LIVE FLESH (CARNE TRÉMULA) Tributes

Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell, this colorful film overflows with rich, sensual performances and beauty. Penelope Cruz appears as Victor’s mother, a prostitute who gives birth to him on a bus in the film’s brilliant opening.

A shooting in the Madrid apartment of Elena (Francesca Neri), an Italian dope addict, leaves policeman David (Javier Bardem) a paraplegic and Victor (Liberto Rabal), her would-be date, in prison. Years later, Victor gets out of jail but is obsessed with Elena, now clean, sober and married to David, who has transcended his handicap by becoming a wheelchair basketball champion. The brooding, resentful Victor starts sleeping with their friend Clara (Angela Molina), the sexually restless wife of David’s jealous, alcoholic former cop partner, and finds out some harsh truths about what really happened that fateful night.