Issue 40
Notebook

Lina Romay and the Unfolded Body between 'Plaisir à Trois' and 'Gemidos de Placer'

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  • Álex Mendíbil Blanco
Álex Mendíbil Blanco
Universidad Camilo José Cela
Bio
DOI: https://doi.org/10.63700/1245

Published 2025-07-01

How to Cite

Mendíbil Blanco, Álex. (2025). Lina Romay and the Unfolded Body between ’Plaisir à Trois’ and ’Gemidos de Placer’. L’Atalante. Journal of Film Studies, (40), 51–64. https://doi.org/10.63700/1245

Copyright (c) 2025 L'Atalante. Journal of film studies

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Abstract

This article analyses how the actress Lina Romay intervened in and reconfigured Jess Franco’s filmmaking through a physical presence described here as an unfolding or explicit body. Through two films that are highly significant in her career, Plaisir à trois (1973) and Gemidos de placer (1982), it examines how Romay’s body operates as a narrative axis that challenges the conventions of traditional erotic cinema and Spain’s cine de destape genre. By stripping away idealisations and rejecting the classical fetishistic male gaze, Romay represents a shift in the cinematic representation of desire and sexuality, aligning with the sociopolitical context of Spain’s transition to democracy. The analysis explores her gestures, wardrobe and performance in conjunction with the use of sequence shots and moving cameras to amplify the narrative discourse, questioning prejudices and stereotypes about eroticism and the female body. Lina Romay’s work with Jess Franco emerges as a form of fringe cinema that destabilises dominant narratives of sex and desire, opening cracks in the political and aesthetic space and allowing the emergence of new female subjectivities.

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