Lovers (1993)

Based on a true crime of passion in Spain during the '50s, Lovers tells the classic tale of a man, Paco (Jorge Sanz), torn between two mistresses. His landlady, Luisa (Victoria Abril), is a swindler but a hellion in bed, while the trusting, virginal Trini (Maribel Verdu) loves him with a childlike innocence. The film, which combines Theodore Dreiser's social realism with James M. Cain's duplicity and outlaw passion, moves with cautious deliberation to a grim and shocking conclusion. Viewers with a highly developed taste for romantic masochism will likely be pulled into the emotional eddies formed by Lovers. Others will be seduced by its raw, erotic interludes, which are every bit as adult as they are startling. B+