Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (6-25)
Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value (2025)
Showing posts with label Pedro Almodóvar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pedro Almodóvar. Show all posts

9/29/2024

I'm So Excited!/Los Amantes Pasajeros (2013) - Almodóvar flees with unfavorable comedy

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A colorful, simply animated poster for Pedro Almodóvar's I'm So Excited! that spells fun and debauchery

A flight with a series of colorful characters on it and a crew that work on a mix of sleeping pills, tequila and drugs takes off but experiences problems in the air and has to embark on a risky emergency landing.

 

I'm So Excited! is written and directed by Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)) whose 20th feature it is. The original Spanish title translates to 'the fleeting lovers' or 'the passenger lovers'.

Almodóvar, who at this late point in his career had turned more permanently towards drama, it seemed, here presents a tequila-chucking, (the amounts one of the characters drinks is just ridiculous), lip-sync-dancing round of light doodling mid-air, as if the master attempts to transport himself back in time, back to his wacky, drug-enamored, anarchistic early pictures. The attempt is pathetic and unfunny.

It is neither risque, sexy nor fun that the stewards drink like louts, do drugs or are vulgar in today's world. At least it isn't in this film. I'm So Excited!, with its light-hearted tone, is up against a time that is not light-hearted anymore, and it loses. But it is also a horny picture, a trait that deserves salute, although this generally is a failed recess for Almodóvar.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar:
2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix

The Flower of My Secret/La Flor de Mi Secreto (1995) - Paredes star turn in charming Almodóvar work 

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama 
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 5 mil. €, approximately 5.58 mil. $

Box office: 21.2 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 3.79 times its cost)

[I'm So Excited! was released 8 March (Spain) and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place from July - September 2012 in Spain, including in Madrid. The film opened #33 to a 97k $ first weekend in 5 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #32 and in 99 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.3 mil. $ (6.1 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Spain with 6.5 mil. $ (30.7 %), France with 3.7 mil. $ (17.5 %) and Italy with 2.4 mil. $ (11.3 %). The film was nominated for 2 European Film awards, among other honors. Almodóvar returned with Julieta (2016). Javier Cámara (Madrid, int. (2020)) returned in Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed/Vivir Es Fácil con los Ojos Cerrados (2013); Pepa Charro (Mai Neva a Ciutat (2019, TV-series)) in Esposados (2013, TV-series) and theatrically in Presentimientos (2013). I'm So Excited! is rotten at 48 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of I'm So Excited!?

8/09/2022

The Flower of My Secret/La Flor de Mi Secreto (1995) - Paredes star turn in charming Almodóvar work

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A buxom female figure typewrites against a sea of roses on this kitschy poster for Pedro Almodóvar's The Flower of My Secret

Leocadia lives in longing for her military husband Paco. Meanwhile she writes a novel, and the editor of newspaper El Pais falls in love with her, while she tries to test boundaries with her romance written using a pseudonym. 

 

The Flower of My Secret is written and directed by Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 12th feature it is. It is an adaptation of the short story The Lovely Leave by Dorothy Parker (Enough Rope (1926)).

Marisa Paredes (Continental (1989)) is wonderful as our tested protagonist, and particularly the scenes of Leocadia with her sister and their vision-impaired, constipated mother are divine. Visually the film is attractive with primary colors galore and strong faces to go with them.

Almodóvar fares well in this comedic melodrama that's less sensationalistic than some of his previous efforts, despite an ending that isn't completely satisfying and the fact that the film might be slightly overlong.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar:
2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama 
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 



 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 3.8-4.5 mil. $

Box office: Reportedly 15.3 mil. $

= Box office success or big hit, depending on the actual cost (returned 3.4-4.02 times its cost)

[The Flower of My Secret was released 22 September (Spain) and runs 102 minutes. Shooting took place in Spain, including in Madrid. The film earned 1 mil. $ (6.5 % of the total gross) in North America, and JPBox-Office reports the total gross listed above, as well as a 3.73 mil. € cost, approximately 3.8 mil. $. Wikipedia lists, instead, 4.5 mil. $. (Also, the € currency was not in existence before 1999.) The film was Spain's entry for the Oscars of the year but wasn't nominated. It was nominated for 7 Goya awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 1.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Almodóvar returned with Pastas Ardilla (1996, short) and theatrically with Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997). Paredes returned in Three Lives and Only One Dead/Trois Vies et une Seule Mort (1996); Juan Echanove (Arcibel's Game/El Juego de Arcibel (2003)) in Suspiros de España (y Portugal) (1995). The Flower of My Secret is fresh at 85 % with a 7.0/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Flower of My Secret?

4/17/2022

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama

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A sexy leather stiletto blends into a revolver on this tomato-red-and-black poster for Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels


A young, beautiful news anchor reconnects with her beloved but selfish mother, who had abandoned her in favor of a pop star career for a number of years. Now the daughter murders her husband.

 

High Heels is written and directed by Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 10th feature it is. The original title translates to 'distant heels'.

It is an unfocused, woman-adoring, stylized, minor Almodóvar picture, complete with drag appearances, drag sex, a women's prison and two well-acting, emotionally gushing women in the leads: Victoria Abril (Libertarias (1996)) and Marisa Paredes (Salvajes (2001)), and a young Javier Bardem (The Counselor (2013)) in a supporting role.

High Heels isn't terribly original nor successful and is rather soap opera-like but still worthwhile due to Almodóvar's flourishes and vivid ideas.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar:
2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 






Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: In excess of 7.7 mil. $ (North America and projected Spain gross only)

= Uncertain - but likely a huge hit

[High Heels was released 23 October (Spain) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from April - July 1991 in Spain, including in Madrid. The film opened #13 to a 74k $ first weekend in North America in 13 theaters, where it went on to gross 1.7 mil. $. It was a big hit in Spain, where it reportedly sold 1.5 mil. tickets, coming to 6 mil. $ if projected at a low 4 $ average prize. It was reportedly also popular in Italy, but gross numbers are regrettably kept secret. It was released in many markets, almost all Western. If made on a realistic 1-2 mil. $ budget, the film would likely rank as a huge hit. It won a César award, was nominated for a Golden Globe and 5 Goya awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Almodóvar returned with Kika (1993). Abril returned in Demasiado Corazón (1992); Paredes in Golem, l'Esprit de l'Exil (1992) and Migual Bosé (Oui (1996)) in La Nuit Sacrée (1993). High Heels is rotten at 53 % with a 5.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of High Heels?

5/18/2021

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama

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+ Best Spanish Movie of the Year 

 

Two beautiful women in contrasting hues of red and blue make up this poster for Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her

Two men forge a friendship over their common predicament of having their loved ones be in a coma.

 

Talk to Her is written and directed by Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 15th feature it is.

It is one of Almodóvar's very finest, delving into themes of loneliness, desperation, abuse, pride and loss, while also dealing with phobias and bullfighting. It is a film of beautiful and unusual content with lovely performances, which is eminently beautifully filmed by cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe (Goya's Ghosts (2006)), wonderfully scripted by Almodóvar, and heightened by a piercingly beautiful score by Alberto Iglesias (Volver (2006)).

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar:
2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 





Watch a trailer for the film here


Cost: Unknown

Box office: 64.7 mil. $

= Uncertain, but likely a huge hit

[Talk to Her was released 15 March (Spain) and runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place from July - October 2001 in Spain, including Madrid. The film opened #37 to a 104k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #22 and in 255 theaters, grossing 9.2 mil. $ (14.2 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market. The 2 biggest were Spain with  The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 10.2 mil. $ (15.8 %) and France with 9.5 mil. $ (14.7 %). If made on a realistic, lavish 10 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a huge hit. It was nominated for 2 Oscars; Best Director, lost to Roman Polanski for The Pianist, and Best Original Screenplay, which it won. Spain mysteriously nominated Mondays in the Sun for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar that year over Talk to Her. The film also won a Golden Globe, 2 BAFTAs, a César award, was nominated for a David di Donatello award, won 5/7 European Film award nominations, 1/7 Goya award nominations and 2 National Board of Review awards, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Almodóvar returned with Bad Education/La Mala Educación (2004). Javier Cámara (Age of Monster/El Tiempo de los Monstruos (2015)) returned in Looking for Chencho (2002, short) and theatrically in Torremolinos 73 (2003); Darío Grandinetti (The Good Boy/Segundo Asalto (2005)) in Final Minute (2000-02) and theatrically in Ilusión de Movimiento (2003); Leonor Watling (Todas Hieren (1998)) in Desire/Deseo (2002); and Rosario Flores (Entreacte (1989)) in Hypnotized and Hysterical (Hairstylist Wanted)/Filles Perdues, Cheveux Gras (2002). Talk to Her is certified fresh at 91 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]


What do you think of Talk to Her?

9/16/2019

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½

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Delicious character snapshots from the film are ordered together on this poster for Pedro Almodóvar's Pain and Glory

Aging Spanish filmmaker Salvador Mallo has health problems that restrict him from his craft, which in turn makes him depressed. He reacquaints himself with an old actor friend, thinks of his upbringing and acquires a new dangerous habit.

Pain and Glory is the 22th feature from Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991)). It is unique in his body of work in that it is admittedly at least partly auto-biographical, (notice on the deep red poster under the review that the shadow of lead actor Antonio Banderas (Desperado (1995)) has been altered to that of Almodóvar himself.)
It brings to mind the autobiographical film of life as a free-spirited filmmaker, 8½ (1963) from Italian master filmmaker Federico Fellini. - Almodóvar's film is understandably very different, not least because Fellini was in his early 40s, when he made his introspective classic; Almodóvar is turning 70 in a couple of weeks. Judging from the filmmaker we meet in Pain and Glory, Salvador Mallo, this may be Almodóvar's last film.
Pain and Glory is a very quiet film; it has an elegant, subdued score and comes from a noticeably older Almodóvar than we are used to: SPOILER Mallo has quit fancies of a love life; his craft is beyond him due to ailments, which take up much of his energy, - and a considerable amount of the screen-time, - and he smokes heroin as a new hobby instead. Though this aging, melancholic, ailment-complaining filmmaker is well-acted by Banderas, - who would prefer this compared to Almodóvar's past, vivid masterpieces? (This, of course, is also the painful, melancholy reality that growing old confronts the old person with itself.)
I think it is the other part of Pain and Glory that is especially worth the price of admission: The flashbacks to Mallo's childhood, living in poverty with his graceful mother: Penélope Cruz (Ma Ma (2015)) is gorgeous and natural in the part of Mallo's mother, and debuting Asier Flores is terrific as the precocious, wilful chap, who has his first experiences of lust in the perfected shape of workman César Vicente (A Different View/La Otra Mirada (2019, TV-series)), whom the boy teaches reading and writing.
There is warmth and life breathing through these scenes; more so than in the ones about present-day Mallo/Almodóvar, although perhaps honest, the aging creative is too dramatically unopposed here. Nevertheless the result for a longtime cinephile (and therefore obviously a fan of Almodóvar) is like a moving interaction with an old friend.

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar:
2019 in films - according to Film Excess 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style






Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 26.5 mil. $ and counting
= Unknown - but likely a box office success
[Pain and Glory premiered 13 March (Madrid, Spain) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in Spain, including Madrid, for 44 days from July - September 2018. The film has become the highest-grossing Spanish film in Spain of the year so far with a 6.5 mil. $ gross there (24.5 % of the gross to date), its biggest market yet. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been France with 5.8 mil. $ (21.9 %) and Italy with 3.5 mil. $ (13.2 %). The film has yet to open in North America: It is scheduled to open in 8 more markets in September and October: Netherlands, Hong Kong, Sweden, Norway, USA, Indonesia, Singapore and Canada. The film may well end up the filmmaker's highest-grossing since his last major hit Volver (2006), which made 85.5 mil. $. If made on a realistic 10 mil. $ budget, it would already rank as a box office success. It was screened in competition in Cannes, where it won Banderas the Best Actor prize, losing the Palme d'Or to Bong Joon-ho's Parasite. The film has also been chosen as Spain's entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar this year. Almodóvar does not have an announced next project. Banderas returned in El Hormiguero: Vacaciones en el Titanic (2019, short) and in Netflix's The Laundromat (2019); Cruz also in El Hormiguero: Vacaciones en el Titanic and theatrically in Wasp Network (2019). Pain and Glory is certified fresh at 95 % with an 8.27/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pain and Glory?

6/20/2015

The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over

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The ominous poster for Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In

QUICK REVIEW:

SPOILER A feted Spanish plastic surgeon has a patient locked up in his basement: It is actually the man who raped his daughter, which made her commit suicide, whom the good doctor has now decided to give a sex change, slowly ... Meanwhile, the surgeon's mother also acts as his maid, who has never told him the Truth, and one day the other son comes and rapes the prisoner. She later breaks free.

Antonio Banderas (I'm So Excited (2013)) acts well in this his first collaboration with Spanish master filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar (Bad Education/La Mala Educación (2004)) in 21 years. For better and for worse, the film examines the boundaries of the genders in a mad doctor-plot, which is greatly inhibited from excessive stylization and focus on decor over presence and soul. The result is a very vulgar and empty film that is improved by intermittent doses of humor.
Almodóvar co-wrote The Skin I Live In with his brother Augustín Almodóvar (Wild Tales (2014) producer), based on the novel Mygale/Tarantula (1984) by Thierry Jonquet. 
Though I am an Almodóvar fan, I did not care much for this unusual sex drama.
Currently, he is filming his next film, the drama Silencio (2016), which centers on a woman gone mad.

Related reviews:

Pedro Almodóvar: Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style


Watch the trailer for the film here - underlaid a track by Danish electronic artist Trentemøller

Cost: 13.5 mil. $
Box office: 30.8 mil. $
= Minor flop
[The movie was released in the autumn, in contrast to Almodóvar's usual habit of spring releases in Spain and autumn for the rest of the world. It was nominated as Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes and for 16 (!) Goya awards (Spain's Oscar), winning 4. The film is generally better reviewed than here.]

What do you think of The Skin I Live In?

7/18/2014

Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix

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+ Best Erotic Movie of the Year + Best Spanish Movie of the Year


Red-hot poster for Pedro Almodóvar's Live Flesh


QUICK REVIEW:

A true 'ménage a cinq' [five!] is the source of the plot in this erotic-romantic drama-thriller, which could only have come from Spain's very own, the incomparable Pedro Almodóvar (Bad Education (2004)).
The story of the bus-born Victor, who is unfortunate enough to end up in prison and from then on seriously ends up in a spider's web of troubles; between two women and their men.
Live Flesh is a sensual, passionate film with lovely actors. But it isn't as visually stunning as some of Almodóvar's other films, especially more recent ones such as the eminent Talk to Her/Habla con Ella (2002).

 

Related post:

 

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess


Liberto Rabal betwen someone's legs in Pedro Almodóvar's sensual, erotic Live Flesh


See the trailer here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 1.7 mil. $ (US only)
= Uncertainty

What do you think of Live Flesh?
What is Almodóvar's hottest film in your opinion?

12/13/2013

Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style

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One telling, humorously ambiguous poster, ripe with sexual innuendo for Pedro Almodovár's Labyrinth of Passion


A female nymphomaniac pop star falls in love with a gay, Middle-Eastern prince.

 

Labyrinth of Passion is written by Terry Lennox (Hungry for You (1996)) and Spanish master filmmaker, co-writer/director Pedro Almodóvar (Folle... Folle... Fólleme Tim! (1978)), whose 3rd feature it is.

It was made at the height of the Movida Madrileña period in Spanish film, near its end: 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 1980s.
The one-line plot outline above is just the main narrative center of the film, which 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 is mad to make love to an old gynecologist, who loathes sex, until he has sex with his daughter. And a porn star. And a punk band. ...
It sounds chaotic and wild, and it is, and yet somehow 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, (some will say offensive), 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 throw heavy topics into his film.
In any case, Labyrinth of Passion is not a very good film. It among Almodovár's weakest films 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 the script here reportedly 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 locally championing 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."
While Labyrinth of Passion 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 second film, (the first,  (1982), premiered 8 days before Labyrinth of Passion), among many other Spanish actors, of whom none, however, can be said to really stick out and distinguish themselves in this film. Banderas plays the gay terrorist, who becomes infatuated with the prince he is supposed to help assassinate. With his heightened sense of smell, he tries to find the prince again in Madrid. Banderas is certainly one of the film's mollifying elements.

 

Related posts:

Pedro Almodóvar:
2019 in films - according to Film Excess  

Pain and Glory/Dolor y Gloria (2019) - Almodóvar's 8½ 

I'm So Excited!/Los Amantes Pasajeros (2013) - Almodóvar flees with unfavorable comedy 
The Skin I Live In/La Piel que Habito (2011) or, Almodóvar's Extreme Make-Over
Broken Embraces/Los Abrazos Rotos (2009) or, Mysteries in Love and Life

Talk to Her/Hable con Ella (2002) - Almodóvar's beautiful coma love drama 
Live Flesh/Carne Trémula (1997) or, A Spanish Fix

The Flower of My Secret/La Flor de Mi Secreto (1995) - Paredes star turn in charming Almodóvar work 

High Heels/Tacones Lejanos (1991) - Superficially worthwhile Almodóvar crime melodrama 
Labyrinth of Passion/Laberinto de Pasiones (1982) - Sexual mix-ups in screwball Madrileña style 

 





Watch a clip for the film here


Cost: 21 mil. ESP, approximately 161k $
Box office: 98.6 mil. ESP, approximately 755k $ (Spain only)
= Big hit (returned 4.69 times its cost)

[Labyrinth of Passion premiered 25 September (San Sebastián Film Festivail) and runs 100 minutes. The budget, though small, was more than 3 times that of Almodóvar's preceding film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap/Pepi, Luci, Bom y Otras Chicas del Montón (1980). Shooting took place in Spain, including in Madrid, co-financed by local cinema chain Alphaville. One of Alphaville's Madrid cinemas kept screening the film at midnight for a decade. The film played solely in Spain until several years later, when it started spreading to more markets, as Almodóvar's star grew. Almodóvar returned with Dark Habits/Entre Tinieblas (1983). Cecilia Roth (El Angel (2018)) returned in Octubre, 12 (1982, short) and theatrically in Best Seller (1982); Imanol Arias (De Sable et de Feu (2019)) in La Colmena (1982); and Banderas in Y del Seguro... Líbranos Señor! (1983). Labyrinth of Passion is fresh at 92 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Labyrinth of Passion?

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)

Eagerly anticipating this month ... (5-25)
Kleber Mendonca Filho's The Secret Agent (2025)