May. 23, 2002 - 11:50 pm
a.k.a. All About My Mother. this movie was a recommendation from a German friend of mine, Anne. and it was great. i've watched way too many extreme masculine films lately and this was just what i needed. it's directed by the much acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. it also won Best Foreign Language Film for 1999. it gets a 9/10 from me.
this film is extremely feminine in all ways. very few male characters play a part in the film and most of them are transvestites. the one exception is the son who wants to be a writer and begins writing about his mother on the day of his 17th birthday. he laughs about the mistranslated title of All About Eve (1950) and says that in Spanish the title should actually be Todo sobre Eve. this film has a lot of things that can scare off the faint of heart. you get the impression that the son, Esteban, has more than just familial love for his mother, but it's beautifully done. there are also a lot of whores, drug use, lesbians, phallic discussions, etc. but it's still a great study of women, actresses, men who act as women, and mothers. it's also filled with references to Bette Davis, All About Eve, and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
it mostly revolves around Esteban's mother after the first 20 minutes or so. she returns to her previous home in Madrid before Esteban's birth to find his father and meets many interesting women along the way. it was great to see another Penelope Cruz film. i loved her in Vanilla Sky (2001), and not just because she's attractive. she's not really my type anyway. the lead actress who i hadn't seen before, Cecilia Roth, was simply amazing. this is an awesome film and i should see it again real soon.
i think i may go see Christopher Nolan's new film Insomnia tomorrow. he directed Memento (2000) if you'll remember. watch for it...