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| One telling, humorously ambiguous poster for Pedro Almodovár's Labyrinth of Passion |
Labyrinth of Passion is great, Spanish director Pedro Almodovár's third feature film, made at the height of the Movida Madrileña period in Spanish film; a period of artistic wildness, experiments in sexuality and drugs, frivolity and hedonism coming after Spanish dictator Franco's death in 1975 and before the fatal arrival of AIDS in the 80s.
One plot description of Labyrinth is that it is about 'a nymphomaniac pop star who falls in love with a gay, Middle-Eastern prince.' It is also about a dry cleaner's daughter, who is raped by her delusional father every other day; a gay terrorist who falls in love with the prince he is supposed to assassinate; a psychotherapist who madly wants to make love to an old gynaecologist, who loathes sex, until he has sex with his daughter. And a porn star. And a punk band. ...
It sounds wild, and it is, and yet it doesn't feel nearly as wild as it sounds. Some of that comes from the fact that all the incest and sex talk in Labyrinth carries no weight or importance with it whatsoever. The way it handles incest is shallow, if we need to be honest, and we need to since incest is such a serious issue.
It is all made in a sort of liberated craze, where none of the actions of the characters bear much weight; perhaps because Almodovár here swears to the super-light screwball comedy format, and still wants to bring heavy topics into his film.
In any case, Labyrinth is not a very good film. It is by far the weakest Almodovár-film that I have seen, and it looks like a bunch of experiments and film-schooling in direction and storytelling that obviously paid off, because Almodovár became so incredibly good at it just a little later on, (his Law of Desire (1987), for instance, is a fantastic film.)
The fun basic idea that Almodovár's script came out of was that Madrid should be seen as the world's most important city; a city everyone came to, and where anything could happen. This optimism carries some on into the finished film, but Almodovár has also admitted about the film himself:
"I like the film even if it could have been better made. The main problem is that the story of the two leads is much less interesting than the stories of all the secondary characters. But precisely because there are so many secondary characters, there's a lot in the film I like."
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| A band in the movie - Labyrinth of Passion certainly has a high level of 80s atmosphere, if you're a fan of this period |
The details:
While Labyrinth is not funny or smart enough to be a good film, and narratively is something of a jumble, it does feature Antonio Banderas (Law of Desire (1987)) in his film debut, among many other Spanish actors, of whom none can be said to really stick out and distinguish themselves in the film.
Banderas became something of a gay muse for Almodovár in several of his subsequent films, until the actor flew to Hollywood and, curiously enough, became a macho figure in American films. He still reserves a warm place in his heart for Almodovár, and vice versa, as he recently came back to Spain to do The Skin I Live In (2011) and I'm So Excited (2013).
Here's a very young Antonio Banderas between two fellow terrorists at the Madrid Airport in Pedro Almodovár's Labyrinth of Passion
In Labyrinth, he plays the gay terrorist, who becomes infatuated with the prince he is supposed to help assassinate. With his heightened smelling sense, he tries to find the prince again in Madrid. Banderas is certainly one of the film's mollifying elements.
Before Labyrinth, Almodovár had made two feature comedies on very small budgets and several short films during the 70s.
Labyrinth marks itself as an inferior film, but possibly a necessary creative experiment, a blow-up of ideas and taboos and a learning process for its director Almodovár.
The film ran for 10 straight years at midnight in Madrid's Alphaville cinema, and so it must have had a real cultural and creative importance for a lot of people there.
Click to enlarge this collage-style poster for the movie
Watch this awesome trailer for Labyrinth of Passion that both opens and ends with footage from the punk song Suck It to Me that Almodovár wrote and performs in the film (wearing the leather coat)
Budget: 21 mil. ESP
Box office: 98.6 mil. ESP
= Big hit
What do you think of Labyrinth of Passion and Almodovár's other early films?
If you are Spanish and watched the film in the 80s, please share your experience, (if you remember it)
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