All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre)
Directed by Pedro Almodóvar.
All About My Mother is the latest offering from Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodóvar. In case the name doesn’t “ring a bell” for you, his filmography includes Live Flesh (his last, and best film until now); What have I done to deserve this?; High Heels; Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down and Laws of Desire. Almodóvar is the best known post-Franco Spanish filmmaker and he perhaps even rivals Carlos Saura as “the best known”. Almodóvar will be 49 this year and his films are beginning to show this maturity. I am not saying he is “showing his age” or “getting too old for the job”, on the contrary, his age has brought something new to his films. The change began in 1991 with High Heels but was not truly evident until Live Flesh in 1997. I should note at this point that we always get his films a year late.
All About My Mother is an emotive tale of people’s relationships with their mothers and their attempts to understand their mothers as individual people. The film features two Almodóvar regulars (he is one of those directors who reuses actors over and over and it seems to have paid off). Cecilia Roth, who has immense charisma, plays the lead Manuela. Her previous Almodóvar films include Pepi, Luci, Bom and the rest of the girls (Almodóvar’s first feature in 1980); Labyrinth of Passion (1982); Dark Habits (1983) and What have I done to deserve this? (1984). Marisa Paredes is in a supporting role and her previous Almodóvar titles are High Heels (1991) and The Flower of My Secret (1995). Penelope Cruz a well known actress in Europe is also in a supporting role and destined to be an Almodóvar regular.
It is not possible to say much about the storyline without giving the whole thing away. The film relies on a certain amount of intrigue as well as drama and humour.
All About My Mother contains the usual spectacularly coloured Almodóvarian sets as well as his usual “bent twists”. This is a wonderful film that deserved the Oscar it won for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards. It was presented to Pedro Almodóvar by Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, who was one of his regulars in the early 80s. This is one of the best films (English language and foreign) that I have seen in a long time.
Go and see this film!
Chris B
