"Experiencia Prematrimonial" are two words that evoke powerful and conflicting emotions among Spanish talking people with enough age to remember the early seventies. Uttering these words originated instant polemic within the family, especially the adults ranted against the new ways of modern society and they contended that the world was crumbling and sinking in a moral marshland. Pedro Masó, an Spanish director with a knack for melodramas, put in the big screen what was transpiring in his society, with the story of two young university students that decide to test their love, living like a married couple without being married (that's what it called "Experiencia Prematrimonial"). He explored the pros and cons of the concept and ended up destroying it in favor of the well established ethical standards of the epoch. Time is cruel and today this movie seems totally dated and results incomprehensible for young people, specially those from other social contexts. Having said that, nevertheless, I think that the picture is very well crafted and that contains a certain universal truth about the generational clashes. The attitude of the young girl (Alejandra) in favor of the new system is exuberantly honest and it makes me wonder if things have changed very much since then or simply we learn to pay lip service to the old rules still in practice, and after that, we do in private what it fits our needs. The strong side of the film is in the cast. Lovely Ornella Muti in her teenage years interprets Alejandra aka Jandra, a ravishing combination of naivety and maturity, a warm, sweet and lovable girl, but at the same time a young woman with firm convictions. Opposite to her, it was Alessio Orano, a handsome actor with a dark side. They made three films together (this was the last one) and always, in front of the camera, their chemistry worked perfectly. In real life, they were married between 1975 and 1981. Their voices were dubbed for the original Spanish version of the film and the result was good. Alberto Closas, a very renowned actor in Spain and Latin America, has a good part, as the sincere defender of the established moral order, and Cristina Suriani is an adequate sexy girl and the source of the discord between the two principal characters. Like I have said it in another revisions, this movie of the early career of Ornella Muti needs a better copy. All it seems more drab and amateurish in a picture's frame cut to 4:3, with faded colors in the photography, grainy texture and blurred image. It's like seeing an old vignette. However I like the experience of watching this honest melodrama. Hope is the last thing that one would loose and so, I look forward the DVD edition.
