sit there and listen to the speaker go on and on about his torrid love affair with the coffee shop girl on the 80th floor sky lobby. Wouldn't he -- and you, for that matter -- be more interested in what it was like to survive the disaster? And after we've seen the pictures of the poor souls plunging from the buildings, and keeping in mind that the 9/11 lost are as dead as those on Titanic, wouldn't you think that having a set with the side of the building and an actress pantomiming the death plunge, much as Zoe was mimicking the drowning Marie, be in incredibly poor taste? That aspect of his production alone would make me consider Horty to be a shameless opportunist, regardless of what he actually said.

MARIO GAUCI My first from this Spanish director noted for his erotic films and, while this element is certainly at the forefront of his preoccupations here, it is presented in a generally restrained and tasteful way.The film's plot is an interesting, even original one: in 1912, a happily-married but poor French mine-worker wins a race and the once-in-a-lifetime prize he receives is to witness the historic launching of the ill-fated "Titanic". In the hotel where he stays for one night, he ends up sharing his room with a beautiful young girl who tells him that she will be working as a chambermaid on the ship. When he returns home - and especially after learning of the tragedy that befell the "Titanic" - he becomes obsessed with his memory of the girl and, to appease his curious and envious colleagues, he concocts stories of their various sexcapades in the hotel, on the docks and even aboard the ship itself! Of course, his devoted wife is not pleased when she learns about this (despite rumors that she had been unfaithful with her husband's boss in his absence!) but soon changes her mind when she realizes that the tall stories her husband tells in the local bar are turning a profit and have also made him something of a celebrity! In fact, they are subsequently visited by a traveling showman who specializes in tragic love stories revolving around historical calamities (such as the eruption of Vesuvius at the time of the Roman Empire) who proposes to take the couple under his wing, with the promise that the husband's monologues will eventually play in front of a wide audience in theatre houses across the country. And, as in every fable, it all comes true - except that one day the chambermaid, who is alive and well and not as pure as the husband professes, attends one of his performances...The twist ending is delightful, taking the plot's aura of fantasy, romance and nostalgia as far as it can go. Indeed, the entire film was a pleasant surprise for me and I will surely be renting on DVD two of the director's more typical 'carnal comedies' - THE AGES OF LULU (1990) and JAMON, JAMON (1992) - somewhere down the line...

ian-dawg Guidelines???Whilst perusing the SBS sex week movies, we stumbled accross this action classic. Giovanni steals the show with his cooky antics, he even manages to juggle 3 things. 3!!!Horty's classic line re: smelter works whilsts wooing the woman will be a moment that stays with me forever. No wonder he got to knick her pippy 12 times in one night. Aminal.I highly recommend this film for any prospective lover or artist. Be well, be shell

dana-37 This was an excellent movie & one of the funniest I've ever seen. I'm not the biggest Luna fan, but this was a great story with really good acting, too. The actress who played Zoe did a great job with a tough role.