With Talk to Her (2002) and Bad Education (2004) Pedro Almodovar has shown the kind of vision, skill and quality film making that very few directors ever exhibit in one film over their entire career, much less in two films that they complete back to back. Both deserve to be close to the pinnacle of the "best films of the year" lists for their respective release periods. And I can't wait to see what he's got in store for his viewers next.
Bad Education really isn't what I was expecting. After All About My Mother and Talk to Her I was expecting something of a conventional (by Almodovar standards) drama in terms of the film's structure, if not in terms of its subject matter. And from the mentions of the movie that I heard when it was released last year I knew it dealt with a priest-student abuse story. Well, it's dramatic, and that is part of what's going on, but it's much more than that. Right from the start (the credits are inventive, bold and look great) you get a sense of the fact that this is, probably above all else, a film noir. It's very much like Hitchcock, and in terms of its construction it is built upon the continual peeling away of various layers. It contains stories within stories within stories (on the commentary track Almodovar compares it to those Russian dolls that get ever smaller was you unwrap the surrounding layers), and you are shifting back and forth through different times, realities and imagined realties throughout the film. Yes, the priest-boy thing is part of the film. But beyond obvious plot events and motivations it also deals a great deal with how we construct stories, moves and perspectives, and all kinds of things that go into film making.
I think it's an excellent film, and it features Gael Garcia Bernal in one of his best (maybe the best) performances yet. He has to go through some remarkable changes in the film, and he carries it off extremely well. I'm rather shocked he didn't get more award nominations for this role. It's unusually difficult, and he's great.
Posted by armand at April 17, 2005 10:56 AM | TrackBack | Posted to MoviesI watched this again last night. And I'd say it gets better with age. Great movie.
And personally I find it interesting that for someone so into actresses and so associated with giving actresses interesting parts, I'd say his best films are mostly about men (this one and Talk to Her). Though of course if you were talking about his 80s films, that'd be different.
Posted by: Armand at April 6, 2008 10:17 AM | PERMALINK