sharky_55
No one makes films quite like Pedro Almodóvar. In an age where melodrama has been designated as a genre for trashy, low-brow entertainment, he wades through the rubbish pile and gives us All About My Mother, a seminal piece on navigating sexual and political identity in the modern age. The film marks a significant milestone in his provocative career. In his youth, his work reflected the turbulent Spanish contexts and societal upheavals he lived through, characterised by a stylistic luridness, of camp and eyeliner, of flashy kitsch and outrageous characters. Tina in Law of Desire is a deeply melodramatic figure, but she is also aware of her nature, and gives knowing winks to the audience. Almodóvar's parody had distanced him from sincerity, but then came along Manuela, who is living in a melodrama, and yet the story compels our empathy, and the surprise of encountering this feeling. Manuela thinks she has escaped from her past, but with the inevitability of the coming tide, it rushes towards her and beckons a decision. A rainy night and an unsuspecting driver sends her son and the camera careening, and she is posed the same question that she performed for us in the opening: Will you give your loved one's organs up for donation? This is not just Almodóvar's playfulness at work, but the genre crying out: self-reflexivity, mirrored realities, a dramatic collision of past and present. Witness the slow motion of her anguish, and the mournful strings as she signs away her son's body. What would the back cover say? A part of her is missing, and this is her journey to reclaim herself. The style is arresting, and provocatively draws attention to itself - Almodóvar has gained sincerity but lost none of his theatrical edge. The stage background is drenched in a melancholic blue, and the lead actress wears gold, but listen to the recital of Stanley Kowalski's famous line. It's barely a whimper, and Stella is already too far away to be seduced. The character, more animal than man, as Marlon Brando showed us, is reduced to pathetic stage dressing. The father, who also occupied the role, is now called Lola, and Rosa's father, a blank slate. The world is Manuela's stage, as Almodóvar indicates, punctuating the frame with red hair, lips, costumes, pushing his actors through zany mise en scène (her new apartment is a kaleidoscopic museum), weaving Tennessee Williams' lines into the dialogue of the everyday. She must perform constantly, keeping her grief at bay, feigning a more capable identity, and helping others claim theirs (she is Rosa's sister, because it presents a better look). Centre stage, ironically, is the only place where she can afford to take off her mask, a safe space from judgement and stigmatisation. Stella, and therefore Manuela, is allowed to weep openly, and the moment is emotionally cathartic (she even sports a fake belly!). Theatre is more real than reality, and it is Manuela's escape route from the harshness of life's dealt hand, but also a way of engaging with her grief. The stoic facade is discarded, and the tears flow so freely. And what are the men of the cast doing? They are being coached on their emotional projection: "The sadness should go into your hands. You have to work it," instructs the director. This gloss is reminiscent of none other than the king of melodrama, Douglas Sirk. His work in the 50s were the romance novels of today (just look at their posters), adorned with roses, white picket fences, sweeping romance narratives, and lush Technicolor. But what the sheen concealed was an attack on classism, and the conformist ideologies of Eisenhower's suburbia. Today, seeing Jane Wyman's face imprisoned by the frame of the television, it seems obvious. Todd Haynes would try his hand at melodrama, updating Sirk's style with a modern exploration of homophobia. But while Far from Heaven is merely a renovated period piece, bursting at the seams with weepy and strained acting, All About My Mother cuts through it all. Almodóvar isn't just subtly pushing critique through irony, he's dropping glittery bombshells and eradicating sexual conformity, gender taboos and traditional values. And alongside Manuela's lifelong journey, he is shattering and reconstructing the nuclear family paradigm with his own zany personalities. Agrado is the film's main source of warmth, but more vitally, humour. While the music is pulsating and tensions are at bursting point, she sashays in and disarms the scene with a witty remark and a healthy dose of self-depreciation. Almost overnight she has eased the doubts of Huma Rojo, two years on becoming her most trusted companion and confidant. And in the film's most liberating scene, she struts out under the spotlights after (melo)drama backstage cancels the night's performance. But what an opportunity the plot presents her with! She has been living on the fringes of society, shunned but for a select clientele, yet here she is on centre stage. She rattles off the prices of her plastic surgeries, so numerous that she resembles Theseus' ship, no longer made of the original model's pieces. Yet she is stronger and more confident than ever, so utterly sure of her role in life, and radiating authenticity in spite of the work done on her body. This is beauty and femininity and warmth all wrapped into one, not as a physical ideal, but as an fluid identity. And what Agrado has helped reshape Manuela into is so much more than just a mother.
copperncherrio
Great monologues and plot line, this movie is an eloquently written drama, that centers around a mother grieving the death of her son, whose last wish was to meet his father. She then searches for her son's father, who parting was based on his status as a cheating gay drag queen.Along her path of mourning and renewal she meets several interesting people. She acts maternally towards them.Even though this movie is in Spanish, everything translates through and through the acting, writing, and filming. This is not a movie to watch if you want an upper. It's emotionally draining film. So, if you feel intellectual or something life changing, I recommend this movie!This is a case where a film actually evolve to artwork...
