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ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER: Cecilia Roth stars in this celebrated film from Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. Distraught over the death of her teenage son, Manuela drives to Barcelona to find the boy's father, an itinerant transsexual named Lola (Toni Canto). While combing the city's less reputable districts, she also meets up with Agrado (Antonia San Juan), a sassy transvestite prostitute, and Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a pregnant nun on her way to El Salvador. She also becomes the manager for Huma (Marisa Paredes), the actress her son idolized, and helps her through a run of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Together these great ladies bond through various heartrending crises, enduring the pain and celebrating the beauty of being women (or almost women). Considered to be one of Almodóvar's most fully realized works, this charming and unique film blends his earlier gender-bending irreverence with the mature grace and compassion of his later work, striking a perfect note of humor and pathos.
BAD EDUCATION: In this powerful autobiographical film, acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, TALK TO HER) tracks the formative experiences of his coming-of-age in a Catholic boys' school. While the film benefits from Almodóvar's limitless range of color, beauty, and moving expression, the themes presented are dark and difficult. Pedophilia, lost love, mistaken identity, psychological manipulation, drug addiction, and desperation prevail, giving this otherwise sexy and vibrant film a chilling subtext.
Gael Garcia Bernal gives a jaw-dropping performance, playing two of the main characters. First, he plays a screenwriter named Ignacio who reunites with his childhood friend Enrique (Fele Martinez), a filmmaker, to sell him a script called "The Visit." He also plays the star of "The Visit"--a gorgeous cross-dresser and drug addict named Zahara. Enrique instantly realizes that the script is the story of their childhood, where they met and fell in love, only to be torn apart by a jealous pedophilic priest, Father Manolo (Daniel Gimenez-Cacho). However, Ignacio looks nothing like the boy that Enrique remembers as his best friend and first love. As the mystery of their past begins to unfold, layers of lies and deception are peeled away to reveal a delicate core of innocence lost. Almodovar's message is not one of hopelessness--it is rather a recognition of the inevitable hardening of the soul that is fundamental to survival in a less-than-perfect world.
TALK TO HER: Following the success of his 1999 film, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar presents TALK TO HER. Driven by similar themes of fate, destiny, magic, and chance happenings, TALK TO HER is the tale of two men whose lives intertwine unpredictably. Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a dedicated nurse working at a special clinic for coma patients. He is responsible for Alicia (Leonor Watling), a student of modern dance whom he met only once, four years earlier, before she fell into a coma. Happy, open-minded, and full of hope, Benigno brings an air of joy and love to the clinic. Marco (Darío Grandinetti), a freelance journalist, has fallen in love with the famous female bullfighter Lydia (Rosario Flores). Though he does his best to be an attentive lover to her, he is haunted by his past, and is unable to step out of his shell. When Lydia is gored and falls into a coma, placed in the same clinic as Alicia, Marco and Benigno become friends. They are each other's perfect counterpart and it is instantly evident that they need each other and care for each other deeply. But it is not until after they part, and a new aspect of Benigno's personality surfaces, that the strength of their friendship is tested and proven.
Almodóvar has created a true work of art with TALK TO HER. Its photography offers one clean, colorful setting after another, its musical score is peppered with great moments (such as a breathtaking performance by Caetano Veloso of his song ...
Industry Reviews
"The genius of Almodovar? That he keeps returning to these subjects without lessening the impact of his movies, which remain ever innovative and fresh."
Entertainment Weekly - Missy Schwartz (02/02/2007)
"[The films] constitute a kind of hall of mirrors, in which 1950's-style plot-twisting comedy reflects on the modern age's confused sexual identities, and vice versa."
Movieline's Hollywood Life - Stephen Farber (01/01/2007)
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