If They Tell You I Fell

If They Tell You I Fell
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vicente Aranda
Produced by	Enrique Viciano
Written by	Vicente Aranda
Starring	Jorge Sanz, Victoria Abril, Javier Gurruchaga, Antonio Banderas
Music by	José Nieto
Cinematography	Juan Amorós
Edited by	Teresa Font
Release date	19 September 1989 (Spain) 13 November 1992 (US)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish

If They Tell You I Fell (Spanish: Si te dicen que caí) is a 1989 Spanish film written and directed by Vicente Aranda, starring Jorge Sanz and Victoria Abril. The film is an adaptation of the novel of the same title by Catalan author Juan Marsé. Set mostly in the old quarter of 1940s Barcelona, the film centers in a young rag and bone merchant who falls in love with a prostitute. If They Tell You I Fell has an intricate narrative in which real and imagined stories blend in a crosswords style.

In the post Spanish Civil War years, Catalan kids would sit in circles among the ruins and tell stories, known as "aventis" open-ended narratives drifting back and forth through time. Laced with horror and perversity, these tales mix war stories, local gossip, comic book characters, fantasy and real events. The "aventis" of this film are told in flashback in 1970, 1940, 1936 and the mid-1980s.

In 1970, Nito, a medical examiner assistant and sister Paulina, a nurse-nun (who grew up together, and now are co-workers in a hospital) identify the corpse of a couple who had drowned during a car accident. The dead man is Daniel Javaloyes "Java", one of the main characters of the "aventis" of their childhood and adolescence. The woman seems to be Juanita, who forty years before was one of many orphans. The discovery of Java’s body (long presumed dead) leads them to remember what had happened decades before. Flashbacks reveal a story that may or may not have happened.

In the old quarter of 1940s Barcelona inhabitants are struggling to survive among the ruins left by the Spanish Civil War. Daniel Javaloyes, "Java" is one of them. He is a young man trying by any means to leave behind the misery around him. He lives in a dilapidated house with his grandmother, a mute trapper. To make some money, the hardened Java performs perverse sexual acts for the voyeuristic pleasure of Don Conrado, a rich sadistic man, who uses a wheelchair after being wounded during the war. In one of those sexual encounters for hire, Java has violent sex with Ramona, a visibly pregnant prostitute. From then on Java is smitten with the fallen woman. Initially he finds out very little about her, but when Conrado’s mother visits him also looking for her, Java learns that Ramona had been a maid in Don Conrado’s household. She bears a scarred left nipple caused by his sadism.