Behind their naughty-but-nice exteriors, Manuel Gómez Pereira's first five film farces form one of Spanish cinema's sharpest contemporary chronicles.

Distant cousins of Almodóvar and Bigas Luna, his films are chic, have cheek and boast generous doses of largely untroubled sex. So it comes as something of a surprise that in Entre las piernas Gómez Pereira takes the near unheard-of step for a Spanish cineaste of suggesting that people can actually get too much of it.

Javier (Javier Bardem), a budding screenwriter, and Miranda (Victoria Abril), a radio show assistant, meet at a sex clinic. To little avail. They copulate that very night in the back of an abandoned car. When a corpse is found in its boot, and Miranda's jealous cop husband is attached to the case, it looks as if Javier is being framed.

All these fishy goings-on are somewhat reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock, but, as Gómez Pereira points out: "I think it is honest to go to Hitchcock, the master of this kind of film, but without trying to imitate him - that would be very pretentious on my part." John Hopewell