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ALMODOVAR DOUBLE BILL
ALL
ABOUT MY MOTHER
9/10
Todo sobre mi madre : Spain 1999 : Pedro ALMODOVAR : 106 mins
TALK
TO HER
6/10
Hable con ella : Spain 2002 : Pedro ALMODOVAR : 112 mins
Almodovar’s two Oscar-winning movies show how, at his best, he so nimbly combines
the aspects of comedy, tragedy, camp excess and raw emotion that distinguishes
all his work – and also how easy it is for the mixture to go slightly
askew. All About My Mother (which won Best Foreign-Language Film
in 2000) is a masterpiece: a hugely entertaining and involving ensemble-piece
by a great, humanist storyteller working at the height of his powers.
While Talk To Her (Best Original Screenplay, 2003) doesn’t work
to anything like the same degree, it’s nonetheless an intriguingly offbeat
take on modern emotional relationships.
The plot of Mother is too byzantine to synopsise fairly, but the basic
story involves the fortyish Manuela (Cecilia Roth) who, following the
accidental death of her teenage son Esteban (Eloy Azorin) in Madrid, returns
to the native Barcelona she’d fled while pregnant. Though her search for
Esteban’s father – a transsexual now known as Lola (Toni Canto) – seems
fruitless, she hooks up with long-time pal Agrado (Antonia San Juan) and
the pair help out a nun, Rosa (Penelope Cruz), who has fallen pregnant…
to Lola. Meanwhile Manuela ends up working as an assistant to theatrical
grande dame Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes) appearing as Blanche in
a stage production of A Streetcar Named Desire. Complications ensue.
From his title on down, Almodovar makes full and open reference to the classic
1950 Bette Davis movie All About Eve – from which we see dubbed
extracts when Manuela and Esteban watch a TV showing in the opening scene.
And there are also several passages from the Streetcar production
- in which Manuela ends up appearing herself as Stella. Almodovar’s achievement
is to interweave aspects of these forebears (plus John Cassavetes’ Opening
Night) into a vibrantly original, defiantly melodramatic canvas entirely
his own. With fine contributions from Affonso Beato (cinematography),
Alberto Iglesias (score) and, of course, a remarkable array of (mostly
female) acting talent, All About My Mother is intelligent, funny
and piercingly moving.
Talk To Her doesn’t quite cohere into such a satisfying whole – there’s more of a cobbled-together,
improvised feel, resulting in a more uneven piece of work. While Mother’s
sprawling menagerie of characters buzzed with unpredictable vigour and
life, Talk To Her never seems very far from contrivance and implausibility.
At its centre are two couples – nurse Benigno (Javier Camara) and his
comatose patient, ballet-student Alicia (Leonor Watling); and travel-writer
Marco (Dario Grandinetti) and his bullfighter girlfriend Lydia (Rosario
Flores). When Lydia is gored in the ring, she too falls into a coma –
which is when the two men become friends. Their relationship is tested,
however, when it seems Benigno’s affection for Alicia may have intensified
to the point where a taboo has been breached…
Despite Camara’s sympathetic portrayal of the tragic Benigno, the film never
quite recovers its stride after we realise what he’s been up to with the
dormant Alicia – and the apparently miraculous result of his attentions
may well be too tasteless for many viewers. Up to this point, however,
it’s very easy to go along with the symmetries and undulations of Almodovar’s
typically ambitious screenplay – especially as he includes several lengthy
set-pieces of dance and music from Pina Bausch and Caetano Veloso respectively.
The latter – a nocturnal performance of virtuouso guitar – is seductively
atmospheric, even if non-Spanish-speaking audiences may not find it advances
their understanding of the story very much. And, as the camera pans the
appreciative audience, Almodovar devotees will spot an in-joke when Cecilia
Roth and Marisa Paredes – the two stars of All About My Mother - are
shown sitting close by each other, paralelling the opening scene in which
Benigno and Marco sat side by side at a Bausch performance. It’s a sly,
amusing little in-joke – but may also serve to remind viewers that, for
all Talk To Her’s merits, Almodovar is capable of so much better
when everything falls just right.
18th August, 2003
(seen 10th August : Tyneside
Cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
by Neil
Young
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