Robert Tanitch reviews The Almodóvar collection (StudioCanal) 6 Disc Boxset
Pedro Almodóvar, enfant terrible, cult filmmaker, Spain’s internationally most successful film director, is in the same school as Luis Bunuel and he can be just as subversive and surreal without the politics
His characters are outrageous, extravagant cartoon figures and their behaviour is obsessive, frantic, bizarre, insane, murderous and suicidal. It’s all very glossy and OTT; an acquired taste, perhaps, but people get hooked.
The oeuvre is wacky, flamboyant comedy, gaudy, brash melodrama, absurd sex and strong female roles. Almodóvar has his regular repertory of actors.
Dark Habits (1983).
The police are looking for a cabaret singer in relation to drugs and the death of her pimp. She takes refuge in a convent where she has a luxurious suite. When you think of nuns, do you think of The Sound of Music, Sister Act, Ingrid Bergman and Audrey Hepburn or do you think of Boccaccio, Black Narcissus and the Devils of Loudon? Almodóvar is in the latter camp, believe me.
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
An overworked mother (Carmen Maura) is unhappily married. Her husband, a taxi driver, a bully and forger, won’t pay the bills. She takes on cleaning jobs and finds an original way to pay a dentist’s bill for her teenage son. Meanwhile, a writer wants to forge Hitler’s letters and is desperately looking for a forger. Her awful mother wants to live in the country.
Law of Desire (1987)
An erotic film director (Eusebio Pinceia) has two lovers and a transgender sister. The absurd melodrama, brightly coloured as always, is dominated by the volatile Carmen (“I know I am ridiculous”) Maura and the sexy 27-year-old Antonio Banderas (who is seen mostly in white underpants). He plays a jealous gay who turns psychotic and insists on a raunchy exit before the police arrest him.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
This garish, knockabout, feminist, prize-winning gazpacho black farce established Almodóvar internationally. An actress wakes up one morning to learn that her lover has left her. She burns the bed. She is played by Carmen (“My life is a bit hectic”) Maura. Of course, she is. Who else? She’s Almodóvar’s muse and is very adept at playing farce seriously. The actress’s best friend is in love with a Shiite terrorist. The film is so much better than the West End musical adaptation.
Kika (1993)
Naive make-up artist (Veronica Forque) gets involved with two men: a novelist, who is a serial killer, and his son, a photographer who is a voyeur. There is farcically outrageous sex scene, so scandalous, so sensational and so ridiculously hilarious, that only Almodóvar could have got away with it. There is also a farcical parody of a TV reality show which relies on macabre news stories. Even the violence is not to be taken seriusly.
The Flower of My Secret (1995)
It is not your usual Almodóvar: no campery, just a melodrama played absolutely straight. It’s what used to be called a woman’s picture. A writer (Marisa Paredes) finds she can no longer write silly romantic stories. Her husband, a NATO officer, no longer loves her. A newspaper editor befriends her and saves her from going under. Flamenco dancer Joaquin Cortes (who was 26 at the time) dances briefly with Manuela Varjas who is cast as his mother and maid to the writer.
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