| ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Director: Pedro Almodóvar "For me the colors are one of the more important elements. I do them like a painter using a palette and with all the things that the characters have like objects. I rehearse by painting the walls and after I paint them again I put the actors there and then think about the clothes and try to build everything together and bring all the colors together." Pedro Almodóvar With their unique blend of irreverent sexual comedy and spirited, high camp drama as well as extravagantly designed uses of garish colors and piquant sounds Almodóvar’s films are a genre unto themselves. In fact, European critics have labeled them 'Almodramas.' Lately though Almodóvar's films have been more concerned with soap opera type dramas than outright comedies and for this reason he hasn’t been considered as great a director as he was in the 1980's. That will all change now with his new film All About My Mother. Currently, many are touting this as the best film of his career because he finally gets the right balance between the two extremes of camp and drama. Without giving too much away, the film is about Manuela (Celia Roth) a aging but still beautiful woman in her forties who – after suffering the tragic death of her son – decides to move from Madrid back to Barcelona to reunite with old friends and lovers who she hopes will help her get her life back in order. The film has a convoluted plot too difficult to describe here but the themes are easy to spot. At the center of the film is Tennessee William’s renowned play "A Streetcar Named Desire." A play that each of the film's characters have some personal connection with - both in their past and their present. The film takes to heart the famous phrase by Blanche DuBois from the play about relying on the kindness of strangers. Manuela becomes the stage manager of the play and befriends the star (played by Marisa Paredes) who is an actress Manuela's son worshiped before he died. While there she realizes that only through hard work and helping others can she ultimately help herself. Soon she decides to meet her ex-husband Lola who is now a transsexual dying of AIDS. But the irony is that he is now as much a woman -- at least in his sensibilities -- as she. In this way All About My Mother is not only about mothers but it is also about the bonds that women of all strips (including transsexuals) make with one another in difficult times and how they can work together to reconcile the pain they have encountered. The performances are great across the board. Most notably Antonia San Juan who plays a transsexual prostitute named Agrado. She is another of Almodovar’s finds. A woman (or a man?) who has distinct features and is striking in her quirky looks and offbeat manner. In previous Almodóvar films the Agrado character would surely steal the picture but here she is only one of many women in Manuela’s new-found family of women. A stormy bunch, which include Penelope Cruz who plays a pregnant nun and Marisa Paredes who plays Blanche DuBois in "Streetcar" a woman who both is the cause and cure of Manuela’s pain. This is Almodóvar’s 13th feature and only a veteran director could achieve the number of great scenes and performances that this film boasts, especially the way in which the scenes fit together to create a labyrinth of high and low emotional drama. The film is tough like a Greek Tragedy but one written by a comedian with heart. - Matt Langdon |