PIM and all on the message board,

I went out a few days ago and rented "Jamon, jamon." What an incredible movie: intense, perverse, and classic.

You were right (!) the toro negros" feature prominantly in the movie. I find his movies to be rich on symbolism.

Anyone care to analyze when Diego slams the bull's balls off the billboard? What an intense and enjoyable movie.

Anyone know the general location of this movie - was it Anadalucia or closer to Madrid. I'm curious.

(General Location of "Jamon Jamon" was in Extremadura somewhere.

Hi Jason,

"Jamon, jamon" is not exactly my kind of movie to be honest ;); and I think it has too much symbolism, meaning it's more "caricaturesque" than anything else....But as far as I know, it was shot in a place called 'el desierto de los Monegros', in Aragon, near Zaragoza. Though some of the scenes(the ones related to the "jamones warehouses", ha, ha!) must have been shot in Extremadura.

Hi pim (and everyone),

Thanks for the info on J/J location. I can understand why "Jamon, jamon" is not in your "top - 10." If you look at the sexual currents going on between all those characters it's a little sickening. I thought the movie was excellent - I guess I'm just a little perverse and enjoy sex, violence, and dark family secrets.

What I forgot to also ask was about Spain's (people, but as a country) reaction to many of the "edgy" movies from your country. For example, in the U.S. any movie with a strong message gets a fair amount of noise from people it offends. For me, with all our "Hollywood" movies that are designed to maximize profit (which many times means: maximize blandness), I usually find edgy off-beat movies very refreshing.

What does Spain think of all these movies an average person here in the States might ironically consider gratuitous sex, homosexuality (drag queens in many of Almodóvar's), immorality, bla bla bla...?

What I find so wonderful about Spain is that the country holds on tightly to tradition, but seems to be very comfortable with the future, and progressive culture. What an excellent balance of "keep what's old, traditional, and good, but be open to adopt new modern views on society."

Is this true - or is my love for the country and the Toros Negros giving it too much credit???? Is my impression correct, or do you think most Spaniards are very conservative and the images in many of the movies Spain exports make them sick???