Over at Ibetolis’ place, he continues his look at films released since the first of the millennium, one year at a time. He’s up to 2002, now, and I’ve contributed a look at Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her. Here’s a taste of the piece, along with the clip it describes.
Benigno and a fellow nurse complete their sponge bath of the comatose Alicia. A sheet is laid over her; we can see the outline of her body underneath. It reminds me of the outline of Christ in the shroud of Turin. The sheet is brought up over her head — is she dead? have they been washing a corpse? — but is turned down to expose her head and throat. A hospital gown is draped over her head, lace at the collar. For a moment, it wreaths her head like a bridal headdress; the feeding tube at her throat is a pale necklace. The sheet is pulled back, Benigno and the nurse tie the gown off at the sides and it hits us: she is the corpse bride, coldly beautiful in repose.
Read the rest of the article here.
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Indeed Rick fabulous piece. here is what I entered at Ric’s site:
Well Rick, you have informed this marathon review with an equal dose of passion and insight!
Todd Haynes’s FAR FROM HEAVEN is my #1 film of this year, but TALK TO HER is a very close second, and it’s my favorite Almodovar of them all. My favorite sequence is the ootdoor one near the beginning with the ballad “Cucurrucucu Paloma.” It’s one of those priceless cinematic moments we all hope for but rarely receive.
I think you say it best here:
“Rather, it’s a dance of Pedro Almodóvar’s own creation, a dance of perversity, longing and desire.”
I remember seeing this eight times in the theatre, dragging along everyone I knew, and aslways finding something new.
Having been first exposed to the imperfect -but riotous, in every sense- early films of Almodovar, I can’t help thinking that his films now may better planned, filmed and every scene and shot carefully considered before being made… But I feel he’s become too over-conscious of being “Almodovar”. His films now are more luxuriantly furnished (I’m not only referring to the expensive, “cool” furniture in teh background, but in things like having a Pina Bausch ballet closing a film just because, or the famous faces -well, famous in Spain, LOL- intently listening to “cucurrucucú paloma”), but have lost the freshness, the energy of his madly imperfect early work.
Mind you, not that I dislike them, but “Volver” being a personal favourite, I can’t help thinking that the housewife played bt Penelope Cruz is a cliché of a housewife, an elaborated recreation of a young Sophia Loren… Compare Pe with Carmen Maura’s genuinely distraught housewife in “What have I done to deserve this” and you’ll get my point.
In fact, and since I’m talking about “Volver”, I think that I liked because in the performances and characters of Carmen Maura (“Russian hairdresser” LOL) or Lola Dueñas i saw connections to his earlier films: non-glamour, down-to-earth, warmly humorous females (I don’t mention the great Chus Lampreave because she’s always there, with a lesser or bigger role)
Sam, I am jealous: I never saw it in the theater, but I’ve about worn out my DVD. (and, truthfully, it doesn’t look too bad on my 50″ Sony.
Gloria, but did the Pina Bausch ballet close it “just because” or was there a reason? And I think you’re right: Cruz was a Sophia Loren surrogate.
From where I stand, it appears to me that his newer films are more densely layered, but perhaps more calculatedly so. In other words, he is being more careful and deliberate in the way he constructs his stories; that’s not all bad, in my book.