The Bilingual Lover - Cast

Cast

• Imanol Arias as Joan Marés/Juan Faneca
• Ornella Muti as Norma Valenti
• Loles León as Griselda
• Javier Bardem as Shoeshiner
• Joan Lluis Bozzo as Valls Verdú
• Blanca Apilánez as Carmen

Imanol Arias was launched to star status in Spain by his work with Vicente Aranda in El Lute, a film that was a critical and commercial success. Arias came to see his role in El Amante Bilingüe as a turning point in his career, a triumph after two years of relative inactivity. There are similarities between his own life and that of his character. He had a first failed marriage with a rich woman and came from modest background. The role in El Amante Bilingüe was an exciting challenge for him, having to play a character with dual personalities and different registers.

El Amante Bilingüe was co-produced with Italian investors and the role of Norma was given to Ornella Muti, an Italian actress famous for her beauty. Ornella Muti first gained attention in the English speaking world as the princess in Flash Gordon (1980). Here, she plays the suggestive role of a wealthy woman with unusual sexual fantasies. Vicente Aranda recalled “ I was very pleased with Ornella, she made as much as she could to adjust to the requirements of the film, but she is extremely beautiful and perhaps another actress, less attractive would have suited better the dark tone of the film”.

In supporting roles are: Javier Bardem, one of Spain’s best known actors, here in one of his first roles and Loles León, who plays a comic character. She has worked for Pedro Almodóvar in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and for Vicente Aranda in La Pasión Turca (1994) and Libertarias (1996).