On the surface, LAURA ESTÁ SOLA (LAURA IS ALONE) appears to be nothing more than a softcore sex romp. A case can definitely be made for this statement considering that it boasts many sex scenes, but the film succeeds in areas where most domestic softcore sex films fail: it manages to sustain our interest in the characters’ non-sex scenes, keeping us from refraining from pressing the fast-forward button to get to the good stuff. I’m not big on softcore sex films (no pun intended) as the few that I have seen are fairly soporific, but I was interested with the protagonist and wanted to know where she was going once the film ended, which is something rare even in legitimate films. 

The story begins as most elliptical narratives do – at the end, with the main character reflecting upon his/her past decisions. Laura, a young woman aboard a train who vacantly stares out the window and appears to have no destination in mind, thoughtfully reminisces about a past sexual relationship with Ricardo (played by director Son) whom she met at a work-related party. What had begun as a passionate one-night stand when she was 19, while involved in a steady emotional relationship with her then-boyfriend Giancarlo, effectively turned into a series of encounters that inevitably became more and more intimate and blossomed into a full-fledged physical relationship, complete with sexual appurtenances.    

After their first meeting Ricardo and Laura have sex in his car. Upon climaxing Ricardo, obviously taken by the voluptuous Laura, suggests that he and Laura meet every Wednesday afternoon for sex, and nothing more (think LAST TANGO IN PARIS). Without hesitating, Laura enthusiastically agrees, despite never having had sex with someone so quickly after meeting him.  For the next several weeks they act out different sexual fantasies which involve the stimulation of Laura’s erogenous zones: Ricardo shows her new uses for noodles and ice cubes; he shaves her public mound and performs oral sex on her, much to her delight; Laura makes love to a woman for the first time; and Ricardo finds an interesting alterative use for the kitchen sink. All of the action is told in flashback, and Laura narrates the story with a voiceover that is reflective in its tone, as though despite being sad about the relationship’s inevitable outcome she appears to be at peace with it; it never becomes distracting or intrusive. Laura explains that sex with Giancarlo was incomparable to that with Ricardo, and she subsequently pulls away from her boyfriend while offering up lies to explain her withdrawal from him, and continues her adventures with Ricardo.   As their encounters become more trusting, Laura realizes that she has fallen hopelessly in love with Ricardo. He uses a digital video recorder to capture their trysts; he asks her to strip for him in front of the camera so he can see her when they are apart; he makes love to another woman and calls Laura afterwards and asks her to touch herself.   

As Bernardo Bertolucci’s LAST TANGO IN PARIS seemed to say that every sexual relationship is condemned, Laura finds out this is the case for her when, during a night of heated lovemaking, she blurts out that she will die if she and Ricardo do not marry. This shocks Ricardo, who responds quite cruelly by saying that Laura is trying to kill him (Jack Nicholson accuses Ann-Margaret of the same thing in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE). He storms off, leaving his lover naked on the floor in tears. Her stunning sexual figure is also a curse, preventing her from experiencing the height of happiness that she so strongly desires.   

In the present day, Laura is still reflecting while she walks along the beach, and imparts to us that she finds the ocean both intoxicating and calming. She never saw Ricardo again, and we are left to wonder if he, in fact, ever loved her. My guess is he did, as only the coldest of hearts could resist feelings of romantic love towards a woman like Laura. We never really get to know Ricardo outside of his interludes with Laura, but since we are forced to see the situation through her eyes because she is our eyes, any third-person exploration of Ricardo would have been a misstep. In Martin Scorsese’s TAXI DRIVER, the audience is forced to see the world through Travis Bickle’s eyes, and Scorsese intelligently added a shot of Travis sitting outside of Sport’s (the pimp) apartment while he conducts business with Iris, his 12 year-old prostitute, giving us the window into Iris’ world through Travis’ proximity to her. At the end of the film, we are left to wonder not so much what will happen to Laura, but rather what brought Ricardo to the point of only wanting a sexual relationship bereft of love.   Most people have no doubt experienced similar disappointments as Laura does in this film and can therefore relate to her problems of the heart. Laura has learned the hard way that even when it comes to passion and the joys of uninhibited sexual intimacy there is still a price to be paid. Although the story is about Laura, the audience is left to wonder what happened to Ricardo to make him so deathly afraid of loving her (or admitting to loving her). We can perhaps quite correctly assume that he has simply moved on to someone else.   

Dora Venter, a very beautiful Hungarian whose real name is Melinda Gal, was 26 when she made this film and proves herself to be both an accomplished dramatic actress as well as a confident sexual performer. She appears at ease with both her male and female sexual partners and also manages to make the viewer take emotional stock in her situation. Venter has also performed in many hardcore sex films under several other names such as Dora Wenter, Dora Neuter, Melinda Gaal, Dora Ventor, Claudia Wenström, Mélinda Gal, Melinda Gale, Melinda Jensen, and Barbie Star, so LAURA ESTÁ SOLA doesn’t require that she do anything off-the-wall as far as outrageous sex goes. Most of it is implicit, though far more explicit than an R-rated film.     

There is much to admire here, not the least of which are Ricardo and Laura’s weekly trysts. Conrad Son is a self-professed lover of women, and it shows. While he’s not making love onscreen, his camera lovingly details women in all their pulchritudinous glory. The women in his films are celebrated, never degraded. LAURA ESTÁ SOLA makes for an experience that a couple can view together and perhaps even learn from.