A pizzeria, a dead loan shark, and a sadist walk into her life — Italian melodrama goes feral.
Her name is Mina, but she is called Bambola (doll). Upon the death of her mother, she and her homosexual brother, Flavio, open a pizzeria. A man named Ugo loans Bambola the money, but is then killed in a fight with another one of her boyfriends, Settimio. While visiting Settimio in jail, she meets a sadistic man named Furio, and they begin a relationship.
Acting
Valeria Marini commits fully to Bambola's operatic desperation.
Direction
Bigas Luna's fetishistic gaze turns bodies into landscapes of excess.
Costume
Every outfit screams 'I have a complicated relationship with money and men.'
Director
Bigas Luna
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Part of Bigas Luna's 'Iberian Trilogy' alongside Jamón Jamón and Golden Balls, exploring Spanish-Italian working-class sexuality and economic desperation. Anita Ekberg's cameo as Mamma Greta nods to Fellini's La Dolce Vita, collapsing art-house prestige into Luna's trash-cinema sensibility.
The film was savaged by critics and underperformed, effectively ending Valeria Marini's serious film career — yet its cult reputation grew precisely because of its unapologetic excess. Luna reportedly wanted 'a woman who looks like she smells of sweat and cheap perfume,' and found it in the former showgirl.
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