Talk to her - A review
September 26th 2006 13:06
I am going to admit that I saw this film a couple of years ago and for some perplexing reason, I only realised this when I was about twenty minutes into the film for the second time. I feel I did a disservice not to remember its resonating messages of loneliness shown vividly by the four main characters. I can only assume that my memory lapse was due to fatigue or some other important life issue…but this film will definitely stay with me this time. It is a sublime, rich and emotionally complex movie that shows director Almodóvar venturing into trickier, more fascinating territory, than in his previous films such as All About My Mother. He remains on this trail in his next film, Bad Education, but that’s a discussion for another blog.
This film is a quiet yet jolting meditation on love, obsession, loneliness, friendship and fate. It has entrancing qualities that compel the viewer to take its themes and characters home with for further thought. It is an engaging, well-crafted and imaginative meditation on solitude and communication. Almodóvar has made a powerfully moving film about men who think they want to lose themselves in their women, who are then are startled to realise that they're the ones who may have been comatose.
At the heart of this film is a rape that will have both tragic and redemptive consequences. Almodovar romanticises this act by depicting it in a silent film called The Shrinking Lover which is strangely humorous and shocking and yet, poignant. It is this tour-de-force performance by Camara that anchors the film that shocks and unnerves us.
Almodovar’s films are renowned for focusing on relationships that occur around improbable circumstances and are accompanied by melodrama. His films tend to deal with the marginal existence of the urban underclass and are full of scandalous and provocative elements, such as police corruption, drug consumption, prostitution, maltreatment, precocious kids and audacious homosexuality. These themes are combined with strong irreverent humour that often include explicit scenes of a sexual nature, for example the golden shower scene of his first 35mm film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Woman on the Heap (Spanish: Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón), attests. Since his first commercial film in the 1980s, he has written, directed, acted and produced nearly thirty films.
This film is a quiet yet jolting meditation on love, obsession, loneliness, friendship and fate. It has entrancing qualities that compel the viewer to take its themes and characters home with for further thought. It is an engaging, well-crafted and imaginative meditation on solitude and communication. Almodóvar has made a powerfully moving film about men who think they want to lose themselves in their women, who are then are startled to realise that they're the ones who may have been comatose.
At the heart of this film is a rape that will have both tragic and redemptive consequences. Almodovar romanticises this act by depicting it in a silent film called The Shrinking Lover which is strangely humorous and shocking and yet, poignant. It is this tour-de-force performance by Camara that anchors the film that shocks and unnerves us.
Almodovar’s films are renowned for focusing on relationships that occur around improbable circumstances and are accompanied by melodrama. His films tend to deal with the marginal existence of the urban underclass and are full of scandalous and provocative elements, such as police corruption, drug consumption, prostitution, maltreatment, precocious kids and audacious homosexuality. These themes are combined with strong irreverent humour that often include explicit scenes of a sexual nature, for example the golden shower scene of his first 35mm film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Woman on the Heap (Spanish: Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón), attests. Since his first commercial film in the 1980s, he has written, directed, acted and produced nearly thirty films.
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