The Mexican film Y Tu Mamá También is a story of two teenage friends, Tenoch and Julio, who lose their girlfriends over the summer and go on vacation with Luisa, an older woman once married to Tenoch’s cousin. While on the trip Luisa, Tenoch, and Julio find themselves tangled in sexual relationships with each other. The climax in this movie occurs when Tenoch and Julio discover that they have each slept with the other’s girlfriend. The film involves several liberal views of relationships, most of which stray from the norm based on the age of the participants. The first instance of this in Y Tu Mamá También when the physical nature of Tenoch and Julio’s relationships with their girlfriends is revealed in the beginning of the film. Both couples are teenagers and are shown having sex right in the beginning of the film. Shortly after this, Julio is shown having sex with his girlfriend in her bedroom just seconds before her parents walk in. These two scenes stray from the conservative view that couples should not have intercourse until they get married, or at least until they are older, more mature, and better able to take care of themselves. The theme of sexual independence is present throughout the film as both Julio and Tenoch pursue Luisa. The relationship between these three also goes against typical conservative ideals. On the way to their vacation spot, “Heaven’s Beach”, Luisa ends up having sex with the two boys. The casual way Luisa has sex with both Tenoch and Julio also differs from the conservative view of sex.
Tenoch and Julio are both young teenagers and Luisa is an older attractive women who recently separated from her husband. To give a better understanding of the age differences, when Luisa was getting married, Tenoch and Julio were both around eight years old. It is not typical for people so far apart in age to become so close. Roger Ebert comments on the uses of sex in this film saying, “We feel a shock of recognition: This is what real people do and how they do it, sexually”. The liberal ways of life presented in Y Tu Mamá También are examples of how films are depicting a more liberal view than the older, more conservative Spanish culture. Charles Taylor of Salon’s statement in his review of the film points out the fact that “Erotic freedom has remained such an elusive ideal for movies that fresh, frank treatments of sex still have the power to shock us, to exhilarate us.” Here, he agrees that this film challenges the conservative norms of both his and many Spanish cultures. What happens in Y Tu Mamá También is perhaps an extreme case compared to the majority of Mexican and other Spanish language film, however it is by no means unfair to use the film when describing the progression of Mexican film. Charles Taylor describes its popularity saying, “Audiences in Mexico responded by making it the biggest hit in the country's history”. This popularity demonstrates the influence and respect it has gained and its legitimacy as being more than just a fringe movie. It also shows how filmmakers are getting comfortable challenging the social norms of what is and what is not acceptable.The Spanish-Argentine coproduction film, Elsa y Fred, is very different from Y Tu Mamá También, however it also incorporates liberal ideas that stray from typical conservative ideals of a relationship. Elsa y Fred focuses on Elsa, an elderly woman that still wants to live life, and Fred, an elderly man who’s wife recently died. Elsa is a very energetic and in some ways, immature, woman who, as Jean Oppenheimer describes, “has the conscience of a teenager who claims a death in the family in order to get out of a math test”. These neighbors first meet when Elsa backs her car into Fred’s daughter’s car. Eventually, they enter into a romantic relationship, living like many younger couples do.
They pull youthful stunts like running out on the check at an expensive restaurant and walking through a famous fountain in order to copy a famous scene from Elsa’s favorite movie. Elsa y Fred follows most of expected norms of their culture, following closely in line with the expectations of a relationship between two people. While this film is not nearly as liberal as Y Tu Mamá También, with its multitude of sex scenes, Elsa y Fred still challenges social norms with its focus on a relationship between two elderly people. The idea that two elderly people can act so youthful in their relationship and can find love again after losing a loved one, challenges the typical conservative way of thinking. Ruthe Stein agrees with this analysis, saying “Elsa & Fred raises a lot of questions about how to spend your senior years”. This challenge of social norms follows the theme that Spanish language films are depicting a more liberal view of Spanish culture. This liberal view is, in a way, depicted by Elsa and Fred’s children as they express their disapproval over their relationship. They disagree that they should be together and think the best thing to happen would be for the two to simply separate.
Both Elsa y Fred and Y Tu Mamá También include role reversals in the relationships where the women takes on a more dominant role in the relationship. This role change differs from the typical male focus seen in many early Spanish films and Spanish culture. In Y Tu Mamá También, the role reversal involves Luisa being the controlling person in her relationships with both Tenoch and Julio. She is the one who initiates the sex and comforts her two partners when they are feeling sad or inadequate. Philip French describes Luisa’s situation by saying “Along the way there is a gradual movement by which Luisa - first slowly, then suddenly - takes command of the party”. This analysis of Luisa’s role is correct. She plays the role of both the leading in the relationship and caretaker of the two boys when they begin to argue. Luisa was not always in the dominant position, as can be seen from her failed marriage. Luisa’s relationship with her past husband, however, is typical by conservative standards and Julio and Tenoch’s relationships with their girlfriends were also typical with them clearly playing the male role. This shows how Y Tu Mamá También incorporates both conservative and liberal views of Mexican culture.
In Elsa y Fred, Elsa also plays a dominant role in the relationship, although Fred still follows many of the typical roles he is expected to play. Elsa is the one who pursues Fred perhaps too rigorously while Fred, in the beginning, could care less and isn’t very interested in another relationship after the death of his previous wife. Throughout the movie Elsa is the one who constantly pesters Fred, whether its because she wants to go to a fountain in Rome or wants a cat. Her constant nagging and insistence on travel and items is more of the role most cultures would expect of her in the relationship. Her nagging of Fred shows her acknowledgment that she needs Fred's approval in order to get what she wants..
Recent Spanish film incorporates many liberal ideas about relationships that differ from older conservative Spanish ideas from their culture. The two films Y Tu Mamá También and Elsa y Fred both show this as they challenge conventional ideas of relationships in different ways. Y Tu También incorporates more liberal ideas of relationships by focusing on teenage sex, sex between people of different age, and a slight bit of bisexual tendencies in the two lead males. Elsa y Fred incorporate liberal ideas through its notion that elderly people can have just as interesting and energetic a relationship as young adults. Both films also challenge the notion that it is the male who is typically the stronger and more powerful one in the relationship and who should pursue the female. While Elsa y Fred is fairly conservative in its challenges of social norms and incorporates a relatively tame plot, the fact that even it displays some aspects of how Spanish language films show a liberalized view of their culture helps further the notion set forth by films like Y Tu Mama También.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. "Y Tu Mama Tambien." Rev. of Y Tu Mama Tambien. Chicago Sun-Times 5 Apr. 2002. Y Tu Mama Tambien :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews. 21 Apr. 2009 French, Philip. "Macho Gracias." Rev. of Y Tu Mama Tambien. The Observer 14 Apr. 2002. Macho gracias | Film | The Observer. 21 Apr. 2009
Oppenheimer, Jean. "New York Movies - Elsa & Fred's Rancid Romance - page 1." New York News, Events, Restaurants, Music. 21 Apr. 2009
Stein, Ruthe. "Movie review: 'Elsa & Fred' - age is just a number." Rev. of Elsa y Fred. San Francisco Chronicle 18 July 2008, sec. E: E-5. Movie review: 'Elsa & Fred' - age is just a number. 21 Apr. 2009
Taylor, Charles. ""Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother, Too)" - Salon.com." Directory - Salon.com. 21 Apr. 2009
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