This film was mentioned by someone (although I can't remember who) relatively recently and was on my (imaginary) list since then. When I saw that there was a screening of this film somewhere near me, I decided to go see it. Now, for some reason, I thought this movie is about a daughter/mother relationship where the film explores the many aspects of a mother's role in a woman's life considering all the traumas the mother might have caused and hence shaped the woman's life. Hence, I also thought this film was going to be quite intense---the poster somehow made me think the film was a psychological thriller. Well, I was wrong on all accounts. The plot was very much different than what I thought and the film was much more entertaining rather than being intense. I hadn't really read about the film before seeing it, hence the surprise on my end, but I am glad that my experience was the way it was---I had also thought this film was in English but it turns out that it's in Spanish.
Given my history with Spanish (learning it on and off for about 3 years now, on Duolingo), seeing this film carried a special importance for me, that is, once I figured it was in Spanish. The main reason I am learning Spanish is that I find it very much fun. It is like each and every word has a positive connotation when I hear it. Throughout my journey of learning Spanish, there are also many moments where things make sense. I don't know how to state it better but somehow it comes very natural to me. I also think that I hadn't seen a Spanish film before (I had only watched a Spanish TV series called La Casa de Papel---Money Heist). So exposing myself to Spanish for about a 100 minutes felt nice. Of course, the film was screened with subtitles, but I couldn't stop myself from understanding some of the Spanish and I was glad that I was able to get at least some of the things that were being said by the characters in the film.
I feel deeply that when one does not watch a (good quality) film in its original language, there is always things that one misses out on. Every language has its own structure and style, hence its own sayings that don't necessarily translate to every other language, especially to a language like English which I find quite simple and lacks emotion in the letters in its words. Now, what I said may not make sense but I won't dwell on it because we have a lot to go through about this film in hand. As it turns out, I am really good at listening to something while reading something else (even in another language). Of course, I knew this because when I was a student in university, I was, well, a little bit high-functioning in the classroom in the sense that I would read what's written (or being written) on the board while listening to the instructor (who was not necessarily saying exactly what they are writing) and make up my own sentences in the notes, that is, write a yet different thing, all at the same time. I find that students nowadays cannot do this at all, at least most of them can't, but then I believe in my time not everybody was able to do this---I am not despising anyone here as it can simply be because of their lack of motivation as well. So when I was watching this film and understanding (some of the Spanish) and reading the subtitles, I found it quite funny that when a nurse mentioned someone's weight in kilograms, the subtitles wrote it in pounds. They really craft these subtitles for true American audiences (who apparently cannot comprehend kg as if this number was important to the story at all(!)). So, okay, let's say this is understandable, why would you convert '15 days' to '2 weeks'? 2 weeks equals 14 days. The doctor says 15 days in Spanish, the subtitles said "2 weeks". One might argue here that "the art" of translation is not simply translating word by word, and I normally agree, but here this is literally distorting facts! Now, this number also does not play a very important role in the story, so I will move on.
As I mentioned what can be lost in translation above, the filmmaker (director and screenwriter Almodóvar) mentioned this at the very beginning of the film. While the characters are watching All About Eve, the screenwriter made one of the characters (the teenage son) comment on the Spanish title for that show, that "Eva al desnudo" means "Eva naked" but that it should really be "Todo Sobre Eva" for it to mean "All about Eve". Now, this is a nice touch---I really like it when the filmmakers can have some transparency and can somehow make connections/references to the real world that the audience lives in. Moreover, the point that's made is so valid and also funny at the same time. I know many American movies whose titles drastically change when they are released in another country whose language is not English. Now, of course, sometimes it makes sense because something catchy in English may not look as catchy in another language, so according to the story/theme of the movie, they have to come up with a new name. It looks like Almodóvar made sure the title of his movie stayed true to its original meaning when it was translated to English. Well done.
I will continue to praise Almodóvar in this paragraph. It looked like he sort of referred to himself in the lines of the teenage boy character a few times. Not explicitly but in a way that implied there were resemblances between him and the teenage boy, which was cleverly done and amused me. It is sad though he identified himself with a character who dies early in the film (this is not exactly a spoiler, this is really okay to know---the events of the film starts only after this point). Now, the boy dies in a car accident, and it is probably my favourite scene in this film. Not because someone dies, obviously, but because of how it was shot. I think it is the best car accident scene I have ever seen. I must add that this film was made in 1999 (which I will get back to in another paragraph). I really liked the decision on the camera angle in the shooting of the car accident scene. But then, when I thought about it more, I noticed that the decision carried a deeper meaning too---so it wasn't only for visually artistic reasons. After the boy dies, he 'stays' in the film as a narrator for a bit, and it is such a smooth transition because of the way his accident was shot. Once he is hit, we see it through his eyes, and in a sense he moves to outside of the film world as it is dying in it, and sort of joins our world because he becomes a narrator.
I will continue to rave about Almodóvar in this paragraph too. If you have been reading my blog, perhaps you know that I complain how Nolan cannot possibly write woman characters. You can see that he has no idea or insight. In fact, I was feeling quite a suffocation by the male dominated film industry situation. Now, this film was made in 1999, so it's not nowadays, so it doesn't really count, but I saw it nowadays so it helped me relieve my suffocation. (In fact, the fact that it was made in 1999 shows that the film was ahead of its time, but I will get back to this later). Now, Almodóvar's film is all about women (and about all women). I can testify that this male man can indeed write about women, so I was glad to see that. This is a film in which even the actors became women in playing the characters. The only men you see in the film are 1) an old father who has Alzheimer's and hence basically is back to his babyhood and needs care, 2) the men who go to prostitutes, 3) the son(s). Okay, I guess there were a few others that were assistants in the theatre play or something but they didn't really play an important role and the one who had the most lines among them were really saying things that manifested a man's fixated mind on cocks. The sons already represent motherhood, so that one ties back to women. So what we see is "the world is women's world" and this point of view makes sense to me because it is true that in some sense all is about mothers---the reason why humanity continues is because a woman becomes a mother.
Now, the film being ahead of its time is also about its EDI statement. Nowadays, EDI statements are everywhere. This film included a transgender sex worker, a nun (who helps sex workers), and a lesbian actress. While having motherhood in its centre, it actually talks about the identity quests of several women in the film and the struggles any of these women have in their lives throughout their personal stories. The film is so well-written that it can make you laugh a second before you know what's going to be a death announcement scene. In a similar way, when some of the struggles transgender people have are presented, it is teased in a way that even the character herself is so transparent about these problems, and is able to laugh about it. This way the writer is definitely not mocking LGBT people but stands with them through the successful and considerate comedy in his film. I think that comedy is also an agent that brings people together. If the story of this film were the same but the comedy parts were taken out, being a serious one just like that, I don't think it would achieve its objectives and I don't think it would be very well-received by different types of audiences. At least, I know that some homophobic people cannot stand the existence of transgender people in serious/formal contexts but when there is comedy involved somehow they don't realize its reality and don't object to anything. It's quite funny (and simple brain), if you think about it.
The main character, Manuela, is played by Cecilia Roth in this film and I must say, I liked her performance a lot. I won't go through each actor/actress but I will mention that I looked up each of them and saw how they look like today. This film was made in 1999, so some of them are already dead, and some are much much older now. It is quite fascinating, the effect of timelessness a film can give to a person. Lastly about the film being a 1999 film: it was technically "the 90s" but maybe because it was the end of it, the hair or the fashion, nor the clothes bothered me. Maybe the 90s of Spain was not bad at all! Who knows?
I also really liked the solidarity and interdependence themes imprinted in the women's stories. I guess helping others and/or being able to think about others' wellness (and not only your own) is part of motherhood, so it makes sense that it was there in the film. No matter what wrong thing you do/did, these women are able to accept you, love you and help you. Because, I believe, at the end of the day, they know that all they have is each other. Well, I don't know, but I think I am pretty good at accepting people too, allowing them to be who they are. I really think this is very important as a person, you may remember, whose "voice" was tried to be turned off for a long while, and hence, I felt very excluded/isolated for a long time. So I am all for inclusivity and that includes many contexts. For example, if I learned that a friend (or an acquaintance) of mine had been to jail in the past, well, that wouldn't really change my opinions about him at the moment I learned about it. (I wrote 'him' because this is actually a real story and it is a 'he'). Why didn't anything change? Because, technically, the person who he was before telling me that was already the person who went to jail, so he didn't change, he is still the same person I know (and trust, or not trust). I think the only thing that changed for me was that I respected him more (for having been through jail time) and thought that he was more interesting now (because he might have interesting stories from jail time). I didn't even ask him if he had really committed a crime (because it is a fact that sometimes people are sent to jail for the things they didn't do). Now, this person is dead, so I can never ask him, but it's okay. I can tell you that I never felt threatened near him.
While I took myself to my past and had a flashback (about my old friend) in the previous paragraph, it makes sense to continue with the flashback scene from the film. There is a scene where one of the characters remembers the car accident. Well, I forgot to mention but, the car accident happened under very heavy rain. So when the character started remembering, we first heard the heavy rain, and then the visual came. Definitely a nice trick and in general the sound (for its time) and the editing of the film was great. It looks like Almodóvar received the Best Director Award in Cannes (among others he received elsewhere). You may have noticed I don't generally agree with these juries who give these awards, but this time, I think I would definitely give Almodóvar the Best Director Award.
Now, as I mentioned at the beginning, I strongly believe that the English subtitles are seriously causing some loss of depth in the meaning (okay the kg/pound thing was a joke but seriously). So when I evaluate this film, I will evaluate it according to how much I would appreciate it if I watched it in Spanish and understood it all.
I give 8.5/10
Note: Almodóvar sounds like a stage name for a magician, doesn't it?
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