The Bilingual Lover - Production

Production

Spanish director, Vicente Aranda, became well known in Spain in the 1980s for his cinematographic adaptation of literary works. He fell a close affinity with novelist, Juan Marsé, just few years apart in age; they shared similar experiences in their childhood in their native city, Barcelona. Aranda had previously adapted two of Marsé’s novels to the big screen: La Muchacha de las Bragas de Oro and If They Tell You I Fell. In 1992, Vicente Aranda became interested in making a third adaptation from a novel written by Juan Marse. Vicente Aranda recalled, “ Juan Marse sent me the manuscript of the novel El Amante Bilingüe and I liked it. Andres Vicente Gómez, the producer, was not very eager to take this project, he considered it too regional, very Catalan, in spite of it all, we made the film”. Producer Vicente Andres Gomez says that he and Marse thought that Mario Camús was the most appropriate director to make the film.

The film had a budget of 164 million pesetas and was a co production with Italy. Shot in Barcelona, the movie premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, where it was well received. El Amante Bilingüe was released in Spain on April 1, 1993.