Pepi, Luci, and Bom

Pepi, Luci, and Bom proves to be an incredibly vulgar and overtly sexual film that utilizes the strategies of excess and camp to illustrate themes concerning the dichotomy between men and women’s roles in society and what is considered to be normal.

The film greatly depicts the idea of male superiority and their power over women as through the actions of the policeman as well as some of the other men in the story. In the opening scene, the policeman rapes Pepi at his own will and hardly thinks anything of it; to him, it is completely normal and socially acceptable to take advantage of women. Later on the film, he comments to his wife about how he does not like independent women, further continuing the idea of the controlling nature of men. As the film goes on, the policeman also then tries to force himself upon another woman. It is almost as if he does not think of the women as actual people, as the policeman considers himself as well as other men to be on another level. Pedro Almovodar uses these vulgar and uncomfortable acts of the policeman to express the power that men seem to have, or at least they believe they have, over women.

Almovodar also uses the techniques of extreme excess found in Camp idea to portray the idea of normativity. The film plot is extremely focused on sex, as there is constantly either a sexual act being done or sexual comment being made. The emphasis of sex, and more specifically a sex that is mostly very vulgar and impersonal, is one that is not as familiar to our culture and thus makes the audience question what is actually normal. By using extreme situations and scenes, the film ultimately leads viewers to question their own ideas on the concept of normativity.