Sexy, amor y fantasia (1976), directed by Juan Xiol
It has often been said that the basic formula for 70s European softcore was one third sex, one third story and one third tourist locations. Sexy, amor y fantasia, a Spanish production from the time the country’s government had yet to instate the “S” classification, is not really softcore, but makes do by the above requirements. Its true generic placement is that of the “destape” (nudie) film, which crept timidly into domestic cinema in the late sixties until its fullest development acted as a gateway to the softcore cycle that began in 1978. Both unimportant and pleasing, it marks the very end of the career (and indeed the life) of its director, Juan Xiol, a Basque who had long settled in Catalonia and, following a long apprenticeship with Iquino, settled for a career of his own, usually in the company of his partner and muse Lynn Endersson. Born Lina Nadal in Perpignan, and trained as a painter, Lynn Endersson found herself an actress upon meeting Xiol and her subsequent career encompassed the full spectrum of erotic cinema variants: nudie, softcore and, as a momentary diversion, hardcore. In the latter category, she starred in the straight-to-8mm Porno Girls, made by Jordi Gigó and Ricard Reguant in 1978, before this kind of thing was legal in Spain. Whatever the type of film, however, the plump, middle-aged Ms. Endersson remained consistent in her screen persona, trading on a camped-up, almost self-parodying sexuality whose tawdriness was, in all likelihood, deliberate. Extremely high heels, heavy make-up, a variety of hair dyes, gaudily whorish clothing were regular ingredients in her stock-in-trade, as were her expansive arm gestures, undulating voice and overall exaggeration of performance that lend themselves either to comedy or to extreme soap-operatic melodrama. Sometimes she’d go as far as placing the back of her hand against her forehead while outstretching the other arm, but on some occasions, as in Larraz’s Las alumnas de Madame Olga, she could also act “straight” if required to. She must have had her own brand of appeal, as her career lasted a goodish fifteen years before she suddenly disappeared from sight in the late eighties. Somehow, she was overlooked by Almodóvar, who certainly would have known how to use her.
In Sexy, amor y fantasía, she co-stars with two major sexpot actresses of the time, Ágata Lys, now active in character roles, and Susana Estrada, who disappeared from view after some years of notoriety and didn’t return until she appeared in Los años desnudos (2008), which was inspired by the “destape” years. As indicated by the very title Sexy, amor y fantasia (obviously taken from the old Comencini films with De Sica and Lollo), the script takes place in a generic rural setting, much gazed upon by cameraman Tomás Pladevall, and including a lengthy bullfighting sequence, all indicating perhaps an eye to export prospects.
So much for the sex, so much for the locations, now let’s get on to the story. Using their regular card-playing barroom meetings as an excuse, a group of middle-aged locals (Víctor Israel, Fernando Rubio, Juan Torres, Manuel Bronchud et al) chart their plans to create a common pool between them so as to keep a prostitute both readily available and hidden from view in an isolated cabin. The lady in question, named Piluca (Lynn Endersson), duly arrives and all seems to go well for the group, at least for the time being. Meanwhile, Toni (David Rocha), the callow nephew of the Víctor Israel character has just begun his sex life, being caught between his aunt (Ágata Lys), a local girl (Susana Estrada) and, eventually, Piluca herself.
Xiol’s films are usually boring but here, as if he knew of his impending death, he puts more effort than usual and creates a pleasingly leisurely pacing and good atmosphere (augmented by the comparative shortage of dialogue; much of the soundtrack is dominated by the mooing of cows that almost acts as a background score), if not a great film. The actors of the middle-aged folk make a very good ensemble and you do get to see Lynn Endersson smoking a pipe and a half-nude Víctor Israel cavorting with Endersson. Most curious of all is the cameo, in the role of Piluca’s violent pimp, of Miguel Madrid, who a year earlier had directed Rocha in El asesino de muñecas. 
Víctor Israel and Lynn Endersson cavort about 
Miguel Madrid as the pimp
