(Paco Leon) and she is wrestling with her compulsion to have sex with men whenever the mood takes her! Narciso is going to marry Hugo (Gustavo Salmeron) whose mother Helena (Mercedes Sampietro) is thrust into being the unwilling judge at the wedding which is taking place in the plush hotel managed by Magda (Carmen Maura) who is attempting to fend off a strike by the kitchen staff which will ruin the hotel's reputation in the eyes of the massed media. It doesn't help that the head chef who is leading the strike is also her extra-marital lover. Magda is also the mother of Miguel (Unax Ugaldo) whose stylish, fashionable apartment is suddenly occupied by Ofelia (Bettiana Blum) - and her enormous shaggy dog - having flown in from Buenos Aries to be with her son, Miguel's boyfriend Oscar (Daniel Hendler). Meanwhile film actress Reyes (Marisa Paredes) is having to confront the fact that her son Rafa (Raul Garcia) is marrying Jonas (Hugo Silva) the son of her gardener Jacinto (Lluis Homar) who despite many years of working for her has never even set foot in the house.
Confused? You will be... The fun escalates when the future partners and in-laws argue, fall out of love then back in again as their paths intersect in the hours leading up to the big day. While watching it I could almost see the film being remade by Hollywood as a vehicle for the likes of Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, Bette Midler, Jill Clayburgh and Susan Sarandon. 
However the director Manuel Gomez Pereira kept the action whipping along with hardly time to remember who was related to who and the script by Yolanda Garcia Serrano and Pereira showed the deftness of plotting of classic screwball comedies allied to a great warmth and corazon. And of course there was the excellent cast, once again proving the greatness of Spanish screen actresses. I would love to have this on dvd - it's out in Spain but unsurprisingly without English subtitles.
All tracks I had wanted to hear loud 'n' proud playing in the Retro and while Owen and Don bigged it up - and Rob was delighted to hear the Diana King track again - I'm still not sure. Owen did a very well-received 1973 set, Don played 5 Mariachi tracks to speed us on our journey to Mexico and Gerald did his usual eclectic mix (no Stephen or Dawn tonight). I will agree that the Morrissey track off the new album sounded good played loud. Still cannot warm to the album tho'.
Maybe I'll feel a bit more secure in my choices next time round...
performance - all sighs and wan smiles. Richardson is luminous and always watchable but the whole film seems to be powered on some serious low-wattage. Vanessa and John Wood have a delightful scene where against the wishes of the rest of the family they pay a call on the French Consulate to visit someone they knew in Russia in The Good Old Days and end up being driven back to their back street flat in a large shiny car much to their delight. Otherwise it drifts by like one of the boats seen sailing to Hong Kong at the end. Largely at fault is Ivory's respectful, unispired direction and Ishiguro's erratic script. No more so than when Fiennes' character asks his screamingly shady Japanese friend (Hiroyuki Sanada) to fill his club with Chinese Communists, Japanese soldiers and politicians to create a heady political mix, then later in the film tells him his club is an escape from the growing political instability.
The phoney war is over. Across the world people are going to bed with itchy fingers and hearts a-flutter. 9am Tuesday the pre-sale goes live for Madonna's European dates! 