Todo por la pasta

All for the dough (1991)

   Todo por la pasta was the film debut of Enrique Urbizu, and it remains one of the most original and accomplished thrillers of the 1990s. Set in a vividly imagined (by art director Alex de la Iglesia) Bilbao of porn cinemas, derelict buildings, and run-down factories, it follows the classic pattern of a heist gone wrong (as featured, for instance, in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle [ 1951 ]) and a group of characters who fight to get the money. These include the two protagonists, Azucena (María Barranco), an erotic show actress whose boyfriend was involved in the robbery, and Verónica (Kiti Manver), the tough manager of an old people's home, as well as a plethora of characters, both from the world of crime (rentboys and hit men) and the law (including corrupt policemen who organized the robbery to use the money to pay for a political assassination).

   A set of vivid performances (particularly from the protagonists, but also from Antonio Resines, Caco Senante, Ramón Barea, and Pilar Bardem among others) and a Goya-nominated clockwork script (by Luis Marías) hold the interest in the convoluted events that make up the plot. Azucena and Verónica team up to share the stolen money, but issues of trust soon arise. The amoral ending, in which they end up sharing the sexual favors of a cute teenager, is a perfect conclusion for a tongue-in-cheek story. In a cinematography dominated by Civil War films and social realism, Urbizu's film suggested a promising future for Spanish film that could now compete internationally, leaving the past behind.

   Historical Dictionary of Spanish Cinema by Alberto Mira