I'm So Excited (Pedro Almodóvar, 2013)

"I need a booster to face those savages"

Introduction

Pedro Almodóvar is a force to be reckoned with. A director who doesn't appear to make any compromises, making a film almost annually in the eighties and becoming accepted in the mainstream market since 2000. He has a back-catalogue as diverse as Bad Education, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and a close-knit group of actors to turn to - including Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz  who owe their careers to him. It is clear that although themes of sexuality, identity and gender appear often in his work, Almodóvar can equally raise these issues in cine-literate moments such as the silent-film within Talk to Her or within the context of a crazed-surgeon and his kidnapped-victim in The Skin I Live In. Pedro Almodóvar is part of the roster of filmmakers who owe their own style of film-making to the film-makers that preceded them and  upcoming directors who surround them in cinema today. His previous exploits are as cinematically aware as Tarantino and Scorsese, with references to Hitchcock, Fellini and Bergman rather than exploitation and Powell & Pressberger. Does I'm So Excited build on Almodóvar's work so far? or is it merely a footnote in his ever-growing canon?

"It's my gayest film ever!"

Giles Tremlett for The Guardian, interviewed Almodóvar for him to "joyously" state that I'm So Excited is his "gayest film ever!". Though incredibly camp and a complete move aware from the seriousness of Almodóvar's films in the last decade, this is not unheard of. Indeed, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a film that is comedic, camp and playful in the same manner as I'm So Excited. 

A plane is forced to stay in the air as all the Spanish airports cannot accept the faulty plane to land. On the plane itself, we are forced to be amongst the business-class "savages" and their respective cabin-crew; three camp air stewards until the situation resolves itself. The pilots equally have a role to play as both are unsure, sexually, where they stand. It is clear from this basic overview that the film is full of subtext an allegory as it alludes to the financial issues in Spain. A plane that cannot land; those leading the people - the pilots - are indecisive about their sexuality and truly don't know who they are and where they should go; the passengers all have their own goals and motives to pursue - without looking out for each other. We are forced to stay in the small-space of the elite upper-class - whilst the rest of society/the plane is fast asleep in economy.

Small-Scale

Generally speaking, this film remains within the plane - often taking place in ever-decreasing smaller-spaces as the air stewards argue and joke within the preparatory-area at the front of the cabin - to only move into the cock-pit, whereby we remain squeezed in amongst all the dials and gadgets that litter the front of an airplane.

But this film is about capturing the mood of a nation. Pedro Almodóvar is famous for creating an image of Spain to the rest of the world. The cultural attitudes towards death in Volver; the almost-iconic look of the pastel-coloured rooms that he regularly uses. Almodóvar believes we are in a "bleak place" right now - and I'm So Excited is about filling that void with a playful, comedic and upbeat attitude towards our own defencelessness in the face of the recent banking crisis. I'm So Excited is an "unrealistic, metaphorical comedy", and so you seek out the political and personal issues raised amongst the sex, alcohol and drug-taking on board Flight PE 2549.

Crash-Landing

This is Almodóvar for the fans. This is Almodóvar for the hard-core film-completest. Since 1999's All About My Mother, Pedro Almodóvar has been a film-maker who has not only challenged viewers but he has also become a film-maker who weaves profound and deeply-poetic themes and ideas within accessible international cinema. I'm So Excited features a cast and cameos from many actors who have featured in many of his previous films - Javier Cámara (Talk To Her), Lola Dueñas (Volver) and Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother) to name a few - and so we have a film that almost feels like a Best Of... Almodóvar. Using this idea as a jumping-off point, it is more a Best Of... The Early Years of Almodóvar. That's not a bad thing of course, but personally I preferred his later records and despite a huge success in his native country, I don't think the film is as accessible as his later films. Enjoyable, quirky and metaphorical - yes. But not as profound as I expect.

Originally written/published on Flickering Myth on 1 May 2013

The Film Locker #6: Pedro Almodóvar and 'Talk to Her'

I think this is where we separate the men from the boys. The purpose of The Film Locker is to inform, educate and entertain. I know that for me, through discussions with Hatter, and through editing I hear information again and again and it all helps for me to build up a comprehansive knowledge of cinema.

Having spent five episodes discussing english-language directors, we now move to Spain whereby this international filmmaker creates film rooted in Spanish culture. When people claim they "can't watch" a film because it is not spoken in their language, I go back to what my Dad used to tell me: "Can't means won't".

International cinema influences Hollywood on so many levels and you don't have to look too far to understand how - Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress directly influencing Lucas' Star Wars, whilst only recently Matt Reeves practically remakes Alfredsons Let the Right One In by Hollywood-izing Let Me In.

If you haven't watched an Almodóvar before, now is your chance - watch Talk to Her and then listen to this episode... and then watch the rest of his films because, believe me, they are incredible.

And, as usual, it is already up on itunes and can be found easily on podomatic - so, please do try and write reviews and support us if you can! We have the ol' RSS feed and 2.0 RSS and, if you link in different ways, we also have it on Google and Yahoo

Volver (Pedro Almodóvar, 2006)

"Don't say that, Raimunda, or I'll start crying. And ghosts don't cry"

Introduction

I was positive Penelope Cruz won an Oscar for her performance in Volver. Alas, I am wrong. She was nominated for her role - but lost out to Helen Mirren playing The Queen. Though she did win at the Empire Awards and Europeon Film Awards. At any rate, I expected alot from this film and, going in without any knowledge, seemed to help as the film jolted from one narrative-thread to another. A film combining death and feminity is what Volver attempts to achieve and it indeed does do this ... but I think certain aspects did jar just a tad.

Without putting too fine a point on it, I was not keen as it shifted between murder and abuse to mythical stories and Motherly tenderness between family-members. The story itself is rather conflicted in the lead character and, dare I say it, though a lead and important role it seemed a bit unemotional. But maybe that was the point - a character who simply deals with a situation and doesn't get upset about it. For one thing, Penelope Cruzs' Raimunda is not fussed about death.

Deathly Reserved

The exploration on the theme of death is established from the start - as multiple women clean gravestones. We are introduced to sisters
Raimunda (Cruz) and Sole (Dueñas) cleaning down their Mothers gravestone - Raimunda's daughter assists too. The Sisters were brought up in La Mancha, whereby the culture of death is something to be celebrated - to the point that we see a friend, Augustina (Blanca Portillo), preparing her own gravestone for when she dies. When we get back to Raimunda's house we meet Paco, he husband, who si clearly a peadophile as he fantasizes and spys on his daughter getting changed... the following day, Paco is dead, as Raimunda's daughter has killed him when he attempted to rape her. Together, they hide his body in the cafe of a next-door neighbour. Another death - only for Raimunda and Sole's Auntie to die the same day... as Sole goes to the funeral of her Auntie she finds her Mother...

As Almodóvar is dealing with such a sensitive subject, it is no suprised that the comedic and bizarre elements are not seen - and, other than Paco's brief perversions - there is no overt-sexual scenes or sexuality-issues raised. So, though restrained for Almodóvar the colours still reek of pastels and calmness. Nothing too bold and nothing too cold - pastelly-blue's and pinks all over the place.

Death and All His Friends

On the one side, Almodóvar focusses on mourning and loss - but on the other side, he includes a murder plot (killing off the only male character...) whereby the abusive partner of Cruz is killed by his daughter - and buried. This is not the centre-piece of the story - the Mother returning is (Volver means 'coming back' or 'to return') - and so there is no 'criminal' angle to this murder plot. I felt like it was an unfinished thread - as if it seemed too easy to have any repurcussions - so they might as well end the thread without returning. But maybe, in the same way that Raimunda not telling her daughter Paco was not her father, the murder of Paco will come back to haunt her.

Paco, though virtually the only male character (there is, briefly, a man who flirts with Cruz ... but., who wouldn't?) sets-up an attack on men throughout. As Raimunda's Mother reveals the reason for her survival and disappearance, we find that Raimunda and Sole's Father was a cheater and cruel character too. As if maybe, Almodóvar's intention was to bring this family together again - "to return" - after the tragedy without men. Men created the problems and anger for these women - so they should celebrate their lives without them.

Bad Education/La Mala Educación (Pedro Almodóvar, 2004)

"I think I've just lost my faith at this moment, so I no longer believe in God or hell. As I don't believe in hell, I'm not afraid. And without fear I'm capable of anything."

Introduction

I thought I would start with what is fastly becoming my favourite Almodóvar film. Initially, when I began watching the film I thought it was a little bit ... ahem ... gay. Not that it makes it bad but as I have no personal experience of homosexuality, I was worried it was a film that was effectively targetted towards the gay-audience and that personally I wouldn't really 'get' it. Without putting too fine a point on it, it is a very 'gay' film but ever since I watched the film I have thought more about Bad Education and pondered on the characters, the complexities and relationships intertwined and, eventually, realised how incredible it truly is.

Multi-Layered

The film constantly flicks between one story, and another - beginning with a director meeting a old school lover, Ignacio (Gael García Bernal) who has a script for him to read. He reads this story and we see the story being played out - a story semi-representative of their childhood and their initial love during a Catholic boarding school. We then come back to the director who meets again with Ignacio, who the director eventually finds out is not Ignacio at all - and so we then see how the director then begins a romance with Juan, who still believes that the director thinks he is Igancio. They make the film, which is what we saw when we were shown the story initially - same actors and what not - only to then be confronted by someone, who reveals the actual end of Ignacio. A dark story - Pedro Almodóvar is obsessed with film and you always see so many different aspects within his films to show this and, I think, to some extent this is Pedro Almodóvar's attempt at a Hitchcock - akin to Stage Fright, whereby Hitchcock showed us a flase flashback, only to reveal the truth later on. In a similar way, Bad Education gives us a false-flashback - changing it at the end. The difference being, to some extent, that we are clued into the fictitiousness of Ignacio's/Juan's script - making the film that much more introverted and confusing.

The title credits even evokes Bernard Herrmans scores in the strings and beautfiul orchestral sound - setting the film up in the same vein as Hitchcock's thrillers.

Darkly, Even Black

When the film leads into its final act - showing the murderous ways of Juan, it almost becomes a film noir as themurder plot finale shows Juan/Fr Manola assist in the murder of Ignacio (who has become a heroin-addict/transexual). This adds a further dynamic as we know that Father Manola abused Ignacio as a child - Manola continues his false-identity as he left priesthood and married - but is clearly a homosexual, especially in his fascination and love for Juan, whereby he cheats on his wife with Juan. The film flips and changes direction again, as we see that Ignacio is not the innocent child he was as a pupil in school - Ignacio uses and, to some extent abuses Fr Manola and, more importantly, Ignacio abuses his family - stealing from them to fund his heroin habit. Is Igancio a product of Manola's abuse of him? Should we understand Juan/Manola killing Igancio? The films multiple perspectives - and expectations of you as an audience member - continues to fester in your head as, at different points in the story, the "bad guy" and "good guy" changes. If anything - maybe it is a simple case of "Nobody is what they seem"...

Role-Playing

To conclude - everyone seems to be playing a role: Father Manola and his 'hidden side' abusing children, Juan pretending to be his brother, Ignacio himself, - as a transexual - in an excpetionally false feminine look. These multiple characters make the film irresitably intricate - multiple levels and understandings behind each characters - nobodys motives are clear. Even the director abuses Juan - as he takes advantage of Juan's lies and begins his own romance with him. The various levels to the story show how never is a story simple to tell. The director, searching for an idea, cuts out newspaper articles .... but alas, these are only one side of the story, it is always more interesting to find out every angle, every motive - and every dark secret that lurks behind so many stories of love.