What Is Love

Bergman's "Scenes from a Marriage" has had considerable influence on other filmmakers over the years -not as much as his classic films of the 1950s and 1960s, but definitely providing a template for intimate romantic dramas.

Dorcel movies in recent years have tended toward the vignette format, but with "What Is Love", femme Spanish director Alis Locanta goes for a single story, about lovers Cherry Kiss and Ricky Rascal, whose relationship is wearing thin after 10 years together. The small cast seems to be having multiple infidelities with each other and keeping secrets, but eventually Cherry and Ricky seem to have reinvigorated their status as a loving couple.

The movie is way too vague to be involving and has a major drawback in filming in English with lots of pointless dialogue. Some characters (like Cherry and Ricky) have very thick accents while others (Ricky's friend Tommy Cabrio and a busty lesbian friend of Cherry's, Venera Maxima) are poorly dubbed in English. The movie doesn't even have a translated alternate title displayed in French or Spanish.

Locanta creates a dream mood, but for some reason, there is little to no drama when folks find out about who's cheating with who. I did like the device of an overhead camera bookending the movie, with shots of Ricky side by side in bed together, their actual thoughts impenetrable to the viewer.