Details
Movie Description
Gloria (Carmen Maura) tries to hold her insane Madrid family together in this hilariously deadpan working-class comedy from Pedro Almodóvar. Sharing their cramped tenement apartment is Gloria's husband (Luis Hostalot), an abusive cabdriver who forges letters from Hitler; her heroin-dealing son; a younger son who likes to sleep with older men; an eccentric grandmother (Chus Lampreave); and a pet lizard named Dinero. Gloria works several cleaning jobs to try to make ends meet and sniffs cleaning products for relief from the stress, as she gets no thanks from her nagging husband, who eventually drives her to murder. Luckily, she has a friend in next-door neighbor Cristal (Verónica Forqué), a bubbly prostitute who seduces the cop on the case. There's also a girl upstairs who helps Gloria with her housework via telekinesis. This all works sublimely well, thanks to both an inspired cast who plays everything completely straight, and dialogue that spills over with dry wit and keen observation. Almodóvar scored one of his first international hits with this outrageous, irreverent, and touching film. He also appears in a brief cameo as a TV opera star.
Synopsis
A hard-working woman keeps going 18 hours a day to hold her family together with some rather comical mishaps in Pedro Almodóvar's black comedy.
Film Notes
Theatrical release: October 25, 1984.
Filmed in Madrid, Spain, and partially in Berlin, Germany.
The film is in Spanish (and some French and German) with English subtitles.
Industry Reviews
"...What Almodovar discovers in such grim circumstances is hilarious, the result of a wild imagination combined with an all-essential sureness of tone..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (03/05/1986)
"Bursting with garish invention, this absurdist domestic comedy is a characteristic early offering from Almodovar."
Sight and Sound - Matthew Leyland (01/01/2005)
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