Details
Movie Description
This bold tale of passion's dire consequences is one of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's most smoldering films. Antonio Banderas stars as Antonio Benítez, an obsessive fan of writer-director Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela), a cocaine-snorting homosexual hedonist whose last boyfriend, Juan (Miguel Molina), has just moved out. Antonio and Pablo have a few passionate nights, but Antonio's obsessive love soon proves hard for the noncommittal Pablo to escape from. Meanwhile, Pablo's transsexual sister, Tina (Carmen Maura), has problems of her own, including a closet brimming with dark sexual skeletons and Ada (Manuela Velasco), her unofficially adopted daughter. Pablo writes a play for Tina to star in, but when Antonio stalks and murders Juan in a fit of jealousy, the police end up suspecting the character Tina performs in the play. Pablo winds up with amnesia after a car accident, and the troubles just get weirder from there. For American audiences unfamiliar with Almodóvar's style, this film may prove a shocking experience, but his fans know that beneath their transgressive exteriors, his films throb with a palpable love of humanity, life, beauty, and art. This is a fine example of that art, with great music and memorable performances all around.
Synopsis
After a one-night stand, a philandering porn director inadvertently elicits an obsessive love that eventually entangles his pious Catholic transsexual brother, a father-son detective team, and a sensuous woman in a web of mayhem. The film is pure Almodóvar, with an onslaught of shockingly funny, provocative, and macabre plot developments told in a high-toned screwball style.
Film Notes
Filmed in Madrid and Cadiz, Spain.
LAW OF DESIRE won for best feature film at the 1987 Berlin International Film Festival.
Industry Reviews
"...LAW OF DESIRE is truly bravura in its driving pace and nonchalant tone. Almodovar directs like a crack race driver who is fearless of the sharpest curves..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (04/24/1987)
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