Palabras de amor

The film is not a great film. It's useful to see images of Barcelona in the sixties. But the script is poor, there are some unexplained things and the acting is not good.

But you can hear Joan Manuel Serrat, playing his guitar and singing some of his songs. I have to say that some of them are in catalan, not much accepted in the time of the dictatorship of Franco, based on a excluding spanish, as if it were the only language in Spain.

Young Juan (Juan Manuel Serrat) leaves his town to go live in Barcelona, to study, look for job and find his old love, Cristina (Serena Vergano), about whom he knows nothing. Monica (Cristina Galbó), the daughter of the owner of the student boarding house, where her cousin Javier (Emilio Gutiérrez Caba) is also staying, falls in love with Juan. But he doesn't pay attention to her because his only obsession is Cristina. Meanwhile, It doesn't take long for him to be fired from his job as a draftsman, as a student he is a disaster and he has just found Lina but she is no longer the same.

A slight and simple romantic drama, regarding the vicissitudes about the 60s youngsters, concerning social manners, flirts, discoteques, problems finding work and certain repression of the Spanish society at the time, but essentially dealing with a triangular love story. Cinematic debut as an actor of the singer and musician, who in the film, following the trend of the time, is dubbed by a professional actor, except -of course- when he sings. Professionally but slowly directed by Antoni Ribas, the film is based on a novel by Jaume Picas at that time a film critic, and in a small character you can discover Terence Moix as a children's photographer, and who also participates in the script as Ramón Terence Moix. The film has nothing special , the only interest is enjoying Joan Manuel Serrat's songs that include the following ones: ¨En qualsevol lloc¨, Paraules d'amor¨, Ara que tinc vint anys¨, De mica en mica¨, ¨Tu nombre me sabe a hierba¨, ¨En qualsevol lloc¨, all of them written and performed by Joan Manuel Serrat. He's well accompanied by a good cast with young actors who'll have interesting movie careers throughout the decades, such as: Serena Vergano, Cristina Galbó, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, Manuel Galiana and Maria José Goyanes.

In 'Palabras de amor' stands out the evocative cinematography by Juan Amorós, considered to best one of the best Spanish cameramen with films as Dragon Rapide, Esquilache, Si te dicen que caí, Chacha cha, Boca a boca, Libertarias, El juego del ahorcado. Being shot on attractive locations in Barcelona, Costa Brava, Girona, Catalonia, España. The picture was professionally directed by Antoni Ribas at his film debut. Antonio was a Spanish writer/producer/filmmaker known for directing some movies about Catalunya history , such as : "Victoria La gran aventura de un pueblo", "Victoria 2 La Disbaixa" , "Victoria 3 Seny and Rauxa" , "Catalans Universal" , "Tierra De Cañones" and his best movies were: "La Ciuda Cremada" and¨Los salvajes del Puente San Gil¨. Rating : 5/10 . Passable and acceptable, but only for Juan Manuel Serrat fans. The flick will appeal to Spanish cinema completists.