The Ages of Lulu

The Ages of Lulu follows a young woman named Lulu from the age of fifteen, when a family friend named Pablo introduces her to sex, into an adult life shaped by that early experience. Years later the two are married, and Pablo has built a closed, controlled world around her. Restless inside it, Lulu begins to seek out risk and new encounters on her own, and the arrangement the couple has made starts to come apart.

The film is an adaptation of Almudena Grandes's novel, with Bigas Luna directing from a screenplay he wrote with Grandes. It was released in 1990, placing it between his 1987 film Anguish and Jamon Jamon in 1992. Francesca Neri plays Lulu and Óscar Ladoire plays Pablo, with María Barranco as Ely, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Rosana Pastor and Javier Bardem in supporting roles. It was produced by Andrés Vicente Gómez for Iberoamericana Films Internacional and Apricot.

The film runs 95 minutes and is rated 5.5 out of 10 on IMDb from around 4,600 votes, while on TMDB it holds 6.4 out of 10 from roughly 300 votes, so the two audiences are not far apart in their assessment.