Pepi, Luci and Bom

Since this is, as Diego said earlier, an obscure film, I don't believe that it is a representation of any type of "norm" in Spain or Europe but more of an indie film intended to shock the audience, whether that's an American or European audience. One of the most shocking scenes to me was when the female musician, who I think had one eyebrow missing, peed on a woman whom she just met, which both parties enjoyed throughly. As stated in prior posts, the general reaction of the class was one of confusion and stifled giggling, which was probably the intended reaction of the director so that the audience would be overtly aware of the themes of the movie and discuss them later.

The film definitely raised many sexual issues including rape, lesbianism, double standards of promiscuity between the sexes, fetishes, and gender identity. When discussing these, there was a clear feminist overtone, demonstrated by the evil husband attempting to control his wife and saying ridiculously mysoginistic comments to her, including "I don't like independent women." It's hard to be offensive than that. There was also a theme of sexual freedom and promiscuity, most notably through the wife's sexual awakening and joy in engaging in sex acts that she hid her desire for or was unaware of during her marriage. Overall, I wouldn't watch the movie for fun, but it did raise interesting issues relevant to our class discussions and expose a view of the world that I was unfamiliar with before watching.