Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar, Tacones lejanos (High Heels) is the story about the fragile relationship between a famous torch singer and her news reporter daughter where the two find themselves involved in a murder. Inspired by American melodramas, the film isn’t just an exploration about this estranged relationship between two women but also what these two women do to hurt each other. Starring Marisa Paredes, Victoria Abril, and Miguel Bose. Tacones lejanos is a compelling though uneven film from Pedro Almodovar.
The film explores this tense and fragile relationship between a torch singer and her news reporter daughter as the former returns to Spain to do a series of concerts while the latter has married a former lover of her mother’s. All of which would then lead to a murder mystery where both women are suspects as it would lead to many complications and revelations over the strained relationship between the two women. Much of which involves envy and resentment between the two women as the singer Becky del Paramo (Marisa Paredes) and the news reporter Rebeca (Victoria Abril) come to terms with their disdain for one another as well as the root of this schism.
Pedro Almodovar’s screenplay starts off very well in the way it plays the troubled relationship between Becky and Rebeca as it would be furthered by the latter’s marriage to Manuel (Feodor Atkine) whom Becky had been with many years ago. Yet, the marriage is already troubled which would lead to a brief affair between Manuel and Becky but one that is unfulfilling as Manuel has another lover. Then the film shifts gears into a mystery where Rebeca becomes very despondent over what happens as she is questioned by a judge (Miguel Bose) who wants to know what happened. Even as he would make some revelations about the relationship between mother and daughter as it would lead some very dramatic moments in the second act. Just as the first two acts would create something that is intriguing, the film would then fall apart in its third act not just in some of the twists that are unveiled but in how messy and uneven the story would become.
Almodovar’s direction is quite stylish in not just in the way he composes a scene but also capture elements of the drama where one of its obvious influences in the film is Ingmar Bergman’s whose 1978 film Autumn Sonata is referenced. There’s some unique close-ups and framing devices that Almodovar would use to play into the tension between Becky and Rebeca as well as the way the camera would capture these moments in medium shots and wide shots with very few close-ups of the two together as they would only be used in single shots. The film would also have some very entrancing moments such as Becky, Rebeca, and Manuel watching a tribute performance to Becky by a drag singer as well as Becky’s own singing performances. Yet, there’s also some offbeat moments such as a choreographed dancing in a prison as well as some moments in the third act which definitely provides some shifting tones that eventually becomes confusing and incomprehensive despite its very powerful ending. Overall, Almodovar crafts a very intriguing though very messy film about a troubled relationship between a mother and her daughter.
Cinematographer Alfred Mayo does amazing work with the film‘s very colorful cinematography to capture every sense of detail in many of the film‘s interior settings including the scenes at the club as well as some of the exteriors in the way Madrid looks. Editor Jose Salcedo does fantastic work with the editing with its stylish approach to dissolves as well as jump-cuts to play into some of the film‘s humor and melodrama. Production designer Pierre-Louis Thevenet, with set decorator Julian Mateos and art director Carlos Garcia Cambero, does brilliant work with the set pieces from the different homes the two women live as well as the look of the club and court house that the characters would go to.
Costume designer Jose Maria de Cossio does excellent work with the costumes from the dresses that Becky would wear as well as the Karl Lagerfeld-designed Chanel suits and dresses that Rebeca would wear. The sound work of Jean-Paul Mugel is terrific for some of the sound work that occurs including one key moment of the film that would drive the story towards its second act. The film’s music by Ryuichi Sakamoto is pretty good as it features some low-key orchestral pieces while most of the music consists of jazz pieces by Miles Davis as well as classic torch songs and some score pieces by George Fenton in some of the dramatic moments.
The film’s superb cast includes some notable small appearances from Rocio Munoz as a young Rebeca, Nacho Martinez as Rebeca’s father, Pedro Diez del Corral as Rebeca’s step-father in a flashback sequence, Miriam Diaz Aroca as the sign-language reporter, Anna Lizaran as Becky’s assistant Margarita, Cristina Marcos as a social worker that Rebeca meets, and Javier Bardem in a very small role as a TV director. Feodor Atkine is terrific as Rebeca’s husband Manuel who has a disdain for drag queens and is cruel to Rebeca as he seeks to renew his affair with Becky. Miguel Bose is fantastic as the young judge who looks over into this case as he tries to question the two women over their troubled relationship.
Marisa Paredes is great as Becky del Parmo as this torch singer who returns to Spain to give a series of homecoming concerts as she tries to deal with a murder mystery as well as her tense relationship with her daughter. Finally, there’s Victoria Abril in a phenomenal performance as Rebeca as this young woman who tried to reconcile with her mother as she is dealing with being in her mother’s shadow as well as being in a loveless marriage as it’s a performance filled with anguish as well as excitement as her scenes with Paredes are just astonishing to watch.
Tacones lejanos is a stellar yet messy film from Pedro Almodovar. While it features a great cast and beautiful images, it’s a film that has Almodovar trying to infuse many genres where it starts off great but has a very messy third act that hinders the film a bit. In the end, Tacones lejanos is a really good yet flawed film from Pedro Almodovar.
Pedro Almodovar Films: Pepi, Luci, Bom - Labyrinth of Passion - Dark Habits - What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Matador - Law of Desire - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! - Kika - The Flower of My Secret - Live Flesh - All About My Mother - Talk to Her - Bad Education - Volver - Broken Embraces - The Skin I Live In - I'm So Excited! - Julieta - Pain & Glory - (The Human Voice (2020 short film)) - (Parallel Mothers)
The Auteurs #37: Pedro Almodovar Pt. 1 - Pt. 2
© thevoid99 2014
Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar, La ley del deseo (Law of Desire) is the story of a complicated love triangle between a homosexual filmmaker, his transsexual sister, and an obsessive stalker. The film is an exploration into not just homosexual love but also transsexuality as the film showcases Almodovar creating something that mixes melodrama with the edginess of his early work. Starring Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, Eusebio Poncela, Bibi Andersen, and Miguel Molina. La ley del deseo is a ravishing yet intensely-gripping film from Pedro Almodovar.
The film explores a very complicated affair between a revered homosexual filmmaker and a stalker whose sick obsession would lead into trouble as it would also involve the filmmaker’s transsexual sister. It’s a film that plays not into just obsession but also a man who has put himself into this troubling relationship as he’s in love with another man who has gone on a holiday. Meanwhile, his sister Tina (Carmen Maura), who was once his brother, is trying to make it as an actress while taking care of their niece Ada (Manuela Velasco) whose mother (Bibi Andersen) is away in Japan. For Pablo Quintero (Eusebio Poncela), his relationship with Antonio (Antonio Banderas) starts to become overwhelming where Pablo would write letters to Antonio as a woman so that Antonio’s mother (Helga Line) would believe that her son is straight. Unfortunately, things become complicated as writer/director Pedro Almodovar creates something that is this wild mix of melodrama with suspense as well as dark humor.
The film’s screenplay not only showcases an affair that becomes chaotic but also a woman’s life as she is looking for something good in her life while caring for her niece as they’re both seeking some form of spiritual comfort. Tina is a woman who has been locking up a secret that her brother doesn’t want to know as she tries to live a life without a man with the exception of Pablo. Pablo’s relationship with Antonio is really a fling as he’s trying to work on a script for a new film yet remains devoted to his lover Juan (Miguel Molina). Once Antonio finds out about Juan, troubles brew as Almodovar would present this in a very melodramatic yet eerie style that is dark but also would push Pablo into facing his own faults. Especially as it’s third act forces him to deal with his consequences over his relationship with Antonio and how it nearly destroyed his own relationship with Tina.
Almodovar’s direction is filled with style not just in terms of the compositions he creates but also in the mood. The way he opens the film where a young man is masturbating is a showcase of what is to come from Almodovar as there this air of shock value. Much of it involves some racy sex scenes between two men which was very out there during the mid-1980s in the age of AIDS yet Almodovar doesn’t go too far but rather showcase a sense of passion in the relationship between Pablo and Antonio. The character of Tina is another aspect of the film that is quite daring since she is this transsexual character who thinks of herself as a woman but if she’s going to be in a fight. She’ll fight like a man and don’t care if she gets hit as there is that complexity to the character.
Much of Almodovar’s compositions are very entrancing from the slow pans on the dolly camera that he creates as well some unique camera angles and wide shots to present this lush world that is Madrid in its discos, cinemas, theaters, and clothing boutiques to present something that is very lively. Yet, there is that element of darkness and danger that occurs in the third act as its climax is very chilling but also very ambiguous over what is happening and such. Overall, Almodovar creates a very rich yet haunting film about a filmmaker coming to terms with himself and the people he surrounds himself with.
Cinematographer Angel Luis Fernandez does brilliant work with the film‘s very colorful cinematography from the way some of the nighttime exteriors are shot as well as some of the interior lighting as well as the vibrancy of Madrid and other locations in Spain. Editor Jose Salcedo does amazing work in creating some unique cutting style from split-screens as well as rhythmic cuts and dissolves to play into the drama and suspense. Art director Javier Fernandez and set decorator Ramon Moya do fantastic work with the look of Pablo’s apartment as well as the religious shrine that Tina and Ada pray to along with the theatrical sets that Tina would perform in.
Costume designer Jose Maria de Cossio does excellent work with the costumes from the shirt that Pablo and Antonio would wear to the clothes that Tina would wear including a Betty Boop t-shirt she and Ada would wear as pajamas. The sound work of Jim Willis is superb for some of the atmosphere of the locations as well as the use of voiceovers that often occur whenever Pablo is writing. The film’s music by Bernardo Bonezzi is terrific for its mixture of Spanish-based balladry with some orchestral music as the soundtrack includes some classical pieces and Spanish ballads that play into the film’s drama.
The film’s wonderful cast includes some notable small roles from Rossy de Palma as a TV interviewer, Victoria Abril as a girlfriend of Juan, Nacho Martinez as a sympathetic doctor that helps Tina and Pablo, Fernando Guillen and Fernando Guillen Cuervo as a father-son police team, Helga Line as Antonio’s mother, and Bibiana Fernandez (in her Bibi Andersen alias) as Ada’s often-absent mother. Manuela Velasco is very good as Tina and Pablo’s niece Ada who always seek some spiritual answers while preferring the company of Tina and Pablo than her mother. Miguel Molina is terrific as Pablo’s lover Juan who goes on a holiday to find himself while dealing with the state of their relationship as he would eventually cause a schism between Pablo and Antonio.
Carmen Maura is phenomenal as Tina as this transsexual actress who deals with her identity as she wants to become an actress while dealing with the work that her brother is writing as it’s a role that is quite ballsy but also one that exudes femininity as it’s one of Maura’s great performances. Eusebio Poncela is brilliant as Tina’s brother Pablo Quintero as this filmmaker who writes about the struggles of women and homosexuality as he tries to juggle his own relationships as well as how his work sometimes cause tension between himself and Tina. Finally, there’s Antonio Banderas in a remarkable performance as Antonio as this very troubled and obsessive stalker who is in love with Pablo yet couldn’t deal with sharing Pablo with anyone else as it’s a very dangerous and intense performance from Banderas as well as one of highlights in his collaboration with Almodovar.
La ley del deseo is an incredible film from Pedro Almodovar that is highlighted by the top-tier performances of Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura, and Eusebio Poncela. The film isn’t just one of Almodovar’s quintessential films but also one of his darkest and most dangerous as it showcases what he can in explore transsexuality and homosexuality. In the end, La ley del deseo is a lurid yet sensational film from Pedro Almodovar.
Pedro Almodovar Films: Pepi, Luci, Bom - Labyrinth of Passion - Dark Habits - What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Matador - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! - High Heels - Kika - The Flower of My Secret - Live Flesh - All About My Mother - Talk to Her - Bad Education - Volver - Broken Embraces - The Skin I Live In - I'm So Excited - Julieta - Pain & Glory - (The Human Voice (2020 short film)) - (Parallel Mothers)
The Auteurs #37: Pedro Almodovar Pt. 1 - Pt. 2
© thevoid99 2014
Directed by Pedro Almodovar and written by Almodovar and Jesus Ferrero, Matador is the story of a matador student who confesses to a murder that he didn’t commit as forces beyond his control involving other people start to unfold about the real mysteries of the murder. The film is a dark exploration into the world of faith, sex, and death as it plays into the complicated world of a retired matador, his student, his young lover, and the student’s defense attorney in this strange yet complex story. Starring Antonio Banderas, Assumpta Serna, Carmen Maura, Eva Cobo, Eusebio Poncela, Julieta Serrano, Chus Lampreave, Veronica Forque, and Nacho Martinez. Matador is a mesmerizing and offbeat film from Pedro Almodovar.
The film is this very unconventional mystery that is driven by a young yet repressed matador student whose attempt to rape a model has him confessing to a series of mysterious murders. Yet, it’s a film that plays into a world of sexuality and death as the film opens with these very chilling scenes of death where a man is masturbating to images of murders while a woman would kill her lover with a hairpin. It sets the tone for what is coming as Angel (Antonio Banderas) desires to be a matador but he is repressed sexually as well as in other things due to his more traditional upbringing by his mother (Julietta Serrano). That repression and his attempted rape on Eva (Eva Cobo) would send Angel into an uncertainty while his confession gets the attention of his matador teacher/Eva’s boyfriend Diego Montez (Nacho Martinez) and a defense attorney in Maria Cardenal (Assumpta Serna) who would take Angel’s case to see if she can help him.
The film’s screenplay has a very odd structure where the first act is about Angel trying to prove his manhood to Diego who questioned him if he was gay. In his attempt to prove his manhood by raping Eva, it would only show how repressed and lost he is through his own upbringing as his mother’s prompting to confess to his priest would only cause Angel to become lost in his guilt. The second act involves not just Diego and Maria as they try to figure out the case but also their own encounter with each other as there is this very unlikely attraction. Maria is a fan of Diego’s time as a bullfighter while it is clear that there is something about them that is off causing the detective (Eusebio Poncela) to wonder if Angel knows something as he asks the criminal psychologist Julia (Carmen Maura) to help. The film’s third act would involve Eva, who is deeply in love with Angel, where she not only learns about the true nature of the murder as Angel in his own troubled state would also make some revelations into the truth.
Pedro Almodovar’s direction definitely has a degree of style in not just his approach to framing but also in the mood he conveys as he definitely brings in elements of surrealism and melodrama into the film. Especially in the latter as there’s a scene where Diego and Maria find themselves in a movie theater watching the ending of King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun as it showcased the desire they would have for each other later on. Much of the direction has Almodovar use a lot of smooth dolly pans to create a mood with its wide and medium shots to play into the worlds that Diego and Maria live in as well as the more oppressed environment of Angel. The themes of faith are quite evident in the film as it relates to Angel and his mother as she is this old-school traditionalist who would pressure Angel to always answer to God as he starts to lose himself mentally. Angel’s mother is a very sharp contrast to Eva’s more liberal mother (Chus Lampreave) who is an artist as she is more in tune with is happening while Angel’s mother convinced that her son has sinned.
There is also a dangerous approach to sexuality in the way the film begins where a man masturbates to images of murder as well as a woman killing a man while having sex. It’s among the aspects in Almodovar’s direction that plays to elements of extreme where its climax takes that sexual extreme to another level. Once the sex is mixed in with this gruesome idea of violence as it relates to the art of bullfighting, it plays into not just the unraveling of the mystery but also into a world that doesn’t really make much sense as far as what Eva and Angel are concerned since they come from two very disparate backgrounds. Overall, Almodovar creates a very dark yet evocative film about people’s desires and their own sense of emotional and sexual repression.
Cinematographer Angel Luis Fernandez does brilliant work with the film‘s very vibrant and stylish cinematography to capture the lush look of red as well as some of the colorful exteriors in some of the film‘s locations in Madrid along with some of its lighting in its interior scenes. Editor Jose Salcedo does amazing work in creating some stylish cuts from the use of dissolves for a surreal sequence involving Angel as well as jump-cuts to play into its suspense and drama. Production designer Fernando Sanchez, with set decorators Roman Arango, Pin Morales, and Josep Rosell, does fantastic work with the look of the home that Diego lives and teaches as well as the more stylish world that Eva and her mother lives in.
Costume designer Jose Maria de Cossio does incredible work with the costumes where he uses red to help with the look of the film a dress that Eva wears as well as the clothes that Maria wears in the film. The sound work of Bernard Ortion is superb for some of the sound effects that is created as well as the sparseness in some of the moments such as Diego displaying his moves despite his career-ending injury. The film’s music by Bernardo Bonezzi is phenomenal for its chilling score that mixes orchestral music with some flamenco as well as some eerie electronic pieces to play into its suspense and drama.
The film’s great cast includes some cameo appearances from Pedro Almodovar as a fashion designer, his brother Agustin as a cop, Bibiana Fernandez as a flower vendor, Veronica Forque as a fashion reporter, Carmen Maura as a police psychologist who falls for Angel, and Eusebio Poncela in a terrific performance as the detective who leads the investigation as he often is baffled by the behavior of women. Julietta Serrano and Chus Lampreave are wonderful in their respective roles as the mothers of Angel and Eva as they bring in polarizing ideas about motherhood and morals where the former is very strict while the latter is more outgoing. Eva Cobo is excellent as the model Eva who has a very lovesick obsession towards Diego despite their age difference as she also endures being raped by Angel despite his naivete.
Antonio Banderas is fantastic as Angel as this young matador student who starts to unravel mentally due to his oppressive upbringing and desire to prove that he’s a man as it’s a performance told with such restraint and sensitivity. Nacho Martinez is superb as the very masculine yet repressed Diego as this once-great matador who teaches his students the art of killing a bull as it plays to a sense of melancholia that would later be shadowed by something much darker. Finally, there’s Assumpta Serna in an exhilarating performance as Angel’s lawyer Maria Cardenal as this woman who is quite offbeat as she wants to prove that Angel is innocent as she also has this obsession about Diego that showcases a darker side of her that would attract Diego.
Matador is a ravishing yet visceral film from Pedro Almodovar. Armed with a great cast led by Assumpta Serna, Nacho Martinez, and Antonio Banderas as well as a fantastic score. The film is definitely one of Almodovar’s early triumphs as well as one of his most dangerous and provocative films that explores the world of oppression and extreme sexuality. In the end, Matador is a remarkable film from Pedro Almodovar.
Pedro Almodovar Films: Pepi, Luci, Bom - Labyrinth of Passion - Dark Habits - What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Law of Desire - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! - High Heels - Kika - The Flower of My Secret - Live Flesh - All About My Mother - Talk to Her - Bad Education - Volver - Broken Embraces - The Skin I Live In - I'm So Excited - Julieta - Pain & Glory - (The Human Voice (2020 short film)) - (Parallel Mothers)
The Auteurs #37: Pedro Almodovar Pt. 1 - Pt. 2
© thevoid99 2014
