Don Juan, My Love (1990)

“We’ve arrested a nudist.”

Don Juan, My Love is a Spanish comedy film with English subtitles. According to legend, Don Juan is given the chance to come back to earth at midnight on Oct 31st. every year to spend 24 hours trying to do a good deed. If he does a good deed, he won’t have to go to Purgatory. That’s the plan anyway, but so far, for the past 450 years, he hasn’t managed it. When the film begins, Don Juan exits his grave for his annual attempt at a good deed.

Elsewhere in Seville, the play Don Juan is in dress rehearsal. The grumpy actor Marquina, who plays the role of Don Juan in the play, has managed to alienate everyone on the set. The real–but dead–Don Juan accidentally takes the actor’s place in an understandable case of mistaken identity.

After reading a customer review of this film, I decided that I wanted to see it. Don Juan, My Love is a frothy, good-natured romp–nothing too serious, and there’s plenty of slapstick comedy here. Don Juan, My Love is not as outrageous or as richly-themed as Almodovar films, and it lacks the intelligence and insight of the similarly-themed French film Les Visiteurs (a great French comedy about two medieval knights who are transported to modern times). The plot relies on farce, but it’s a decent job, nonetheless, and I did laugh out loud at several points in the film. Strong characters certainly add to the plot–there’s an obsessed widow/circus acrobat, Don Juan’s lonely and neglected wife, and a determined police inspector. Two actresses from Almodovar films–Veronica Forque and Rossy de Palma–star in this comedy, and some entertaining flamenco dancing scenes really add to the flavour of the film.