 The sex scene between Antonio Banderas (qv) and  Victoria Abril (qv) took nine takes to get right, and about nine  hours to film. Pedro Almodóvar (qv) chose to use the last take as,  by that time, the two actors had worked themselves up into a sweat  which made the scene appear to be more authentic. Elia Kazan (qv)  later remarked that he thought it was one of the best sex scenes he  had ever witnessed.